”“Of course. He's happy to. How about you and... Mark?”“No, Mark was the last guy. He turned out to be a total dick. Wasn't even a real kinkst...r, just wanted to get in my pants.”“Oh, right... What about the new guy, then?”“David” she filled in. “Yeah, he didn't work out either. We split a couple nights ago...”“I'm sorry, girl” Brianna said with genuine sympathy. “What happened?”Bethany set her sandwich down and shrugged. “I don't know, we just didn't click. No chemistry and he was hardcore into. I was pretty sure about her and him. Didn’t know about Frank and Mona. Did you?”“Come on!” I said, exasperated. “Them? No.”“Ah well,” she said. “Ah well, said the sole. Ah sole, said the well” It was a little joke Mandy had said from time to time.“What a mess we’ve got you into,” Mrs Hubert said, one arm round my head and the other stroking my cheek.I was struggling with the definition of my role. Big late-teenage guy, thinking he was a man, yet I wanted to cry.Mrs Hubert leaned over me and. She knew our habit of hand prints!My heart melted right away. Lindie looked at me sort of pleading, sort of asking, sort of very pleased Michelle wanted to do that. I gave a little nod and mouthed “Sure” to her. Michelle screamed that Banshie cry again when she was told it was OK with both of us. Just hearing that gleeful sound, even though in the tight confines of the car it deafened us, it was worth it.Her next question was when could she see the Tree House. “Well,” Lindie said, “We have a. We were going to get a snack to hold us over while we went to the movie next door. We decided to skip that idea and left. Fast forward about 10 years, I was at work one day when they brought in a new co-worker. It’s kind of hard to forget that woman. She proved herself to be a competent worker, and we sort of got along. She had gotten married, the guy was rather handsome. Not that I would date either of them. She liked to bowl and hunt, rode a motorcycle. There was a conversation about her.