I'll be there.”“Good. And now I'll better hurry. Karen will never forgive me if we miss the movie.”She waved to the waiter to ask for the bill b...ut Alice didn't let her.“I'll take care of the bill. Go, I wouldn't want your girlfriend to hate me before even knowing me.”Kathryn got up, smiled one last time at Alice and ran away with the same fluid grace she had displayed when entering earlier. Alice stayed a few more minutes, the word 'informative' drilling little holes inside her head.********The. Friday morning’s joint presentation was a success and then it was Friday night and the team dinner in the German delegation’s hotel. After the meal, Louisa excused herself to pack. The rest of us congregated in the hotel bar. I was sipping my Havana 7 chatting to a gaggle of German colleagues about this weekend’s Chelsea v Bayern Final when Louisa approached us with suitcase ready to head to the airport. “Steve, may I please borrow you for second?” she said in her efficient, clipped English.I. ”Goody Brown continued, “Life’s full of hard choices where ya gotta pick.“Guild Master Kessler’d have no truck with Whores forced to join. You’ll see.“Guild’s a choice. Sometimes hard. Sometimes easy like it was for Hulda.” She patted her daughter on the head. “That one couldn’t wait to be a woman. So proud her mama made people happy. That’s what she was gonna do when she got big.”Hulda laughed. “An I still feel like that. Sure sometimes it’s just a guy giving me a poke or a girl needing my. Alice snapped her fingers in Eloise’s face, which caused the slightly slack-jawed and wide-eyed girl to rattle her head side-to-side and then tear her attention away from what was below their skirts.“.. right.” Alice began with a knowing smile. “When we do that, and tell you to, for instance,” she paused to bring either of her hands into the air and accent her sardonically-delivered phrase with air quotes “‘get the fuck on your knees, whore,’ you’d probably do it. That’s why you made the team.”.