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"Okay I'll bite What do you do for the state of California?"

"I work as a translator in the court system"

"Then what are you doing in New Jersey?"

"Vacation" That was technically the truth I'd needed to take some stacked-up sick leave and vacation days to fly back hoht happen if I ran out of those paid days off I wasn't exactly in a place where I could be without a job for any stretch of time

"You're on vacation, but you stay here?"

"What can I say? Interpreting doesn't pay that well"

"You have beaches in California"

"They're crowded," I said

"So are ours"

I was out of arguments

"Look, Romy, you don't strike me as a professional of any sort Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Because women must always be da over my chest

"I know plenty of men who have found thes they never thought they would If that is the situation, then I can put this away," he said, tapping his gun, "and we can figure so out"

I didn't kno to answer him

Because, yes, I was in distress, as much as it pained me to admit that