. just think about it."Shortly after that, Anh appeared and was offered a drink."I, er, don't drink much alcohol. Could I have tea, please? Weak and b...lack?"When Terry's mother left to make tea, Richard asked, "not to be intrusive, so don't say anything if you don't want to, but ... do you not drink alcohol because you don't like it, or for some other reason?" I don't mind saying. Have you heard of 'pathological intoxication'?"Richard nodded, but Terry said, "I haven't; what is it?" A lot of. “I don’t know. Maybe $200 or $300. Somewhere in there.”I did a quick calculation. “And do you know how much interest you pay each month on that credit card debt? I’m guessing it has to be over $200 a month, on a balance that high. So, if you didn’t have to pay all that in interest every month, you’d be making enough even in the bad months to pay all your bills, right?”The light bulb came on, and she saw what I was thinking. She nodded. But she wasn’t quite done.“Are you sure you can afford to. I didn’t want to waste any time, so I removed my thumb and cupped her right boob softly without pressing.Suddenly the next toll gate came. I removed my palm from her boob and kept it on her hand rest by touching her elbow, to indicate that I’m still there.As soon as the bus crossed the toll gate, I straight away kept my palm on her right boob and gave a slight squeeze. Seeing no reaction from her, I started pressing it more. For the first time, she reacted when I held her nipple in between my. She blushed, remembering how a Krell elder had marked her and Sleethe with alien runes during her last visit, likely in some kind of bonding ceremony. The giant alien had drawn a pattern on her forehead in some kind of red ochre, like two joined snakes, and the dye had stained her skin for weeks. For all she knew, she was married to her reptilian companion.The natives crowded around them, drawn by Sleethe’s call, and Lena began to feel a little boxed in by the gigantic reptiles. She knew that.