We were outmatched again, but Jesse and his defensemen closed ranks and did a great job in keeping the game close. We ended up losing 3-2, but it was ... great game, hard fought, and well played by both teams.“Think they’ll win any of these games?” Chris asked.“If they play strong defense, as they did today, they have a chance. Nicole got another goal, so she has three of our four. We need others to score, no matter how good our defense is.”When the kids came from the locker room, we had a team. It was pretty useful to gauge how much studying I would need to do. In both math classes I followed everything pretty easily, but the philosophy class brought up facts and theories that I knew I had to review. In between my second math class and philosophy, I had lunch in my usual spot, but Gwen never showed up, much to my disappointment.After philosophy class was over, I headed to the arena and soaked my arm again. The movement was getting better as the colours started to change. We decided to. I held up my finger in a wait-a-second sign and dove into our closet. Surprisingly, I quickly found the old pair of pale gray – with a touch of blue – sweatpants that I had remembered, pulled them out of the drawer and took them to Liya.“I don’t know why I didn’t take these to Second Chance Wear when I cleaned out my ... our closet. Could you cut these off and make them look like I didn’t just rummage through my drawer and find an old pair of sweatpants?”There was much chuckling, with Liya. She couldn’t wait for his business to be over in the hopes he would again stop to talk. When he did come out of the meeting, he stopped by her desk. Although he was on his way to another appointment, he did wish her a pleasant weekend and promised to return on Wednesday of the next week. With a wave and a wink, he was gone. She couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the afternoon. If her new attitude caused this change this quickly, she had to move on to the next step. ‘I have the weekend to go.