"As you might guess," she continued her soliloquy, "staying home all day is quite boring. That is why Courtney and I are such good friends. She has in...roduced me to some very creative ways of breaking out of the boredom."Suddenly, her finger slipped out of me and her touch disappeared entirely, leaving me waving in the breeze."Please don't go anywhere, Mr. Handyman," her retreating voice said, dripping with irony. "You have yet to recieve your reward for such excellent workmanship!"So there I. The favored Russian oligarchs - many under the thumb of Putin - had grown fabulously wealthy as had he. When Putin died many of the oligarchs started disappearing, taking their wealth with them. Others started dying as mysteriously as he had.They knew what a political power struggle in Russia could bring when the masses were hungry and looking for someone to blame. The rich were always easy to blame and targets for both the masses and the power brokers. It was time to get out of Dodge.The gold,. She usually gives me something totally awesome. The perfume was one of three gifts I'd gotten for her. The other two gifts consisted of a negligee that was very sheer to the point that you could see through it. And a terry towel wrap. This is our first Christmas together and I want it to be special. Getting this in the house without her seeing it will be a little tricky. I called to make sure that she wasn't home. I'm glad she wasn't home yet. This gave me time to wrap and hide the gifts. I'm. The Friday before the dance, I get a call during class - no, I'm not supposed to use my phone in class but that hasn't stopped me yet. I see the light on my phone flash before it rolls to voice mail. After class I check the message.It's Jessie, calling to let me know that she will not be able to go fishing but thanks for the offer. I feel myself sag against the nearest wall. If she was pregnant, she was going to come meet the family. No fishing trip, no baby.I'm going to see Alex at lunch.