This weekend, however, was different to our usual routine. Catherine's loser husband was away on "business" - actually, I knew from a mutual friend th...t he was holed up in a seedy motel with a pair of hookers called Chantelle and Chardonnay, but who was I to judge? - and Catherine had agreed to a romantic getaway at my secluded cottage, high up in the hills. We left early on the Saturday morning, enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch at a roadside cafe, and drove up into the mountains accompanied by. My involuntary action wasto move back. His right hand came up again and was held out flat near myface, ready to slap me again. I forced myself to stay still.He enclosed me in his arms again and this time his lips came down onmine. It was the strangest feeling, I could feel the slight rasp ofafternoon shadow on his face, smell the faint scent of his aftershaveand the press of his thick lips against mine. He pushed his tongue intomy mouth and I could taste my lipstick mingled with his mouthwash.. My friend would too. After all, we’re here tonight, right? We’ll make calls and get information for you. Then we’ll come back tomorrow. You can decide then what you want to do,’ Eleanor said. The woman nodded and the others in the group whispered amongst themselves. ‘Before then, we have a whole box of food to hand out. Any ideas of who we can share with?’ Billie asked. ‘We have friends . . .’ the woman replied, pointing toward a stand of trees at the edge of the park. ‘I can get them.’ She. ‘We promise to behave.’ ‘Mostly.’ ‘Yeah, Mostly.’ I let them poke around, I wasn’t the neatest person in the world, but it didn’t seem to bother them. I noticed that when it was just the two of them in the cab of my truck they never sat close to me. It was a bit of a relief actually. I looked at the paper and found the movie section, there wasn’t anything I cared for but I called them out to look. I said. ‘When do you gota to be home?’ Karen said. ‘We don’t actually have a time. Mama’s got.