he howled, in a whisper loud enough to turn a few neighboring heads.“I thought so too. After the third week without hearing from you, I began to wonder, of course...” That was my sole excuse.“So you've been dating only the last three weeks?"“That depends on what you call dating."“I call going out with another guy dating."“I just went to college functions. Concerts, lectures, out for coffee...” His tense face relaxed noticeably. In a small voice, I added, “Dances."“Dances!"“Dance—one dance."A foursome of college classmates chose that most inauspicious of moments to spot me and stop for a chat. “Oh, your dad's spending Christmas with you!” Tillie Jeffreys exclaimed, smiling politely at John, before I got around to introducing them. It was that slightly receding hairline that fooled her. Of course she's not hard to fool. I worked a few years before going to college, and I'm older than a lot of the students, but younger than John.Things went downhill from there. My friends reminded me of the Christmas formal, and bragged about how much they had drunk, and how late they got home.
