"I'm sorry. I just don't believe you. And if I can't believe
you, why should I trust you? How can I commit to you in
a relationship?"

Sophie had to admit that Malcolm had a point, but one far
too dangerous to concede. She sipped from her glass of
Argentinean white and placed it on the bench in front of
her just inside the shadow cast by the sunshade. She
pursed her lips and glanced around at the other couples
enjoying the late evening sun on the patio of the Black
Swan. Were their conversations as tense as those between
Malcolm and she?

"It was only the once, Malcolm," Sophie pleaded. "I
needed the money. It was very tempting."

"You see, I don't think it was just the once," Malcolm
continued.

"Why do you say that? Surely once would be enough? I
told you about Cum Babes International. Why should
there be any more?"

"I just don't believe you. It just doesn't hang together. All
those years between when you dropped out of college and
when you did your Accountancy course at Kingston, it
sounds like there was more than just odd-jobs and dingy
bedsits."

"What do you mean?" Sophie asked, knowing full well
from previous conversations exactly what he meant.

"There's the lifestyle you managed to afford. The drugs
and clothes and nights out. There's the fact that I don't
believe you'd necessarily have done just the one video.
And then," and here Malcolm lowered his voice, so that
no eavesdropper could hear him, "there's what you're like
in bed."

"In bed? I thought you loved me there best of all. You
said I was the best."

Malcolm sipped his glass of wine. He was clearly
flustered. "You are so much better than any of my other
girlfriends, and admittedly there were not that many
before you, that you're in a league of your own. Some of
the things you do!" Malcolm lowered his voice still
further "Your skill at, you know, fellatio and anal and
fisting and all that. The orgasms you get. And how loud
you shriek when you come! It's just not natural."

"It's because I like sex that I was tempted into making
that video," Sophie protested.

"I don't believe that your boyfriends at the time, or the
ones you've told me about, were likely to give you the
aptitude you've got."

"I'm a natural. I don't need training."

"I'm not stupid, Sophie," Malcolm said with a frown.
"I've seen a few pornos. I'm not totally ignorant. I can see
what you could have got up to. And when we're together
in bed, it's not like I'm with someone who once, from
innocence and greed, was tempted to give the odd
blowjob in front of the camera. It's like I'm with someone
who's done it all and knows all that she ever needs to
know."

Sophie gripped Malcolm's hand tightly in her own. "It
was only the once. You have to believe me."

Malcolm frowned again. He was breathing quite heavily.
The tension from this conversation was upsetting him.
"We're not living together. Yet. We're not committed to
getting married. Yet. But if we do make the next step?"

"I do so want us to, Malcolm," said Sophie with urgency
in her voice and eyes.

"?if we do, we need more trust. We need to be honest
with one another. And I'm not sure we have that."

"Oh, Malcolm. It just takes time!"

"We've been seeing each other for nearly six months now.
I've never ever had such an intense relationship with
anyone as I've had with you. Yet I feel I scarcely know
you at all. You only begrudgingly tell me anything about
your life before I met you. If I hadn't seen the cover of the
video in that second-hand store, would you ever have told
me about Cum Babes International Number 12? How am
I to know you weren't in all previous eleven titles?"

Malcolm was shaking. His wine was mostly untouched
and his gaze was wholly unfocused.

"Why does it upset you so much?" Sophie asked,
squeezing his hand.

Malcolm shook his head. "It just does. It's the trust thing.
I so want it to work for us. You're the best thing in my
life. You mean more than the accountancy firm, the house
in Richmond and everything else. I don't want to lose
you, but I sometimes think there's no choice."

"Don't upset yourself so much. Finish your drink. We can
go for a meal at that Italian restaurant. Or the Thai one.
Come on, love!"

"It's no good!" said Malcolm standing up. He slipped his
jacket back on. "I'm too upset. It's not working this
evening. It's best I leave you. I'll phone you tomorrow."

"You sure?" asked Sophie anxiously, gazing up at
Malcolm as he straightened his tie and slung the bag
holding his laptop over his shoulder.

"I will. Don't worry. It's just, I don't know, anxiety and
everything. I'll ring tomorrow morning."

Almost distractedly, Malcolm pecked Sophie on the
cheek, avoiding the attractions of her slightly opened
mouth, her tongue twitching between the deep red lips
and her perfect white teeth. He then strode off, not even
turning his head back, out of the patio towards the pub
car park where his BMW company car was parked.

