"Oh, hey, you found a friend," she smiled at Mark as she handed me my drink. "Here have this one, on me." She handed Mark the drink that had been he...s and he awkwardly took it. "I'm gonna get me another then go looking for my stud. You okay without me?"If I hadn't had years of practice listening to Lori speak at bars, I might never have understood her, but I knew she was going to ditch me beforehand, so just nodded and waved her goodbye. She smiled and disappeared back into the crowd, her. ”“Then what?”“Well, if you successfully complete all three phases you will graduate. Otherwise, you will repeat the course.”“How do we pass?”“You win three engagements in a row in each phase. In the first phase, you have to shoot whoever is hunting you or survive all three days without getting shot. Tomorrow morning at sunrise the hunt begins. You need to survive for three days while I hunt you.”All of them were convinced that they could last three days in a desert hunt and didn’t understand. We were discussing dreams - Nat was telling me that Paul had a recurring dream that involved him being disciplined by a female teacher in front of a class. The identity of the teacher would change but the story would essentialy be the same. We laughed mercilessly when he revealed that the latest disciplinarian was the BBC newsreader Susanah Reid. She is pretty hot though......I mentioned that I also had a recurring dream but checked myself half way as the full story is a little embarrassing.. “Yeah, no, alright,” I made an effort, though I still sounded grudging I guess. I couldn’t help it. Lucie is so important to me. The thought of Christmas without her hardly bore thinking about. Though it wasn’t her fault, or Val’s, that I don’t have any other family in the States. My parents are in Chile and things had been a bit strained since my breakup with Val, whom they’d loved and didn’t really believe was a lesbian. My sister is in Europe and it would’ve been too desperate to fly there.