Out of necessity, we’ve exchanged a few random instant messages in the past but about three weeks ago we began chatting in earnest. For the first ti...e maybe ever in my life, the conversation got down to brass tacks almost immediately. There was a little flirting but mostly just to test the waters before we started making plans to meet, and after a few stops and starts (schedule conflicts are a bitch) I ended up at his place at about 10:30 last Friday night. Oh, God, even though we’d agreed this. Manuel kept his eye glued to the peephole, no longer concerned about Fran, who was with Pepito, a reliable man. Inside he was fuming. Where was that cabron Chico?Renee followed Alex into the room and closed and bolted the door after them.Wordlessly, she started peeling her clothes off, running her hands over her body in a constant gesture of enticement.I will not help him, she thought bitterly. I would have trusted him and he betrayed me. She might have cried a few days ago, but now her face. Julie just wasn't the type to have casual sex or a one night stand, and my suggesting that she should try it had obviously come close to putting me in the camp of those who approved of casual recreational sex even when you were in a committed relationship - and I didn't feel that way at all. I had messed up big time.It wasn't quite yet the moment for my grovelling abject apology for that hurtful behaviour, but I wanted to take a big step towards getting back to the way we had been.I moved a. ”Tanaka interrupted, his voice just shy of snarling, “The mil for ‘operating costs’ is a rip-off, as you well know. Half the five million up front, and the other half after the bitch is dead, and that is final.”“I am only the contact. My instructions are a mil for operating costs up front and he will accept half the five mil at the same time, with the rest upon completion of the job. If you are backing out of the deal, I am wasting my time.”The contact thanked Tanaka for the excellent Cognac.