Being nude only made it worse. ‘Do we really have to go through this again?’ she asked, pretending a confidence she didn’t feel. ‘You know wha...t’s going to happen when the Rescuer finds me missing. You know he’s going to follow the clues you undoubtedly left, track you down to your floating island again, get me out of this at the last second, and wreck whatever plan you spent weeks dreaming up. Why do you even bother?’ Doctor Darke smiled. ‘Because this time,’ he said, ‘that’s exactly what I’m. There are a few in Manchester. I had ventured into mossside and picked a rough pub. I knew the moment I walked in that I had gone to the wrong place.I walked up to the bar to be greeted by a attractive girl in her early 30's'What can I get ya darling?'Oh I wondered if....are there two roses in Manchester?'Dunno...this is The Rose babes...can I get you a drink? What you having''Oh i'll just have a coke for now'I could see all eyes upon me, well the ones in the quiet pub. I looked so out of place. If we are gone to long they willaccuse us sneaking off somewhere and having sex."We both laughed. He kissed me again and we headed down the stairs andclimbed on our bikes. Again, I know it is stupid but seeing the girlbike made me happy. Steve once again led the way out and that made mefeel good also. We dropped our bikes off at the stand and made our wayto the beach. My group was closer to the beach entrance and we gotthere first. Steve got a round of hello's from the Sarah, Pat. She left the table in a huff. I thing I had made her mad.Her parting shot was "If you can't see things my way I don't think we should go out on Friday." Now I know I had made her mad. That effectively broke our date for the next night. If I had maintained that attitude, my life would have been a lot easier.Saturday night I was at my apartment settling down with a pizza and some beer. I was going to spend an evening alone with the boob tube. It was 7:30 when my phone rang and I saw that it was.