" The banquet will be fun for me," I told her, "and for your Mom. Are you receiving any awards yourself?" Oh, yeah. They've trumped up some kind of sp...ecial-recognition thing for me. I guess I'm the first really well-known female athlete the school has had for awhile. Ours is not exactly a big-time athletic program. Everybody -- even the university president -- is a little bit caught up in the team's recent prominence. We're rated number four nationally right now. That's a high-water mark for. The pay is good. We need the money to pay themortgage bills and Jake's school fees. I'll get my salary this weekendanyway. I'll pay the EMI." Will you be staying tonight?" No, not today. I'll go to my apartment."Her mother looked lost in her thoughts. She decided to change the topic."Where's Jake?" In his room." I'm gonna talk to him," she said and went to his room. She knocked onhis door and called out his name. The door was open she went inside. Hesaw her brother watching videos on computer. Mateo is her father, but not biologically, so every now and then when he walks around the house shirtless, she takes peeks of him. He is part Colombian, his skin bronze, his chest large, arms muscular. His black hair matches his dark eyes, and sometimes when she watches him make dinner, his strong hands chopping vegetables, she gets excited and doesn’t know why. He is a good looking man and she knows it. Some of the women in town hit on him, but he never goes on dates. She thinks it’s because. Joan forgot about the woman who'd been in the bathroom with her until it was time for bed, and she was standing in front of the same mirror.She turned to Ken. "Did you have another friend here today? A redheaded woman?" No," replied Ken.Joan got a confused look on her face. "But I saw her in the bathroom. She was beautiful. I mean really, really beautiful, like no one I've ever seen." What were you doing when you saw her?" asked Ken, knowing full well what had happened."Looking in the mirror,".