“The door closes and then there’s a long pause before it swings all the way open. What I see takes my breath.Marissa is taller than Olivia. Thinner, too. But Olivia is curvier. Much curvier. And every single one is displayed to absolute perfection in the dress she’s wearing.I think I’ve seen Marissa in it before, and she looked great. But not great like this.The material is some kind of thin, almost sheer stuff in dark red. It flutters in the air that stirs as the door comes to a rest against the stopper with a muffled thump. Olivia stands still and lets me appraise her before she starts toward me. I clench my jaw to keep my mouth from dropping open as I watch her. The wispy cloth clings to her body as she walks, outlining her form perfectly. She might as well be nude.Holy mother, I wish she was.I shake off the thought, knowing I can’t go forward tonight thinking things like that.Think with the big head, man! Think with the big head!”

“I shake off the thought, knowing I can’t go forward tonight thinking things like that.Think with the big head, man! Think with the big head!”

“I think I see her chest rise as she catches her breath. Maybe she’ll be the one to throw on the brakes. God knows I’m not going to. I might regret it later, but right now I’m not thinking about anything but what it would be like to see Olivia without that red dress.”

“But not tonight. Tonight is all about Olivia—beautiful, sexy, courageous, passionate Olivia. Tonight, I want her to see what I see.“Look at yourself,” I say. I pull her long hair over one shoulder and place a kiss in the bend of her neck. She tilts her head to give me better access. “You’re the most beautiful girl in the room.”“So sexy.”“Any man would die to have this for even one night.”

“She laughs and looks out the window and I think for a minute that she's going to start to cry. I'm standing by the door and I look over at the Elvis Costello poster, at his eyes, watching her, watching us, and I try to get her away from it, so I tell her to come over here, sit down, and she thinks I want to hug her or something and she comes over to me and puts her arms around my back and says something like 'I think we've all lost some sort of feeling.”

“When I think of Tomodachi, I think of your mother. Your mother, she too lose her baby. She lose you. That very sad thing for her. Maybe she come looking, and she not find you. You not there when she come. She think you dead for ever. But she see you in her mind. Now as I speak maybe she see you in her mind. You always there. I know. I have son too. I have Michiya. He always in my head. Like Kimi. They dead for sure, but they in my head. They in my head forever.”