Tell me about 'before.'"For an hour and a half, Elise told the story of an amazingly typical All-American girl. Family, girlfriends, boyfriends, schol...stic honors, music, sports, scholarships, the whole nine yards. At the beginning, her recounting was reserved, almost apologetic. As time went on, she became more and more animated. Sometimes, she took his hand in both of hers and bounced it up and down in excitement. That reminded him of Amy as a little girl. At other times, she had a faraway. As with the seats around the pool, some of the tables were occupied, some remained empty. The whole scene was lit by what appeared to be a succession of candles, and a few burning braziers – there didn’t appear to be a single electric light anywhere.The last of the light from the sun had long since disappeared, so the flickering lights danced an entrancing pattern across Sarah’s vision as her eyes adjusted to the dimpse, in comparison to the brighter lights inside the hotel. For some reason a. Says she still loves him, then asks when we can get together again. He threw her out with nothing. I'm not a complete asshole, so I gave her a little money, paid for an apartment for six months, shit, I'm even paying for the marriage counseling. I eased her down, apologised for messing with her marriage, and thought it best we not see each other until she resolves things with her husband."Well, that earned him points. "Good. Now back to what I was saying. Stop it. You're putting pressure on. " Poor girl," said Martha, cuddling up to Erika."Come on," I said looking at my watch. "We don't want to be late forpractice. Roberta will kill us." You've caught on quickly," said Melissa, scrambling to her feet. "Haveall you singers got your headsets?"At each practice, we worked on a different part of our concert. Wegradually began to sound like we had been together for years, rather thanjust a few weeks. Tonight was Roberta's turn with the baton, and shewasn't shy about her idea of how.