Dale almost regretted what he said when he saw Hillarys forlorn look. He never meant to hurt his friend. He walked over and put his big linebacker arm... around her. If you insist on being a part of this, sweetie, youll have to put yourself in our hands and let us help you look the part, okay? You just come by the salon after work tomorrow night, well begin then. Hillary looked up at Dale with her chestnut-colored eyes and nodded. Nothing could ever have prepared Hillary for her visit to Dales. Our place doesn't have a pool. It's the large apartment complex off of Pierce Road," Michael said."Oh, you two live in an apartment?" I asked."We own the complex. I own about a dozen apartment complexes in Henderson. The Pierce Apartments are the ones that need the most work right now, so that's where we live," he said."Need somebody to help?" I asked.I saw Mom and Michael look at each other."I could use a young back a couple of times a week. I can pay a wage," he said."I could collect a wage,. Oh, please, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean anything! Please, please don’t .. don’t complain, please ... I can’t lose my job, oh! please, I’ll do anything, please ...’That was exactly what the black pussy-hunter had been manoeuvring to hear – those three magic words of surrender: ‘I’ll do anything’. She made a pretence of seeming to relent a little, and was rewarded by a spark of hope in the frightened blonde’s eyes.‘Oh, yeah? You will, huh? You will really?’Clutching at this hope, Astrid. Sometimes I wonder if it is a dream. My life has been a series of relationships that have been formed and then lost. Every time I thought I had finally found a home, I would see that stage end and a new one would begin. Some families were good while others were bad. I guess, over the years, I learned to develop a shield to protect me from the hurt that would eventually come.I have always been self-conscious about my body. I look at the models on the covers of magazines and I cringe. I know.