Chapter 173

NOVEMBER 2014

There I was, two years after the death of my wife, rethinking that thing about my lack of need for a partner or sex.

I was sorry, of course. Johanna attracted me on many levels; why deny it.

She was a very good friend, we had a good time when we met. I liked her smell. Her voice relaxed me. I liked what I saw; that must be said too. She was not a statuesque beauty, but she was quite a pretty woman and had large breasts, a detail that attracted me greatly. I could understand why that hateful panther had become infatuated with her. There was something in her eyes, in the way she smiled, in her ability to elicit information from me, in how calm I felt when she was around. Something that called me.

But still, it took me some work to understand that this way, step by step, I had ended up falling in love with her. It started as a silly wish that her hand would slide a few inches closer to mine and brush against me. Of moving her face when I leaned ove