" Then I'll tell them no. I'll wait until you decide where you're going and I'll look for a job there, wherever it is." You should take the job honey....It sounds just right for you." Is it that I haven't said anything about marriage?" I felt tenseness come to her back but I continued. "I've been waiting until we get settled but you know how I feel about..." It's not that, Jimmy." She drew me close and kissed me with such intensity that it made me dizzy for a time. I had a sinking feeling in my. I knew I was going to be harassed. There was no doubt about it. She had to do it now, harass me. She could rationalize letting me rot before, but not anymore and that reality was killing me. The man? I didn’t care about him. But her... It was the 29th. I’d wondered how long it would be before she assaulted me. Well, and then I knew. But it wasn’t her, yet, it was him, again. I saw him coming toward my door. I left it ajar, as had become my habit. I was hoping the message I sent, via him, would. "The guys took up a collection for you." Thanks. Tell them that it will come in handy. It will keep the lights on and the phone hooked up, at least until they kick us out." It's not that bad, is it?"I told him what we were up against and he'd had enough beer in him to say, "You shouldn't have problems like that. Hell, Stasha is sitting on a gold mine. Christ guy, I'd pony up five hundred for a shot at her and I'm just one guy."He was joking and I knew it and I didn't take offense because we. ’ I shuffled my feet and looked down embarrassedly. ‘I’m ashamed to say that I’m a bin man for the local council.’ ‘That’s not a job I’d have connected you with, but why are you ashamed?’ ‘Because I know I could have done better. With you gone I couldn’t be bothered at college, and messed up my exams. I bummed around for a year and then got a job as a ‘temporary general operative’.’ I shrugged. ‘I found I enjoyed working outside, and I was good at it. Eventually they made me a RCV driver.’ I.