We sat in silence and watched my wife work.Chris said, “She looks good. She lose weight?”“I don’t think so, she’d have said something.”“...he looks good.”“She’s naked.”Chris was quiet for a while, then said, “Uh … remember … that time …” He was fumbling. Nervous.“I remember,” I said, because I did. “That was a while ago.”“Three years.” Chris said.“That long?” I thought it’d been longer.“She ever … mention it?”“No. Why?” I looked at him.His face was flushed. He shrugged. “Just wondering.”I sipped. ?He’s firing.??Do it – hyperspace,? I say firmly. ?I’d rather be dead than go back down there.??I agree,? Ja-Alixxe says, and reaches out to decisively tap keys on one of the navigational computers. A large button lights up blue – the hyper drive initiator.?If you think your implant isn’t working, you press that,? Ja-Alixxe says, indicating the button. ?But if neither of us can bring ourselves to push it, they’ll have us in a tractor beam in a minute.? I reach out, and my hand hovers over the. She hoped, hoped that Rowie would turn and smile at her one more time, and she wanted, at least with this, to be ready. Rowie did turn and by then Keri was totally naked. In a moment of inspiration or, maybe, desperation, she allowed herself the theatrical gesture of shooting her arms up at an angle and her hands splayed. ‘Why look at you, you bad girl!’ Rowie said, giving the tinkling crystal laugh again and the dazzling smile, as she disappeared. Keri sat and sighed and knew that she had to. .. early. Still, it was to no avail. Kate still thought that she could bend him to her will and make him wait ... like she had done to all of her previous boyfriends. Peter, she had found to her discomfort, was a man of sterner principles.When Pete arrived right before six o'clock, Katherine was 'mostly ready', namely that she had already tried on and rejected at least ten different outfits, all of which were now lying on her bedroom floor. With the winking connivance of Bianca, Pete once again.