We’d hit rush hour traffic and it took us an hour and a half to get into Chicago to the Longs’ condo. It was one of those nights when V1 would hav...e settled for a cigar and martini. I definitely didn’t want to start down that track at seventeen.“Thank you, Ray,” Beca said. “A more relaxed evening will give us more time with Joan.”“I know you make up reasons to need my advice just so you can be together,” Ray laughed. We left the condo and went to dinner at the hippie place Joan liked so much. I'm more attracted to you, Faith." "Me?" I answered in a high pitched squeal. "Shush," she said. "People will hear." In a hushed voice I said, "Okay, I really never thought about this before, Madelyn. Really, boys scare me to death, especially their snakes." "Snakes? So that's what you call them? Funny but they scare me too," she said. "We should get together." "Yes we should," I agreed. And we did. It was during a summer swimming party after our junior year in high school. All of the girls. “Was she teasing me,” I wondered. “Or is this just the way she is?” I didn’t know but determined not to let my lust for her get out of hand. After I put the ladder away in the closet, Tanya gathered the cleaning supplies and put them under the sink then came over to me. “Mind if I sit a minute before I go. I gave myself a workout today.” “Of course not,” I said. I have a lazy boy reclining reading chair right in front of my wood stove that allows you to put your legs up. Tanya looked at the. ”“Who’s Shanna?”“His secretary,” Jill said and pushed away the tiny stab of jealousy. “His panther girl.”Reese shifted so her head was in Jack’s lap. “Panther girl?” she asked.“You’d love her,” Jack said. “She’s got skin like dark chocolate and not an ounce of fat. The face of an angel and the mind of a predator. She started as an intern last autumn after she was thrown out of college for trying to blackmail a professor.”“Oh,” Reese sighed. “A bad girl.”“A very bad girl. She does almost.