“I heard that” Christine giggled. We sat and chatted her hand in mine and I was was feeling so good. She suddenly put both hands on my face and ki...sed me ! “ Ok Cuz time for home eh”. "What now its only half six" I replied. "Ok your loss." I changed my mind.Arriving home I quaffed the glass I'd left earlier then poured us both a couple more. We sat down on the settee. "Sorry but I couldn't wait wanted to suck you in pub toilets but a bit dangerous" Chris laughed as she unbuttoned and unzipped. She stroked me all the way until I came. Luckily I did grab some napkins, so I was able to avoid the mess.When we left, Katie had the biggest grin on her face, and that grin stayed on her face all day. Her friends kept asking what the hell had happened but she just grinned. After that day, anytime we went to a movie Katie had her hand down my pants. I never objected to that. She got very good at it. Eventually I came right into her hand, and dared her to lick it off. Before you knew it she was. “How are you feeling? Stupid question, of course, you feel lousy. Karen, I regret to inform you that the damage to your uterus was very severe. The uterine wall was so thin, the baby’s placenta had totally detached from it. We couldn’t save your baby girl. I’m so, so very sorry. We had to give you a subtotal hysterectomy. We removed your uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, leaving the cervix intact.”“My baby was a girl? She sobbed. “You had to give me a hysterectomy?”“Yes, a girl and. Of course. Totally agree. I’ll never use that one,’ I nod. ‘Better even to say, like, marriage, or married, or marriageable, or something like that than relationship. Good, yeah?’ I search her silenting face. Doubt shadows in her eye for a second but she recovers quickly to say, ‘Okay. Totally. Better.’ Her smile is here but it is now sloping into that smile I see in her that accompanied the first silent dusk eons ago, signaling an unknown and unknowable darkness that I want to beat back from.