Then he scanned her eyes, like he was recognizing something of him in her. She kept his gaze. She was high as a kite, so she didn’t know how long they looked at each other -- it could have been only two seconds, or it could have been two minutes.

And she was suddenly so embarrassed. Even as he undressed the rest of her body, it seemed he didn’t really want to know her soul, and for a moment she felt she should stop him, before she gave absolutely everything to him. Even though her body wanted it, something was saying No.

She applied concealer, mascara, blush and some light lipliner. Then she scoured the bottom of the makeup bag, but she had run through all its tricks. She looked in the mirror at the face that stared back at her. She still only partially recognized herself. But it would have to do. She would  ...

He rubbed his lower belly with his large dirt-caked paw and his thin grey t-shirt rode up to reveal the marble carvings of his hip bones. She breathed in through her nose and her eyes got stuck right above his soft leather belt for a moment. But he seemed to like watching her watch him.

Amy thought of her late mother, she saw her delicate, small round face. She had a perfect angelic face and tiny beautiful hands. She looked down at her own hands, so similar, they could be her mother’s. She began to massage the right palm with the left thumb, and then she switched.

Amy felt punched in the stomach with resonance. She was terrified. And then she said quietly, “I don’t want to do this for five more years.”

Amy’s heart filled with love for this woman. She felt it burst like a cloud and crack open with the thunder, she felt it rain love.

Jack. Amy and Jack. It sang. Of course, she would have to speak to him for him to fall in love with her. She had forgotten how to be human, though. She had forgotten how to think or talk or care about anything but herself.