“I’m just one of the…” She silenced me by leaning up and capturing my lips with hers. “…help!” I concluded. “What was that for?” “...Just thought you should know what you are missing,” she said, resuming her seat with a look of self-satisfaction. I took out my handkerchief as I sat to her left. I dabbed at my lips and checked the cloth, noting the light pink discoloration. “You’re not wiping it off,” Dana said accusingly. I smiled and shook my head. “Preserving it,” I replied, showing her the pink. The guy was smaller in build than Hudson. Hudson looked down at him and then smiled. He was drunk. He burst into laughter and walked away, his eyes on the girl. She looked back at him. ‘Hey,’ she shouted,’ if you really are a cop, I had fun but if you’re not and you lied to me and you’re one of those male strippers who go to bachelorette parties dressed up like a cop, I’ll look you up.’ ‘Don’t count on it,’ Hudson said and left the bar. FOUR The yacht where the Policeman’s Ball was being held. She must havesensed something was up after meeting my friends, because she grilled meabout Mark on the drive to the restaurant, and I ended up having to comeclean about our breakup. "I just can't believe it," she said, shaking herhead and sounding genuinely shocked. "I thought you two were the perfectcouple. You seemed so in love with each other."She was right on both counts, of course, and I found it really tough toexplain what happened without actually explaining what happened. So I. That is not what I thought June would say. I thought she would say yes.I knew June liked to play pet games. I liked to be her master.I did not believe her. “You want to be my pet all the time?”June looked sad. “It’s a crazy thing to say.”I shook my head. “No. It’s the perfect thing to say.” I told June that she could be my pet. “But, I have to give you a pet name.”I told her that pets don’t wear clothes. Pets don’t use hands. “Can pets talk?”She laughed. “Pets can talk. If they want to.” She.