I had to promise Teddy a public 'date' similar to my lunch with Ben for the following Saturday to make it up to her.Dating brought out a 'parental' ga...hering, or rather word of its impending certainty did. Not only did I have to sit through a couple of cautionary discussions with Cole and Melissa, but I even had a visit from Grandpa Weaver and Grandma Wind, followed by one from Mom and Dad. None of them had a problem with my announcement that I had two dates on back to back Saturdays, nor did. The recognition is what would be most valuable to me.” Gideon thought about the two years of night school he had completed at the community college. It hadn’t exactly prepared him to take his place in The New Global Economy, at least not here in America’s rust belt. And work would never be steady for a crane operator with a criminal record. “Money. That’s your answer,” he said, his face giving nothing away. “Is that it? Are we done?” He pulled back and panned lower, past the hollow of her. If you’re connected to a Senator, or worse, a sitting President, it will be congressional hearings and demands for criminal investigations.”“The Senator’s smart. The times Kara’s gone to visit Mary Jane, they’ve always been careful about it, and it hasn’t gotten out. She meets them at a secure garage, get in an unmarked car with dark windows, and then offloaded in the garage at her house. I figure that’ll work for me too. I still think it’s bullshit that the kid’s gotta sneak around like she. The discussion centred on either a body piercing or a tattoo, two things Phil hated. Steph was tipsy enough to actually think about it. The girls egged her on and she finally relented and promised that she would do something. With that the talk moved on to other things that five middle-aged woman talked about when having a few wines. The following Friday, Steph’s friends got together and decided to dare her to get a tattoo. One of them had a small heart tattooed onto her butt and thought Steph.