Sophie watched him go with a sigh. She decided against
running after him. He needed to calm down and her
previous attempts at comforting him in these situations
had not always been successful. Anyway, she rather
relished the opportunity of sitting alone with her own
thoughts and reflections.

Malcolm would phone back tomorrow. There was no
doubt about it. Sophie understood Malcolm too well after
all these months to have any doubts.

Sophie picked up her glass of wine, regretting at that
moment she'd given up smoking and therefore had no
cigarette to light up to calm her nerves. She sipped her
wine while scanning the other drinkers in the pub patio.
She was glad that her eyes were hidden under the
sunshade. Most of the people here were like Malcolm and
her: couples or groups of men and women, mostly in their
late twenties or early thirties, still in their work clothes
after having finished a day in the office. Ties were pulled
down, sleeves rolled up and jackets laid to one side in
concession to the English summer. Just ahead was a bend
of the River Thames, too narrow in this part of London to
carry more than a few barges and tourist boats. A few
swans paddled by under the shelter of the decorative
shrubs planted at the river's edge.

Then, ambling into the patio, and not seen for so many
years, was Justin, still with Ashley, around whose bare
waist he wrapped a protective arm. The couple was
recognisably the same, despite the intervening years.
Justin was rather less the rake-like figure she once knew.
Clearly, he was eating better than he used to. Perhaps this
was Ashley's influence. She had also filled out a bit.
Rounder shoulders, a fuller waist, but still nothing to be
ashamed of, and a dimple on each elbow.

The first time Sophie met Justin, all those years ago, his
cheeks were much more accentuated and his eyes
betrayed a kind of naked vulnerability. It was in a coffee
shop, one of the countless coffee shops in Wimbledon
where she lived at the time, one where the coffees had
Italian names and the service was painfully slow. She had
just been in the loo as a result of a false alarm. She
washed her hands but, despite all the fruitless straining
and struggling, she still felt the nagging need for a shit.

She looked at her eyes in the loo mirror. The pupils were
still quite tiny and her face had a fatigued expression, as
well it ought since she'd not slept for such a long time.
The drugs were taking ages to wear off. Even though she
was no longer feeling high as such, they hadn't yet
subsided enough for her to need sleep.

It wasn't as if she hadn't been in bed though. It hadn't
taken long for the informal post-shoot party at Lance's
flat to disintegrate into an unplanned orgy. After all,
Heinrich, Natasha, Juanita and the others were all fully
acquainted with each other on the set. After a few drinks,
lines, snorts, spliffs and, in Natasha's case, a surgically-
clean hypo, it seemed the natural way to end the day. So.
Plenty of bed but not a lot of sleep. And didn't she know
it! And her arse knew it most of all.

Sophie knew that when she did finally recover, she'd
sleep for well over her apportioned eight hours. Anyway,
there wasn't another shoot for several days and that would
be a cinch compared to the rim and ring epic in which
she'd been performing the last few days. It would be
nothing but facials. It might leave a nasty taste in the
mouth and the possibility of a stomach ache, but at least
her anus would have time to recover.

When she emerged from the loo, she saw that someone
else was sitting at the table where her mocha was waiting.
She tottered over unsteadily on the impossibly high heels
she still wore and lowered herself into her seat. The heels
added several significant inches to her height, but didn't
disguise the fact that Sophie, like most women in her line
of work, was actually rather short. In her case, only just
over five foot tall. Shortness had the advantage of
enhancing her apparent breast-size. It also made the
attributes of any male co-star seem that much more
splendid than they already were.

Sophie composed herself opposite the man at her table.
He was, of course, the same Justin now looking for a
place to sit in the Black Swan. She reflected that she was
rather overdressed for a coffee shop on a Thursday
morning. She'd dressed for the shoot in a leather jacket, a
tight micro-skirt, and a revealing blouse that was
designed to accentuate her already prominent bosom. Her
long blonde-streaked hair was tied back in an untidy mess
of clips and bows. Huge hoop-like earrings brushed her
shoulders whenever she turned her head.

"Who're you?" she asked Justin in a voice as unsteady as
her posture. "What d'you do?"

Justin nervously introduced himself and explained that he
worked in a technical capacity at a City-based financial
company. He worked shifts, including weekends, which
was why he happened to be off work on a Thursday.

