I'm going to have to teach this body some stretching exercises, thought Ursus."Hey, Mom, can I go over to that shopping center near the other corner o... Cord and Wool?" It was nearby, but outside my official boundaries."What do want over there?" I want to look around that music store." For what?" I want to look at the guitars." I thought you'd given up on that idea." I tried, but it kept coming back."She gave me an unreadable look and said, "Fine, go," in that tone of voice that led one to. .. “Convince me not to do something stupid, Rhonda,” Galena said, leaning on the receptionist’s desk.“Define ‘stupid’, G,” Rhonda replied. “If it’s likely to produce spectacular fireworks, I might just let you go ahead.”“‘Stupid’ would be telling our overlord trio to either get their shit together, or to sit at their desks with their heads down until they could.”Larry Downing was unimaginative, but rock steady, plowing his way through his work, head down, eyes on the next thing that needed. I wish he could have just eaten me up.” The girls all laughed.Chapter 2Four weeks after Bob’s visit Monica was getting ready for her big night. Today was her 23rd birthday. She also had a sneaky suspicion that Tom would pop the question tonight. It would be her present. The best possible present he could give her. She was so excited. She loved him so much and couldn’t wait to begin their married life together. She stood staring at herself in the mirror. She had on a lovely strapless dress. Not. “Well, everyone!” Mike shouted from the front, laughing. He was psyched but also the windows in the front were rolled down and so it was very loud when they drove over the dirt road that shook the truck constantly, so that he had to shout. James enumerated some names Gini might know and she tried to figure out the faces fitting the names. “Julius is the one with the big boobed girlfriend, right?” she asked and James nodded smirking. He found it funny that she said “big boobed girlfriend” as if.