He was dressed in a ragged blackraincoat with the collar raised up around his neck. He was in his earlyforties but his unshaven face and disheveled ap...pearance made him look older. He had an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth."Sir, I am not interested. Leave me alone!" She again walked away, thistime with the determination not to respond to him again."Sure thing, baby. Whatever it is you want, I'll give it to you." Corri quickened her pace as she crossed the street. She wanted to getout of. We were with her a lot of the time at school but we couldn’t shower her with affection in school. Our study sessions really were study sessions so except for seating arrangements — Jenny frequently sat in one of our laps — it wasn’t much for close personal contact.Jodi must have had a talk with her mom because Mrs. Nelson never batted an eye at seeing Jenny perched in my lap, much less Trish’s. Mrs. Nelson, for her part, understood more than most of our friends — and she used her understanding. ”“Gee,” she teased, “you really know how to make a girl feel special.”I laughed and rolled to my back. She draped herself across me and rested her head on my shoulder.“How are the houses going?” she asked.“We’re ahead of schedule,” I began, “and we have contracts on all three. We set the closing date for the first two, and the third will probably close later that afternoon. It’s easier for the...”She listened for fifteen or twenty minutes, even though she probably didn’t care about most of it.. Thom wasn’t the only one aware of something happening, so was Steve, who said nothing. He just stared angrily from the back seat. As they pulled up to Jane’s mother’s house, Jane and Steve got out, Steve stomped away, without saying a word. Jane said thank you, and then reached across the seat to where a pen and envelope sat. Quickly she wrote her number down on the envelope, and handed it back to Thom “ Call me sometime.” She said shyly and with that she turned and walked up the driveway. Her.