"I'm new to London," he said apologetically, with a
diffident smile that stretched the tight skin of his thin
face. "I don't know that many people."

Sophie nodded her head. She'd not really listened to
Justin with that much attention while scooping yet more
sugar into her already very sweet mocha.

"I bet you can't guess what I do?" she slurred.

"Er? prostitute?" Justin asked, with an apologetic smile.

"Prostitute?" echoed Sophie with alarm.

Fuck! Is that what she looked like? Of course, she'd never
stoop as low as that, although she'd been tempted before
she was sure how much she could make in the porno
business. In those early days, she'd not quite judged how
low she needed to go to subsidise her studies at the
University. That was when she was still a student, of
course.

"No fucking way am I a pro!" Sophie said when she'd
recovered her composure. "I don't know how pissed off I
should be at you for making that suggestion."

"I'm sorry," said Justin, his face reddening from
embarrassment but a warm smile still on his face. "Not
that I'd think any the less of you if you were."

"Really? What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just a job, isn't it? Prostitution. It's nothing to
be ashamed of, is it?"

"Yeah, well," said Sophie, sipping her mocha. "I'm in
films, I am. I'm a fucking film star."

Justin was impressed. "Wow! What films have you been
in?"

"You probably haven't heard of them," said Sophie.

"I don't know. Films are one of my biggest interests. I go
to the cinema two, three times a week. There's not much I
don't know about the movies."

"Oh yeah," sneered Sophie, with a wicked grin. "I bet you
don't go to the cinema to watch Fellowship of the
Rimming, Cunts & Quims Volume Three or The Sex
Fiends."

"Er? No. Are they the sort of films you appear in?"

"Straight to video. No general release. Never likely to
make either the National Film Theatre or the Odeon. You
know the kind of stuff?"

Justin nodded. "Yeah. I do."

"You seen much of it?"

"Not that much. Some. Not a lot. And never in a cinema."

"So, what d'you think, Film Buff Barry? Are they the
kind of movie you'd rate? What d'you think Jonathan
Ross would make of them, eh?"

"Not very high production standards," Justin mused. "At
least, not the ones I've seen. Not very complex plots.
Acting's not up to much. But that's all shit, isn't it? That's
not what the films are about. You can't talk about porno
in the same way as other films, can you? It'd be as stupid
as having a go at Teletubbies for being repetitive. Or
complaining about the special effects in South Park."

Despite herself, Sophie was actually rather enjoying her
chat with Justin. He was trying so hard to be non-
judgmental about what she did for a living. It was quite
sweet, really. And he was a change from the people she
usually hung around with, who were sometimes not really
that bright. It was also good to talk about sex films with
someone who wasn't in the industry. However, her
interest increased when the conversation strayed away
from films to the challenges of living in London and
finding an affordable place to stay.

"Well, money ain't a problem for me," sniffed Sophie,
pulling a cigarette out of its packet. Although this wasn't
the first cigarette she'd had since meeting Justin, she only
now remembered her manners. "Here, you want one?"

Justin hesitated, but then nodded and took the proffered
cigarette.

"You smoke?" Sophie asked as she lit the cigarettes.

"Not really," Justin replied. "Well, not tobacco."

"Dope?"

"Well, yeah. A bit. Not a lot. Sometimes."

"Got any on you now?"

Justin looked around the place with slightly frightened
eyes. He looked down at his now empty cup of Grande
Americano and nodded his head. "Some hash. Only a
couple of grams."

"Well, that's enough, isn't it?" Sophie said with a smile.
"Hey, let's go to the park and roll up. A spliff would set
me up well."

"Would it?" wondered Justin.

And indeed it did.

After an hour chatting on a park bench where the
conversation became mysteriously more amusing as the
influence of the morning spliff took affect, Sophie's
whole day became preoccupied in entertaining her
innocent companion. Sophie was actually rather enjoying
the fact that Justin was someone who didn't work in the
industry and with whom she could talk about other things
than drugs, porno and money. She imagined that if she
had a brother then this would be what it'd be like to spend
a day with him in South West London.

