"Are you OK Jane, you don't look yourself?" "I'm fine it's nothing, don't worry." There then followed an awkward pause where Jane seemed to be thinkin... about whether or not she should close the door on me. I turned to leave and then Jane suddenly said, "Laura, do you have a minute?" "Of course," I replied, "I have the whole afternoon now I know Helen is not here." "Can you come in a moment; I want to ask you something?" I entered the hall and Jane waved me into the living room. I felt slightly. Beating a pathetic bully like Sid did nothing what-so-ever to make him feel better. ‘Friends’ went to check on Sid, giving Dante a wide berth as if he were a wild animal, which he supposed was how the others saw him. Being the centre of attention like that was suffocating for Dante, he felt the need to be out in the clean air, to be able to move in sync with the melody of the blood in his veins, and that’s what he did. ‘Move out of my way.’ He said dangerously, and a path cleared between him. “The word is just as good there. I think you’re right, guys. We’ve done what we can do. Now we have to sit back, let Courtney Hollings, Rafe Costas and Ella DeLoach make the rounds on TV. Anna, setting them up with a couple of bloggers was particularly astute. People my age are more likely to get their news from there than from late-night TV.”“What have the focus groups said?” Lewis demanded.“Nary a word, Lewis,” Phil said. “The pre-screenings won’t be for another week – and even then they will. . twenty million?’ Deion answered simply ‘Both’.”I burst out laughing and couldn’t stop until long after my sides were aching.Friday evening, Jeff picked me up and we went out to dinner—Denny’s this time. I’d already let him know that he shouldn’t spend his money on taking me out to expensive places. I could tell he really appreciated that.Later, while sitting on the tailgate of his truck in one of the huge campus parking lots and sipping beers, I confided in him, “This is all very new to me,.