‘Just be here, Vera. I don’t know how I’m going to handle what’s coming, but I know I’m going to need you to look after things when I’m of... in outer space.’ He grinned slightly as he said it. ‘You don’t even have to ask, Bill. We’ll all help you get through this. You can count on us.’ She meant it, and Bill was confident she was right. He was surrounded by good people who had helped him succeed. They wouldn’t abandon him now. It was Marion who would need support, Bill thought. She didn’t. Amber! Ricardo was lying with Amber, and they were both gazing into each other’s eyes. So close! Their noses were almost touching. And their gaze was so deep. Jessica had a thought of testing the gaze by putting her hand in between. But then in a premonition she thought that would be a really, really stupid idea. Somehow she suspected that would wake them from their trance. Oh no, she didn’t want that! Jessica should flee from here while she had the chance.But the strangeness of the situation. I went to the window and handed my five dollars to the Filipina girl in a black bikini and she activated the card and handed it to me. "Are you Terilyn?" She asked me. "Yes I am, sweetie - why?"She laughed and said, "Well, I'm a friend of Micheal's and he told me that you're the guest of honor in the back tonight." "Really?" I laughed nervously. "What else did he say?" He just said that you gonna be the queen tonight and that he has at least 17 guys lined up for you." She smiled again.. ”“If you finish early, we could go somewhere,” she said.Kara and Elyse had actually encouraged me to have my ‘Milwaukee dalliance’ as they called it, but I’d pointed out that I’d picked the wrong day for that. I really did need to get all the work done today, because I’d be on vacation in the UP with Kara starting on Sunday, and before then we had the NIKA Christmas party which once again fell on my anniversary. Not that it mattered much this year.“Let’s see how things go,” I said with a.