As far as she was concerned she never hadto see me again.I had called the travel agent to see what she could do about cancellingthe trip. She said it...was too late but she said she see if she coulddump the package for me. I ended up getting about $15,000 of thealmost $27,000 I had put down for the trip...well at least someone wasgetting a cheap dream vacation.While it was initially a shock I was strangely at ease. We had notbeen close about the last six months. I blamed it on being busy. And besides, having an affair is illicit, dangerous, and adventurous.Rebecca didn't want a permanent relationship because she'd been married once before. It had lasted fours years, ending with a lot of hatred and bitterness. She'd wondered if a man and woman were really meant to be together for any length of time, and if an ending to marriage such as hers wasn't always going to be the way such things ended. Her rationalization was that if it was going to end that way anyhow, why bother going. ”“Just the one pupil?” Wendy asked.“Yes. You’ll be teaching her part time. She has a job, so she’ll be working for the rest of the time. So will you; we’ll find something for you to do.”“I’ll need some time for lesson preparation as well as teaching,” Wendy pointed out.“We can easily arrange that,” the Sub-Decurion confirmed. “You’ll have the use of a sleep-learning tube for your pupil as well.”“What work does she do?”“She’s a prostitute, working in one of our brothels.”“Will I have to work. He sighed. “Look, I know it's wrong. But I am a guy, I have needs,” he said.“But you have girlfriends all the time!”“Yeah, but they don't always take care of me,” he said, looking like it was embarrassing to be talking about this.“Well...but...but how come you never asked me?” I asked, shyly.He looked confused. “Asked you what?”Oh God, was he really going to make me say it?!He stood there waiting, still incredibly close to me. He obviously was not going to help me out here. Fine. If I wanted to.