I gestured Tom into my office. He followed.I went to my desk and spread out my call slips. As I did, I looked up expectantly and said to Tom, “So, w...hat’s up?”The silence between us forced me to look at him more critically. He was staring at me obviously in a quandary.Finally, he spoke, “Mark, I know this might sound crazy, and I’m taking a risk here, but I want to ask Julie to marry me. I’m asking your permission. I haven’t asked her, but I know she’d be in seventh heaven if I did. It’s nothing. “If you’re salesmen we don’t want any,” I said. That’s the way my mom always answers the door when it’s someone she doesn’t know.The man smiled slightly and said, “I assure you we’re not salesmen. Are you Miss Jean Cooper?”“That’s me all right.”“We would like a few minutes of your time to talk to you about a file you uploaded to the Web yesterday at your local branch library if that’s convenient?” My heart leaped in my chest. They were the Confederacy. They just had to be. I was going to play. “As women we are perfectly fine with doing more than one thing at a time. Are you Amazons too manly and haven’t inherited that skill?” Ynerca asked smirking at Hassika.“You’re pretty good at detecting the differences between men and women. When we return to our quarters I’ll let you find out exactly how manly I am. That’s the reason I’ll let your comment slide for now. Let’s follow Athea and see how long her tender mood lasts,” Hassika replied grinning as well.Ipochone’s temple in Paras was a. All of my friends were laughing and giving John major crap about what a manly looking woman he would make and no guy would want to give him their number. The bottom of the ninth came, and the Dodgers quickly dispatched two Giants batters. Then it all started. The Giants got on a roll. Soon it was 8 – 5, and bases were loaded. First pitch and the batter connected to the ball. I will always remember the announcer say, “It’s a deep drive to center field! The center fielder is back at the warning.