‘Hey, would you like some soda or something?’ Meredith asked as she reentered the living room. ‘I think there’s some root beer in the fridge.�...� ‘Sure, if you’ve got some,’ Billy said. He heard Meredith walk into the kitchen. He couldn’t help but notice that the thwack thwack of the flip flops had been replaced by the padding sound of bare feet, which was very noticeable while she walked on the linoleum of the kitchen. The sound brought back a memory of when Billy had been here for dinner a few. Neither of us said anything else that night. She pulled her jacket around her shoulders. I leaned back into the corner, my head against the wall. Melanie snuggled up in the crook of my arm and soon we were both asleep. ************** The lights came on promptly at 7:00 the next morning. Another foot of snow had fallen overnight. Melanie and a thousand of our closest friends stirred as the airport came to life. The status boards were all flashing ‘cancelled’ for every flight. We stretched and. A black four door Cadillac pulled out of the used car lot and stopped at the traffic lights. I could make out the dealer plate on the rear of the car and there it was, my briefs being waved out the driver's side window. I started my engine and whispered to myself, "Praise you, Ruby Mae." Praise you, Ruby Mae," I repeated when I saw that she was making the second turn and speeding up the dusty road. I stopped when I saw my red briefs in the middle of the road. She must be warning me to not come. ”She nodded and took a bite of her sandwich, then ate some of her soup. I did the same, waiting for her to raise whatever it was she was ready to talk about. Actually, I was pretty sure what the core issue was, but I didn’t know how she’d approach it, or even what it was that she ultimately wanted. There was more to this than sex, though sex was a big part of it. In many ways, she reminded me a lot of Kara, though her situation didn’t seem to be quite as controlled as Kara’s had been.“How did.