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"I guess so"

She put the plate down "But I really feel great," she said "Niche and looshe and everything"

"Alcohol has that effect soreat" She extended her arot a really wonderful idea"

"Oh?"

"Let’sh shcrew"

"No"

"No?"

I tried explaining it to her I don’t suppose I did a very good job of it, being still half in the bag myself, but I tried to make her understand about my need for a well-ordered life, my plans to e What I said may or may not have made perfect sense, but in any case Plum couldn’t make head or tail out of it, a cliché which, now that I think about it, has particular relevance under the circumstances Her reply was nonverbal; she took off her clothes and unbuttoned ainst ears, "we don’t have the time It’s not safe to stick around here, and we should have left a long tilad you realize that So-"

"We should have left lasht night, and we should have left when the shun ca, and we shouldn’t have shtopped to have breakfast, and you shouldn’t have gotten drunk lasht night, and I shouldn’t have gotten drunk this , and we’re shtill here, and it would be fun to make love, and I have all my clothes off, and you have ht here for a ht, since the huure out reasons to give id its as that this could serve as a line of de with Plum now at the apex of our adventure, and then we could head back the e came just as I headed back to the life of the new Evan Tanner, the upright suburban Evan Tanner One final taste of Pluin

It see and lazy sigh and rolled over onto my side I closed– the wind in the tall grasses, the flies swars

"I think I aer"

"Neither am I"

"That was very nice, Evan Does it always make one sober to make love?"

"Not always"

"We should dress now"

"We should"

"We should leave at once"

"Yes," I said I sat up "We really should" I reached for my clothes "We wasted far too much time already Not that it was exactly a waste, but we should have been out of here hours ago Fortunately it hasn’t done any-"

"Any what?"

I didn’t say anything "Evan? You stopped in thethe opposite way, her back to the doorway of the building She couldn’t see what I saw

"Evan?"

"I was going to say harm, it hasn’t done any harm But I think it has"

"What?"

"Don’t turn around," I said levelly "Stay where you are, stay calm, don’t turn around-"

So of course she turned around