Lying might get me fired, while if I told her, shemight just let it go."Ma'am?" I said a bit cautiously. "There is something I have to tellyou... " Ye...?" she replie. "Tell me, maybe I can help you." I'm not a...what I mean is, I used to be a...I'm not a girl, and I'mafraid that if I put down the right number, someone will find out, thentell everyone!" I see!" The lady sat back in her chair, then grinned at me. "Let mesee, why don't you use your first initial? That's how your checks willcome,. He was such a spineless jellyfish. He was tall and gangly, but his voice was still high pitched and whiny. Just listening to him talk made me want to reach through the phone and smack him.“Well, I would like you to come over sometime, and see us?” I threw in the promise of seeing ME to sweeten the deal. I would play with his head and make him think he had a chance to check me out. He never said he was into me before but given he was a nerdy loser I assumed he would fall over himself if a pretty. Not if ... when.What did affect us was the rise in prices. It became increasingly expensive to live, let alone deal with petrol expenditures. I bought a diesel Ute. It wasn’t as fast but it did take us where we ... read Jim ... wanted to go prospecting.We went regularly. So did a great many others ... much to our dismay. Gold prices soared. What was once thirty five dollars an ounce had risen to two thousand an ounce. There were people camping at our favorite places. Our diggings were invaded.. “Why the hell not?” I shot back. “You seem to be proud of them. I’ve seen the way you dress.”She seemed to waver for a minute with that one. Good. Maybe she’s learning a lesson here.Finally, she spoke up. “As long as you don’t tell anyone.”“Why would I tell anyone,” I shrugged. “And who’d believe me anyway?”“Well, I guess,” she grumbled. “I mean...”“Come on, let me see.”Laurie turned to face me and lifted up her tank top and the sports bra under it, letting a pair of perfect B-sized cones drop.