I’ll be right back.”Denise smiled at me. “Check her out.”There was, indeed, a lovely blonde woman sitting behind me. Her friend was cute too, ...ut the blonde was bordering on gorgeous. She studiously ignored me as I walked back to my seat.“She totally ignored me, Denise. I think you’re shitting me.”Denise giggled. “She’s not ignoring you now, Eddie.”“All Right, I’ll play your game, Denise. I’m going to approach her before I leave. Satisfied?”Denise looked at me seriously. “Eddie, you said you. He stopped short of bumping into her and smiled. “Hey there,” he said. “How’s the evening treating you?”Natalia returned his smile. “I’m alright,” she offered. “I wonder if I could talk to you for a few minutes though.”“Sure. What’s on your mind?”“Not here,” Nat replied, crossing her arms against the cold. In the glow of a nearby streetlight, he could tell that she was cold. He could also tell that she wasn’t wearing a very thick bra under the light shirt she had on. He was tempted to stop time. “Honey,” Grace heard through the haze - a menacing voice, from the dark by the cottages! Menacing, yet melodious. “You have two seconds to be on your knees. And him, and the rest of you.”Grace started crying, quietly, with both pain and relief. She’d come. Mia and Paul were emerging from the shadows, all black, with weird masks on and camouflaged chins, and guns. How was she here so soon? But that shape could only be Mia, and the voice. They were pointing the guns at Xenia and. Jim thought the twins were beautiful. If he had met them before this summer, he would have been completely tongue tied, or worse yet, he’d have relied on insults and bad jokes to insulate himself from rejection. But that was the old Jim Olsen. The new Jim Olsen was getting his ashes hauled on a regular basis by a beautiful woman, and that made all the difference in the world.“Interesting bet,” Jim said. He paused a moment, then looked at Karen said, “OK, I’ll settle your bet, but regardless of.