I want nothing more to do with him!" Ayumi bowed and then hugged her favorite uncle."Good to see you again, Bob. What's new from your end of things?" ...an smiled and spoke up at last."Oh, well, I have ... a problem. How do I put this? I need a sponsor. I'm only a 6, just half a percentage point shy and I can't take Sakura with me if I can't even go. So close, Ayumi! So fucking close, Dan! Maybe I should just stay home, but that doesn't help Sakura or her mother. Not that I care much about her. " And?" I had to use my teeth to tear the plastic housing the batteries."I was expecting a bit more and--" The numbers are all up 9% from April," I explained, "We've done this dance four times already. I don't fucking cheat you out of your share." I'm not accusing you, Deb," He started."Bullshit," I called him out on it, "If you thought you had a real case you'd have called me by the third or fourth. You didn't and now you're realizing your expensive tastes are outreaching your wallet.. The photo was in a cheap dime store frame and the back practically fell into my hands as I held it. I started to reassemble the photo when I saw the folded piece of paper and a small piece of fabric concealed behind the backing. I opened the paper.‘Wednesday at 1:00. Memorize this map and then burn it!’ There were various landmarks and I could easily recognize that it was a map into the woods. That boy! Was this what had upset Cassandra so much last summer? She followed the map and he assaulted. I had this sense to not do anything. Not touch her, not try to get to know her, definitely not come on to her. Just standing in that "feeling" was powerful. It was much more than that... and I'm searching for words to describe it. It did start a quest to understand that level of attraction. Sitting there with me would become a thing for us. I can't remember ever dancing with her. I can't remember her ever even being on the dance floor although she was, being one of the most attractive women.