"Jodi returned the hug, an awkward task since the two were sitting side-by-side. "Did your mom drop you off again today?" she asked, trying tomake it...sound like an innocent question.Heather shook her head. "No. My Aunt Danielle brought me." She glancedaround, and then continued in a whisper. "She's really in a pissy moodtoday. All I heard all the way over was her cursing at my dad!" That's gotta suck," Jodi said with a frown."I don't know why, but she _always_ says bad things about him. Much more consuming. He had told her it would be different this time. He did not say why, but by now she knew him well enough to understand it would be something out of the ordinary. She realized she would probably question herself and ask why she was willing to do...whatever it was...for him. But she also knew that she would willingly endure it, and whatever experience he had planned for her would strengthen the bond between them. It would help her reaffirm that place within herself, a. The crowd was starting to get a lot more vocal. They cheered when the dealer went bust. There were comments about how much had been bet when the dealer made the payout.Dexter took fifteen hundred and added two hundred and fifty dollars to his bet. He was now betting two thousand dollars. He was dealt a pair of sevens. The crowd muttered looking at the cards on the table.Looking at the pit boss, he asked, “Should I split it?”“The dealer has a five showing,” the pit boss said. He shrugged his. Actually she had changed my perception of all females, and ever since, I’d kept them all at arms length, as far as my heart was concerned, anyway. Being bluntly honest, since my encounter with the lady Minerva… well, I’d turned into a right ‘little shit’ myself, as far as the female of the species went anyway. —- —- —- —- —- Lady Tanya eventually ran out of steam. But then, before I’d had the opportunity to get my act together and deluge her with the obvious questions, that I should have asked..