“I don’t have a class this afternoon,” he said. “I was wondering if you needed anything done around here?”“There is always something to do...here,” I replied. “It’s about time for the last grass cutting before winter, but what I really need is to put the bed in the spare room away. I don’t want to undo the work the builder did, I just want to make more room in there. We can leave the desk and the shelves, just turn the box spring and mattress into wall art.”“I’ve got an idea,” Jon said. “Effie. .. toget her back. Someone got to you before I did. I've spent the last sixmonths trying to track you down."Alex gazed out and spotted the old pirate ship. NATASAL was stillprinted in big bold call letters across the side. After a long moment,he said, "We have to find her."Hume nodded. They listened to the clunk and knocking of the port-boatdocking. "That's the plan."* * *They talked long into the night. They talked about the ship, about Amy,always as a third person. It was an odd conversation.. We had been friendssince childhood. And yet my first stupid action on the first day of "beingin charge" of the company I had inherited had been to tell her off forcalling me "Sab", her pet name for me since forever, reminding herarrogantly that I had been named Sabrina but that from now on, given herstatus relative to mine, I would prefer that in public she addressed me as"Miss P****": "Sabrina" would be in order to use when we were in private,but never "Sab".Kate loved me as if she were my big. It's always been our ritual, when playing with others, to take time for "us" before the moment has passed. Typically this means that, once alone, Paula and I make love, discuss the encounter's highs and lows, and lay new claim to each other. That night was no different. Despite the lateness of the hour and the exhaustion that plagued us, Paula and I held each other close and made love. We delighted in it. I could read in her eyes how powerful her attraction to John was, and she likewise knew.