‘I think we’d better make it a bit later. I don’t know how I managed to make it last time.’ ‘Eight O’clock?’ I suggested. ‘Make it a q...arter past,’ she said. ‘A quarter past eight’s fine with me,’ I replied. I was overjoyed that she wanted to go out with me at all. She stood across the room from me and watched me pull on my shoes. I liked the feeling of her eyes on me. ‘I still haven’t got over the way you tie your laces,’ she said. I looked up and shrugged, ‘I didn’t know that it was so. So much for paying off her credit cards early. As I sat back in my chair, I realized that I didn’t really have evidence that Brit was cheating on my, just that she wasn’t being honest with me. But while there might be more than one explanation, as an engineer, I tended towards Occam’s razor, that the simplest explanation was the most likely. A little research was possible, just from the computer at my desk. It wasn’t clear to me that Brit knew that I could go online and check her PDA-phone. I took this opportunity to smack him hard in the face and push him off of me. It worked. I got up and ran to the stairs. Why? I didn’t know. It was my first instinct.I made it up about four steps before he grabbed me by my ankle and tripped me. He dragged me by the ankle across the floor back to the spot we were before. I used my other leg to kick him hard in the knee. He fell to the ground and let go of my ankle.I got up and ran towards the stairs again. I made it about halfway up the stairs. I’m no prize. And being with me extends the target painted on me to you.”She opened her mouth to object, but he held up his hand, and she paused. “Despite that, even knowing I should ... I can’t walk away from you. You mean too much to me.” He swallowed. “So if you don’t ... if you ... well.” He cleared his throat. “Now is the time you should tell me, if you don’t want this. Because otherwise I want ... I would like...”It was her turn to stop him, putting a slender finger over his lips with a.