Sophie and Justin wandered around central Wimbledon
sampling the record shops, the department stores, the
clothes and coffee shops, pleased to discover so many
areas of mutual interest. They both liked Radiohead and
the Chemical Brothers. They both thought The Godfather
was the greatest film ever made and that Return of the
King was utter wank. They both enjoyed The Sopranos
and Alan Partridge, but couldn't get a grip on Friends or
Frasier. And neither of them had been to Ibiza, although
they'd both wanted to.

It seemed natural for the day to stretch into the evening,
and, after a meal at Pizza Express and a few pints in the
pub, to wander into a nightclub that Sophie was able to
get in for free. Sophie was rather reluctant to admit to
Justin that this privilege was a result of sexual favours
that, together with Lara and Carol, she'd once granted the
nightclub manager. She wasn't sure where the reluctance
came from. She was open about what she did for a living,
and enjoyed entertaining Justin with accounts of the
embarrassing and amusing incidents of a porn star's life.
What was the difference between discussing the mess
resulting from loose bowels and anal sex, and admitting
that she sometimes used sex to gain entry into generally
exclusive areas? Perhaps it was because she'd have to
admit that her rise through the porn industry involved
sexual promiscuity that did not have the excuse of
providing masturbatory entertainment.

"This is fucking great!" yelled Justin, through the noise
and flashing lights of the nightclub, at Sophie who was
dancing opposite him. "This place is awesome!"

Sophie smiled, as she swivelled on her bare feet. She'd
left her shoes along with her handbag and coat in the
cloakroom. This wasn't the first time that Justin admitted
that his experience of nightclubs hadn't really been
anywhere near the top of the market. And the lines of
speed they shared were helping them enjoy the music and
atmosphere that much more. Sophie wished she had some
E, but she wasn't in the mood for hunting out dealers.

Soon, Sophie and Justin were standing outside the
nightclub. It was a little chilly, but at least it wasn't
raining. Justin had a broad smile on his face.

"Wow! That was a fucking great day!" he enthused. "I
didn't expect anything like this when I went into Costa
Fiorenze this morning. Thanks. I've really enjoyed it."

"It doesn't have to end now, you know," said Sophie with
a smile.

"Well, I've got your number. I can phone you. We can
meet up again some day."

"Don't be fucking soft! I mean we can go back to my
place. I don't live far from here. Just a couple of streets
away."

"For coffee?"

"If you like," said Sophie, with a grin. "But you don't
have to talk fucking euphemisms with me. I'm a fucking
porno film star. I sucked ten men off at once in Cum
Babes International Volume Three. Your cock'll be so
fucking sore you'll have to bandage it for a month."

Justin blushed. At first Sophie thought it was just a trick
of the street lamps. Did people really blush like that? It
actually did change the colour of his skin.

"I don't think I can. Or more to the point, I don't think I
want to."

Sophie was annoyed. "What the fuck you on about? It's a
perfectly reasonable thing to do. Are you a virgin? Or are
you some kind of homo?"

"No, I'm not gay. And I'm not a virgin, either. Though
compared to you, I almost feel I am. No, it's not that. It's
that I do want to see you again, but I don't think it'd work
if I... if I... if I made love to you. I think I'd prefer it if we
were just friends."

"Just friends?"

"Yes. Just friends."

"Have it your own way, then," said Sophie, who was
more annoyed at this sexual rejection than she'd imagined
possible. After all, it wasn't as if Justin was such a great
catch. What could be seen of him wasn't exactly
competition for the male porn stars Sophie was
accustomed to. Gangly, awkward, skinny. Nothing that
would get him past the first audition.

She spun round on her heels and strode off towards her
apartment without turning back her head. The impotent
arsehole didn't know what he was missing. Anyway, the
sleep that Sophie had been denying herself so long was
catching up with her and its prospect was very appealing.

Nevertheless, Sophie was actually rather pleased when
the phone rang a couple of days later and she heard
Justin's voice. She hadn't quite forgotten him and an
evening with Sylvia and her husband, Geoff, had more
than made up for the missed opportunity of sex. She had
rather enjoyed her day with Justin. Perhaps this was what
was lacking in her life: knowing someone who she didn't
fuck or with whom she'd never fucked. Perhaps there was
something in the idea of being just friends with someone.

Sophie was reflecting on the oddness of the situation
when she met Justin at a pub near the cinema where they
were going to see the Cohen Brothers film he'd enthused
about. When was the last time she'd ever met anyone a
second time without having had sex with them? It didn't
matter whether the person was a man or a woman, all her
relationships were predicated on sex. And it didn't matter
whether that sex was in the bedroom or under the harsh
glare of studio lights. It was always sex.

