‘Yes, you’re quite right or course, he always …’, she continued, and I blocked her out, reduced her rambling to white noise in the back of my ...ind. It didn’t help much, still annoying. I wonder if there was a way to tell her about the cheese without being inapropriate. Certainly not while I’m supposedly listening to her ramble. Ah, it’s coming to an end. Now to finish it off with a vague response. ‘Yes, he will be missed.’ It would be so funny if she asked me if I knew his name. So she goes on. Or would you like to earn your way out of the rest?" What... ever you want, my husband," she gasped, the lashing having robbed her of breath."Hmmmm. Yes. Now here's what I want you to do."At ten forty-five that night Marianne was standing at the bedroom window peeking out from between the curtains. The bedroom was dark. Cornelius was at the other end of the room, in the dark, looking out of a second window so he could observe his neighbor without being seen. Marianne bit her lip. Disrobing for. My friends up the street had one of their periodic get-togethers. We have them more often in the summer, because it's better outside, but we all gathered in the house this time." And you got a keg and everyone got sloppy, right?" Surrrrre. No, my friends don't have quite the same type of parties that yours do." No doubt." We played some music. Watched a movie. There's a small group of us that play poker, so we did that. I made my world famous chip dip. Very mellow by your standards."Sophia. She cried. Not tears of joyor pain, but tears of release. Somewhere along the way, she was freed andwhen she gathered her composure she found herself sitting up in bed, herarms wrapped around him. They looked at each other, and Rand leanedforward, kissing the last of the tears out of her eyes.Afterwards, they sat there for a time, neither could have said exactly howlong, looking at each other with what could only be described as sappysmiles, finally leaning forward and kissing each other.