Once we settled down I reached to remove Amber's collar again, "I told you you could take the night off and be yourself, so..." but she pulled away."P...ease don't," she asked.I almost slipped and let it go but then I snapped at her, "I did not ask you. You have not yet earned your place, take it off, now."She hung her head and removed the collar. As soon as it was off her head came back up and Angela looked me in the eye. "Does it hurt you to do that?"Allison answered for me, "Yes, it does. It's. .. there was just so much expectation around ... at least for me ... we'd both got into expecting that somehow we were going to get together – that it would all be really simple and easy and stuff – and, somehow, it just hasn't been. I mean, since her ex-partner died, she's been up here, then I was in hospital, then we had the Big Crisis meeting and ... well, after that it was all going to be OK, wasn't it?"I paused while Kath waited, looking a trifle exasperated, thinking back to the evening. Being black, white or anything else does not limit the persons ability to be "attractive," if it does then it says more about you than you care to admit and maybe - just maybe - you need a reality check. I'm not saying you'll burn a cross in your backyard, but something unhealthy is still there and maybe you need to get checked out. Phrases like "Oh, I have *insert a race here* friends" is not your get out of jail free card - I would direct you to a film called Dear White People.I have seen. ”“That doesn’t even mean anything.”“Really?”“Just ... Go away. Leave me alone.”“You know I’m not going anywhere, Paul. Not until you—”“Don’t say it!”“Why not? Why won’t you admit it, Paul? Why won’t you let me have my peace? Do you think I want to be doing this? Do you think I want to visit you all the time? Just let me have my peace, Paul. Let me rest. You know what you have to do, so just do it. Why won’t you just do it?”It had suddenly gone cold. Very cold. The sky had clouded over in the.