In fact, Sophie was quite pleased at the end of the
evening when she agreed to meet Justin another day and
no mention at all was made of the two of them spending
the night together. How weird! Perhaps that was what
friendships were meant to be like. There weren't many
men she'd spent an evening with and not had sex with.
And most of those were in the days before she had a film
career. These days even her female friends were also her
lovers.

A few weeks later, Sophie felt much more comfortable
with her relationship with Justin. They would chat about
everything. They reminisced on childhood. They shared
jokes and observations. Sophie even let Justin tease her,
which was something she was normally very guarded
about, although he teased her more on her size than on
her source of income. Sometimes, however, Sophie
couldn't help wondering whether Justin was gay and that
was why it was possible for them to maintain a non-
sexual friendship.

Except, of course, that he wasn't gay.

This Sophie was partly convinced of after talking to male
porn stars who also worked in gay movies. Not all of
them did so merely because the money was better. Some
men had a definite preference for male company.

But the real clincher was Ashley.

And here was Ashley, still with Justin all those years
later. It was Ashley, in fact, who spotted Sophie sitting
alone on the patio under the sun, rather hoping that she'd
not be noticed.

"My God! It isn't! It is! Look, Justin! It's Sophie!"

"Goodness me!" said Justin, adjusting his eyes to the
gloom of the shade. "Sophie! How are you? It's been
ages!"

"I'm fine. D'you want to join me, you two?"

"Well, sure, Sophie," said Justin with a smile. "But aren't
you with someone?"

"I was. But not now. Come on! I could do with the
company."

The three of them sat together and exchanged life
histories. Ashley and Justin had both gained promotion
and more responsibility in their own careers and were
very impressed by the huge turn-about in Sophie's career.

"Don't you miss the money and excitement?" Justin
asked.

"Not really. It's not something I'd have been able to keep
up forever. I'm over thirty now, after all."

"Bloody hell!" said Justin, still grinning with evident
pleasure at meeting his old friend again. "So, you are!
Over thirty! Grim, isn't it? Growing old and everything!"
He stood up. "Look, your glass is empty. What do you
want to drink?"

Sophie was then left alone with Ashley while Justin made
his way to the bar. She was relieved that Ashley seemed
genuinely excited to meet her, which was in such acute
contrast to the first time they met all those years ago.
Surprisingly, it was Ashley who was the most
enthusiastic of the couple, eager to fill Sophie in on the
lives of people whom Sophie had never really known that
well and on the benefits of the life of domestic bliss she
and Justin were enjoying. She was especially happy that
Sophie was herself looking forward to settling down with
Malcolm.

It was so different in the Star and Garter when they first
met. Indeed, when she arrived, late as usual, she didn't
expect to see Justin sitting with anyone. Normally when
Sophie met Justin he would be patiently working his way
through a newspaper crossword or playing solitaire on his
PDA. He'd got resigned to Sophie's unreliability, which
was just as well as there were times when Sophie didn't
make the appointment at all.

Today, however, Justin was sitting next to someone else
and a woman at that. Compared to the buxom, peroxided,
heavily made-up women of Sophie's normal
acquaintance, this woman was decidedly plain. Her hair
was short, her clothes were rather ordinary and
functional, and she even wore glasses. She wasn't
unattractive, though. It was just that nothing proclaimed
her beauty in an obvious way.

"This is Ashley," said Justin, who was squeezing the girl's
hand. "We've been seeing each other for about a week
now. And when I said I was going to the pub, she asked if
she could come along. You don't mind, do you, Sophie?"

"Of course not," said Sophie with a barely contained
snarl. "Why should I?"

She sat down on the seat opposite Ashley and glowered at
her while Justin stood up to buy the drinks with the
twenty pound note Sophie forced into his hand.

Ashley was nervous. She smiled shyly.

"So you're Sophie? Justin's friend. He's told me about
you," she said. "Not a lot, but he said you work in the
media."

Sophie pulled a cigarette out of a packet and lit it. There
was nothing about her casual clothes that announced
which aspect of the media she was associated with, but
Sophie didn't intend to leave Ashley uninformed for long.

"Media? Yeah, that's right. Media."

"That must be really exciting."

