........................................................................I was sitting alone at the back of the top deck on a bus one day, making my wa... home from school. I was 16 at the time, and could not wait to get in after a tough day. As usual, the bus was pretty empty as I lived the furthest away from school and after a few stops all the other k**s had gotten off at their stops already. The bus pulled up at a stop and I heard loud girlish talking and laughing. A group of girls heavily. Unless they could arrange for some way of getting the dresses early, andget Rachel to come over, then it would be a case of Rachel having to seea photo of them in the dresses.But for now, they continued to play. Attempts were made to come up withanother story to tell, but Sandra's story proved impossible to beat. * * *Not all the day was spent in the girls room. They were called downstairsfor sandwiches at midday, and they watched some DVDs in the living roomtoo. It helped pass the time. “Head trauma for a CT, bloody motorcyclists. I’ll try and call you later. Love you.” And the screen went blank as I said, ‘I love you.’I took my beer and moved to the bar and sat down on a stool there. I felt a bit lonely after talking to Sally and Mila, and I didn’t want to hide in a dark booth.I spoke to the bartender, who turned out to be another Mike and the owner of the bar. The bar wasn’t busy as it was quite early, so Julie was able to sit and talk as well. We chuckled over us having the. I turned over slowly to her and could feel the warmth of her naked body against mine. She sighed and stirred but did not awake. I watched her as she slept and thought about the past week.Our work lives have really taken off. Melanie somehow became a key person in Biotherapeutics' most critical and visible project, and they've been pressuring her for all her available time. Melanie negotiated a compromise of working very long hours weekdays but keeping her weekends free. I'm so glad to have her.