There was a schematic drawing of a plant that exactly resembled the little white flowers on my car. It was coriander. I skimmed down to the paragraph ...about the meaning of the flower and heat flooded my face. Lust I flipped to the second marked page. There was a photograph of the tiger lily. My eyes went down to the meaning of the gift. Passion. My breath grew a little shallower and I had this ridiculous urge to look around me. Like someone must be watching my sexual response, in my own. Being in prime football shape is majorly different from being in prime basketball shape, even for an aerobic person like me. Being run to death in our drills led to some big time misses on jumpers and some errant passes. I was half way proud, though, with our team’s defensive showing. Even with an extra two inches of height and fifteen pounds of muscle since our loss to Strathroy in last year’s championship game, my footwork and quickness weren’t negatively impacted.Although it was our first. . so there was very little I could really do. ‘I’m very sorry.’‘Is it that I’m not attractive?’ He blurted suddenly, and then his pale skin reddened becomingly with a flush of embarrassment.‘No!--ah, no,’ I said, trying to pull my wits together. He was, in fact, quite attractive and striking, with a very tall, lean figure, pearly white skin, those big dark eyes, and smooth black hair. ‘Being attractive is not ... the only factor in romantic affection, not at all,’ I stumbled, groping for the. . The limo ride was accomplished in complete silence; Nora and Jorge had nothing, really, to say to one another on this evening; Nora was going to see it all for herself. The house was imposing; a finely built black woman in a maid's costume that managed to be utilitarian while exposing a bit of cleavage and a good bit of leg opened the door for her, and called her 'Miss'; there was a deference there, a respect for her, apparently JUST because of who she was. This struck Nora as pretty ironic,.