“Well, if I did,” I said, “I wouldn’t be sitting here watching an old movie on a Friday night.” “Same here, I guess,” she said, lookin... down. I wondered for a moment if she was giving me an invitation, but once again the rational side of my mind told me it was the bourbon, and she wasn’t saying things the way she meant. There was no way a girl like her was interested in her friend’s little brother. “You’ve kissed girls though, haven’t you?” Ashley asked me, to my surprise. The only girl. But it’s complicated. She’s my absolute best friend in the world. We’ve known each other since eighth grade. We’ve dated off and on for years. I might well marry her in the future. But who knows?”Jessica laughed, “So she’s a friend you fool around with? Is that what you are trying to say?”“It’s more than that. I love her to pieces. And she loves me.”“Now you’re confusing me!”“You aren’t alone. Let’s just say all of my relationships are complicated.”“So you’re not taken?” she asked with a cute. This will bring her to the edge very quickly so, if I start her off, perhaps you would like to join in when I say.Gary nods, not trusting himself to speak. Miss Sutton does nothing for several seconds. Linda begins to squirm on the teacher's lap. Miss Sutton tightens her hold.Linda: Do it, please, Miss Sutton. Hard. I'm ready.The teacher raises her hand and slaps. She pauses. Slaps again. Five times.Miss Sutton: Like that, Linda?Linda: Harder. You know I can take it.Miss Sutton nods to Gary who. In the alleyway, under the overpass, near Atlantic Ave, the entrance to banya had been remodeled. Currently, it featured double doors lined with colorful tile, linked together by the letters VP.Once again, just as years before, the old crone greeted her at the door with cigarette dangling, stripped to the waist, breasts seemingly weighed down by a plethora of hanging fruit tattoos. True, the woman had put on weight over the years, (just as Eve had), but everybody knows that is what results.