The Thai-style lemon chicken with noodles and a mixed salad she’d served up the night before had been a work of art; Marsha had NEVER come up with a...ything half as good. The years I’d been living alone, I wouldn’t have bothered cooking something like that from scratch for myself – I’d have ordered in. But Mel had spent some serious time and effort on it and had fully deserved my praise. She’d deprecated herself, saying it could have been a whole better. I’d disagreed.I’d insisted on cleaning up. . screwed up." Yeah."Linda, David’s now-ex-girlfriend, always seemed like a cheerful and friendly person as far as Julia could remember. She knew that Linda had a fair share of troubles at her home, with her father abandoning the family and her mom becoming an alcoholic. Poor girl, Julia thought, I hope she gets some guidance that she seems to be badly in need of."I know", David said, as if he had read her mind. "After it was all over I tried to convince her to go seek counselling and I even. I did pinch myself and think how we had got this far. My head started to race but Paul just put his arm around my shoulder and said "We will be fine" slowly and repeatedly. I nodded and agreed with him but warned him that my nerves were shot to pieces. We then took time slowly peeling off our clothes. I had a job unclasping my bra so was helped. It felt nice Paul taking the lead. My hair was sopping wet from the heat and nerves. I felt his gentle kiss and reassuring rub of my shoulders once. "What?" Being -- in bed together." We're only going to cuddle -- remember?" Yeah, but... it's... a bad idea." Are you afraid you won't be able to -- control yourself?" she asked."It would be... tempting fate." C'mon," she said. "We've already agreed that we wouldn't actually do anything! We're just going to cuddle up and go to sleep. That's absolutely all! I've already set the alarm for 5 a.m. You can get up and go back to your room, and Cary Zane probably still won't be there, and nobody'll.