He buried himself in the backlog of work, not stopping for lunch. He worked past the normal finishing time, for there was no reason to go home. At sev...n Vicky returned to the office and brought fish and chips, then went off and brewed some tea in the office kitchen.“Listen, Aidan,” she said gently, “don’t become a recluse. You have to eat, and you need to relax. I need you fully functional!”She grinned that infectious grin, and he had to grin back, she was a real tonic.“Ok,” he said, “I feel. Seth sat in his hospital bed and felt his heart breaking. He’d known all along that it wasn’t fair to let Gabriela wait as she did for him. Selfishness kept him from ending things. She made him feel alive and strong even when his body was weak and badly injured. Dreams and fantasies of a future together helped him make it through the days and nights of pain. Today he’d told her maybe they needed to separate until he made it home. The words echoed in his brain even now several hours later. Pain. I was to enjoy full autonomy sir”, the man protested.“We won’t argue about it. You will accept them and that’s the final word I say. They are going to meet you in the office today”“That means I can’t refuse them if I don’t like’em?”“I know you won’t to refuse them”Before Vic tried to many any interjection, his boss logged off the call and he was completely baffled with that intervention. To him, the worst fear was Aphrodite calling two chaperones to meddle with his activities.“Seems the bosses. My enemy then tells my wife to go into the bedroom, get naked and wait for him to finish me off. .. What an arrogant cocky bastard!! … She gave me a look as if she pitied me and then closed the door behind her.The old geyser said let’s do this out back as he removed the hat covering his bald head and his shirt. He threw them on the couch, walked through the open slider and onto the grass in our back yard. I removed everything but my shorts and followed him onto the battlefield. This is it.