I picked out a bunch of ruined books...

And gave them to Maricel for her students to use for art projects. I got to drive them down to the school and carry the boxes up to the classroom. It's a cool place and apparently everyone had heard so much about me. They were smiling like it was good stuff. I went home to opene the store and an hour or so later Ellen came by with lunch. It was a giagantic Italian sandwich. What a gal. She just wants to get her hands on my comics. I floated the possibility of Danny being a missing person. Even though, I'd only sorta kinda noticed his absence just recently. And there was that possibility that he was just pissed at me, backed up by a terse e-mail that contained enough personal information to indicate that it was actually from him. By the time I finished talking, she was frowning at me and I was frowning at myself since what I said didn't make much sense. She said that Auntie Maria's P.I. had talked to her and that she'd vouched for me. Even though her first instinct was to tell him to step off. We laughed a little and finished lunch. Then all of the sudden she said.
"I was really scared of messing up our friendship. Which is pretty stupid since you're supposed to be friendly with your boyfriend. Am I screwed up or what?"
"Are we talking about now or about the thing we aren't supposed to ever speak of?" I asked.
"The thing we aren't supposed to speak of." She sighed.
"So can I speak of it or is this some kind of test?"
"You may speak." She said.
"That was a long time ago Ellie Mae." I said.
"You'd like to forget about it." She said.
"No, I forgot at your behest." I said. "And not wanting me as your boyfriend really doesn't mean you're messed up."
"But I did want you as my boyfriend. I just like the fact that you think like that. You know, being my boyfriend. A lot of guys don't think in terms of boyfriend."
"I'm too lazy to dig up different girls to sleep with." I said.
"This is a bad time to bring this up." She said. "Maybe some other time."
"You know, sweetie. I just don't think so." I said.
She sighed. "I was afraid of that."