He turned to look at Kara with an expression combining wonder, surprise, and a touch of skepticism. “Yeah, right; like a freshman guy is going to ge... in the pants of one of the hottest junior girls in the school.”“Well, Big Guy,” said Kara breathily, “you don’t know until you try.” She said the last with an upturn in inflection, as if asking if Connor had the audacity to follow through. “And I really don’t think that you will need to try very hard, based on the signals she was giving. You?" He gripped my hand, squeezing it hard. Then, he gave it a couple of good pumps before letting it go."Drinkn' for free," I said and lifted my glass to him."Marcus. One of those for me and put it on his tab," Gary said with a smile."You pay for your drinks Shipley," he growled with a huge grin as he set the glass down. "Besides I know you can afford it." Aw, Marcus. I'm truly hurt. You know this man here wouldn't be earning you so much money if it wasn't for me." Bullshit!" he responded,. We moved on and idly admired the works. Finally, we stood before the work titled "Lovers" Beautiful, isn't it?" She said."Yes, I like this one."We wandered into another room where the paintings were more modern, more extreme."These are more conflicting, for me," she muttered idly."You haven't told me what you have thought about ... what you decided." I said it with anxiety in my voice.She looked at me and smiled. She said nothing, just nodded her head."Here's what I think, Charlie. I have been. Then again, Katrina looked good in anything.We were at a Denney's restaurant, Katrina, my brother and me, having decided to get out of the house and have a real breakfast without worrying about waking anyone up. Katrina and I had showered and I'd found some old jeans and my old cheerleader v-neck sweater, black and gold, the color of my high school. I felt like I was 17 again and it was fun."You just have to give Cheryl some time," I decided, looking over the menu. "She's going to forgive you.".