"It is," agreed Sophie, blowing smoke out of her mouth
and not caring that it got in Ashley's eyes. "Especially if
you like fucking as much as I do."

Ashley swallowed and ruffled her brow. "Sorry? Did you
say??"

"Fucking. That's what I do. Fucking! I'm a fucking porn
star. The real fucking deal. Didn't Justin sweetie tell you?
I fuck for a living and get paid for being filmed doing it.
And you know what?"

"No?" asked Ashley in a low voice.

"I fucking love it! It's fucking great! And Justin didn't say
a word?"

Ashley shook her head and looked distinctly
uncomfortable. Her eyes flew all around the place, partly
towards Sophie and partly towards Justin at the bar. This
was not a situation she wanted to be in.

"Justin didn't say anything?" Sophie persisted.

"He just said the media," said Ashley in a low voice.

"Yeah. I star in porn films. The type you see in basements
in Soho. Busty Babes Eat Each Other. Anal Excursions.
Blow Job Honeys. You ever seen any of them?"

"I can't say I have."

"It's not simulated. It's the real deal. Two cocks front and
back. Spunk all over the face. And most of all, I like
doing girls."

"Girls?" wondered Ashley, looking at alarm at Justin,
who was returning with glasses of beer and wine.

It was Sophie who spoke to Justin as he sat down, clearly
aware from Ashley's face that the conversation wasn't
exactly going well.

"Shame on you, Just," said Sophie. "You never told your
little sweetheart what I do for a living."

Justin bit his lower lip. "I wasn't sure that you'd want me
to."

"Why should I be bothered? It's what I do. And fucking
with girls is what I like doing most. Strap-ons and dildos,
fisting and fingers, I love it. Do you like it, Ashley? Is
that what you'd want to do?"

Ashley looked down nervously at her drink. "I've never
thought about it."

"Y'ought to try it, sweetie," sniffed Sophie. "I can give
you a lesson if you like."

"Lesson?"

"You know. Bit of girl-on-girl. That appeal to you? I
won't charge you."

"Sophie!" Justin blurted. "What's going on? You're not
usually like this! What's got into you?"

"Don't be soft, Just," Sophie continued, blowing out
smoke through her mouth. "Bit of fun never hurt anyone.
What d'you think, Just? You wanna join in?"

"I thought we were friends, Sophie. If I'd known you
were gonna be like this, I'd never?"

"Never what?" Sophie asked with a sneer.

"Never, you know, never have come out to see you this
evening with Ashley."

"What? Would you keep me your dirty little secret, lover
boy?"

"No, it's not that. It's just? it's just?"

"Oh! Don't mind me, Justin. Don't fucking mind me.
What about you, Ashley? What do you think, eh?"

Ashley gripped Justin's hand in hers and glared back at
Sophie. This act of proprietary ownership troubled
Sophie, but she pretended to ignore it.

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know," she answered. She looked at Justin, who
was distinctly uneasy but gripped her hand rather more
tightly than before.

The conversation continued in this vein. Sophie taunted
Justin for his reluctance in telling Ashley what she did for
a living, fantasized what it would be like for Ashley to
have sex with her, and made some unkind comments
about Justin's sexuality.

"In all the time I've known him he's been like some poof.
Is he like that with you, sweetie? Or perhaps he's got no
prick to speak of. Have you and Justin fucked together?"

"What a question!" said Ashley angrily.

"Don't be a prude! You haven't, have you? He's fucking
impotent, isn't he?"

"Well, actually?" began Ashley tentatively, and then she
thought better of what she was about to say. "Look,
Sophie. It's obvious you don't like me. What I do or what
I've done with Justin is really not your business."

"Well, really!" said Sophie affronted.

"Come on, Justin!" Ashley commanded, standing up with
her glass of wine still mostly untouched. "This is not
what I was hoping for when I agreed to come out with
you."

"But I?" said Justin, still holding his pint of beer.

"Leave it!" Ashley commanded. "We'll go to another pub
if it's a beer you want."

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" asked Sophie in mock
sympathy. "Don't you want to know what Justin's friends
are like?"

"That's not it," said Ashley aggressively as she sidled out
of her seat and buttoned up her jacket. "It's not what
Justin's friends are like. It's what you're like. I wasn't
expecting anything like this at all. Justin told me that you
and he were just friends."