"You know, I doubt Natalie will have enough influence to refund us anything," my father said. "But that's OK, we'll pay for the lost night. It's a sma...l price to pay to avoid this kind of trouble." I was glad we were all of a like mind.Everyone agreed it made sense. Not being able to do anything else, we headed off to wander the city once again. However, once we walked out the front door and were greeted by a small crowd waiting outside. We were a bit confused about what was going on, but. "... and you want to go to a restaurant?" Mary concluded.Well, no... not when you put it that way. Duh. "What did you have in mind?" I asked.Amanda stepped real close to my ear and whispered really softly, "Hot, sweaty sex."I swallowed. Hard... and hardening."We have a suite at the Marriott," (across the street) Lisa informed me."With champagne and six 'packages' that need to be unwrapped..." Elizabeth said softly. "By the birthday boy." Why," Barb said into the ensuing silence, "are we still. They couldn’t shoot them all down.He couldn’t make out anything in space, the battle must not have reached low orbit yet. He was used to hearing the crack of XMRs, but if there was a firefight happening deeper inside Yilgarn, the noise from the lasers and plasma weapons wasn’t reaching them out in the suburbs.“Damn it, the track is damaged,” Tacka announced with a flash of angry red colors from the LCD panels on her suit. “We’ll have to proceed on foot, at least until we can find another. ”I lay there clinging tightly to her wondering how it was that I had ended up acting like a teenaged virgin in love. Then I saw the picture on the wall over her dresser. It was the fortune teller from the street fair.“Who... who is that?” I stammered out as I raised myself slightly and moved over so I was alongside her.“Oh, her,” she laughed. “That’s my bunica. That’s the Romanian word for grandmother. She watches out over me.”“You’re ... .... Romanian?” I asked, looking back and forth from the.