Quietly, "I know. I liked it." I had said it out loud. I had admitted it to Alex even before I had admitted it to myself. I had liked it. I had wanted...it to happen again. I was happy Alex had kissed me, really kissed me again."You did?" he asked.He released my hands and my arms went around him, holding him to me. "Yes. I liked it." I did too," he said quietly, almost reverently."I'd like it if you'd do it again," I said.He leaned forward and we kissed again, as equal partners, both. Vikkor ran the business, and apparently a lot more, but Law and I helped as financial backers. This place belongs to us alone since she's gone."That was surprising news, but Chaos' loss was more than she could bear alone. Just like I had done with Alexandria, I was going to help Chaos to find closure with the issue. "Then what we need to do is start planning the funerals."She nodded, fresh tears flowing. She was wearing a pale blue dress that reminded me of the blue on blue skin she had when I. It took almost an hour to get my nails done, and Ihad to listen to a lecture about letting them go for so long, but whenI emerged from the salon for the second time, my nails were longer,tapering to a rounded point, and painted a soft red with metal flakein it. The nails made my stubby fingers seem longer, slimmer, morelike a girls, and I liked it, more than I really wanted to admit.On the way out, Mom stopped at a popular shop that sold things to fitwomen, but was really a shop for men, and I. I had been back in Lima for two days, back at the Crillón, back to a new world of confusion, loss, and anger. Yes, anger. It was God that held the power of life and death for us. How could I be angry at God? Yet there was the interminable bureaucracy of trying to solve the simplest problem in a Latin country. "Si, Señor. Mañana, por favor." "No, Mister Fisher. You must go the Mayor's office to do such a thing."Even the Embassy with their pretentious, "You just have to wait, Mr. Fisher." Or,.