”“First Dare: Take off your panties and throw them into a trash can. Do not put-on new panties for at least 30 minutes. Time to complete: 1 hour. ...Difficulty: easy”Again, thinking this some weird spam, she ignored it promising to anti-virus software later, but right now she was late for class. During most of the class nothing eventful happened, but near the end, exactly 1 hour after she received her second notification, her phone chimed. She apologized to her glaring professor, finding it odd. I just wanted a chance to get to know you before I graduate and figure out what my life will be."My mouth dropped open again."This is the part where you ask me my name and ask me to go out with you," she said. "And it's the part where I say, "Gloria and yes."Over the next few months, Gloria changed me. She both stopped me from drinking myself into an early grave and made me appreciate my situation. Sure, I couldn't play basketball anymore, but if I truly loved the game, being a coach was almost. Rebecca didn't seem to have too much work to do. She was busily varnishing her nails, not paying George any attention at all. As she peered at her fingers holding them to catch the light, looking for the slightest imperfection in the glossy coating, George found himself staring at her hands. The way that her finger bent backwards seemed almost animal like as though the movement was the prelude to her unsheathing claws that could rake across the flesh of an opponent, drawing blood with each. “Major shareholder in the Transportnet Hub, the people who own and run the lift system.”“I thought it was free?”“Comes out of your taxes, same with other basic necessities.”“So how do they make a profit?”“Service efficiencies. They get a fixed sum per person using the lift, use a series of AIs to figure out best use and, at the end of the financial year, pocket the difference from savings on power consumption and keeping as many lifts in operation at a time,” Herrick shrugged. “It might only be.