I spent the first week going to the Top Hat on the nights Tessa danced, but that got old in a hurry. For one thing I was drinking more booze than was ...ood for me and for another I was getting precious little sleep. I'd leave the Top Hat ten minutes before she finished her last set, typically around one-thirty, so no one would see us leave together, and then go to either her apartment or mine and make love for an hour or so and then try and get some sleep before having to get up at six-thirty to. At the center of it all was Yael, with one knee on the closed lid of the toilet and her mind on the precision work she had to perform.I had first met Yael earlier that night, drinking gin and tonic, for Justin’s birthday at her place. When, shortly after midnight, the birthday girl decided to hit the road none of the others from our usual little gang could be motivated to come along. So, at the front door, they turned right, towards the subway and a future of stinging regrets.I turned left.My. I whispered to Cody, ‘Where’s the other dog?’ He gestured with his head in the opposite general direction. ‘All over there. I fucking tore it apart.’ ‘That’s a slight improvement.’ I tried to smile, but failed. Liv turned to me, looking terrified. Her eyes were all red and puffy. I tried to reassure her. ‘Hang in there, baby. I’m gonna get you through this. I swear. You’ll be alright.’ We arrived at our original camp about a minute later. Bre’s body was still lying there. Liv took one look. 'ere! Take off wet shoes.' She paid no heed to his protests but knelt at his feet and began to pull off his sodden footwear. David was so cold and wet he made little resistance. Now in the warmth of the house, he was shaking with cold, his teeth chattering so that he could hardly speak.He allowed her to propel him along the hallway and into her livingroom-cum-kitchen. A huge coal fire blazed in the old-fashioned fireplace, filling the room with light and heat. She manoeuvred him past the.