She was looking right at me. I looked away. I guess she figured that enough time had passed that I had cooled off some; I hadn’t.“This could be aw...ward,” said Rina, nudging me.“It better not be. I made myself clear enough to the man when he came to visit in February. I wasn’t kidding then and I’m not compromising now. Her insults were so egregious that I no longer want anything to do with the woman, not on any level. Too many bad things happened and continue to happen because of her. Too damn. Karla turned, smiling at me, smiling, and said, "What?" What do you mean?" I said, looking at her."You keep shuffling away," Karla said, "like I've got the plague or something." No, I'm not," I lied.Then, a look of realisation came over Karla's face, and she said, "Oh, I know what it is. On the dance floor tonight. You're worried it might happen again."I looked down, avoiding her gaze. "I don't know what was going on," I mumbled."Allan," Karla said, waiting till I looked up, "That's just. Be guided accordingly.” “Oh fuck!” I shouted and immediately turned back to my car. It was already 3:30pm and if I hurried and was lucky, I could get to the station at 4:00pm. “What the hell did my fuckin’ parents tell him?” I kept asking myself. I know my mom can exaggerate and my father isn’t too far behind her, but why the hell did they have to get him involved? Besides, I thought Det. Chang was my boyfriend, but he sure didn’t sound like it on the voicemail. I get to the Southern City. As the Times Square ball dropped we all took our drink and yelled “Happy New Year.” Then we each kissed our spouses and turned to the people standing nearest for a kiss. Since Michelle and I were standing next to Eric and Ginger naturally, we turned to them. I looked Ginger in the eye, realizing this would be our first kiss since those two nights of passion in Pendleton. Our lips met and welded together. I wanted so badly to press my tongue into her mouth but knew this wasn’t the place or time.