+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The next afternoon I was at Mary’s house at 2 PM on the dot. Flo answered the door when I walked up the steps so... I knew she was watching for me. She looked tired and sad with dark circles under her eyes and in the two weeks since I last seen her it looked like she had lost weight. It looked like she wanted to put her arms around me but I just shook my head as I entered the house. ‘Hi honey.’ she spoke softly. ‘Mary has gone to the mall for a couple of hours. Once you get through it, you’ll be different, but you’ll be stronger. Take up training for baseball in the spring. Start reading the classics. Try the theater. Push the pain aside by pretending to be someone else for a few hours of rehearsals. So long as you pick something constructive, you’ll walk out the other side with some new skills and a head-start on being a new woman.”She looked at me like I was out of my mind. “Your advice is to take up a hobby?”I shrugged. “I took twenty university. I cleaned up the bar exactly how Jimmy had shown me and said goodbye to the staff as they left to head home. I then went to the back office to clock out and head home myself. Jimmy was in the office already, sitting at a desk, cleaning up some papers. I wouldn’t really call it an office as it was more similar to a small walk-in closet. There was enough room for a small desk, two chairs, and a dinky two drawer file cabinet. The desk and one of the chairs were cluttered with papers and. She listened and fingered herself.----“Leaving so early?” Etta asked, as Billy stood pulling on his pants.“Yeah, I have to get going,” he said, and sat on the bed beside her. “I’d love to sleep in with you but I have to work this morning. But I’d like to see you again soon if possible.”“Oh, I think that’s very possible,” she said softly.He finished dressing and they shared one last, long kiss. He made sure they exchanged numbers, then he left. Outside he saw Pam’s car parked next to his.