Six thousand miles from home and the most beautiful woman on the planet on my arm.”I said, “Well, Mr. Malone, if I didn’t know better, I would t...ink you might have some disturbing thoughts on your mind.”He said, “Only if your thoughts were on the same page as mine, Irene.”I answered with a seductive smile as we were seated. Rob made sure we were hip to hip in the booth. That’s when a tinge of guilt and uncertainty washed over me. I closed my eyes and tried to push the image of Oscar watching me. ”“They weren’t doing nothing, I let you vote them by proxy so you could run roughshod over the old farts.” I replied with a small grin.“And it worked! We are on the cusp of some decent changes that will bring us into the 21st century! We just need you to push them through. We’d also like to see you come up with some of your own ideas” she said. It was fun watching her get excited about the changes being made at her workplace. Lately she had been equal parts distressed and despondent not only. 

“I thought you had already gone home, baby.” E was confused, D wasn’t the type to stay back on a Friday afternoon. He usually would have already been halfway home by now. 

“I wanted to say goodbye to you, but I couldn’t find you.” He said, slightly confused as to why she was still at school. E explained to him, and told him about her frustrations. 
“Come over to mine, we can go out to dinner or stay in, whatever you want.”D smiled as E stood up to leave. He saw her fully, her red, short hair. But eventually those fights came to an end, and a new order, or what passed for order after the rampant destruction, emerged. The country, once peaceful and united, was fragmented, the pieces ruled by feuding warlords, the people at the mercy of their lords and of the murderous bands of roaming mercenaries those lords lacked the power and the will to control. But still, time passed, and people lived, and survived, and worked, and built, and loved, and had their hopes, and dreams, and desires,.