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ninety-nine rejections coming first. Now, here we.are. You sit down next
to Liz, I'll sit down next to Marie. We'll take it nice and slow."

I was a hopeless idiot at this point. I had no idea what was
going on, except that Troy was forcing me into a situation I was very
uncomfortable with.

"Hello ladies;' Troy said, taking a seat right next to Marie.
Following his lead, I sat beside Liz, making sure to keep a person's width
of distance between us so as to not be too conspicuous. "How's lunch
going?"

"This is the worst turkey ever;' Marie said. "I don't think I can
eat it."

"Oh, it's not so bad;' said Liz. "What do you think, Billy?"

Iwas not in a position to speak. My tongue inflated within my
mouth.

"It's ...turkley ...turkey, damnit ...how bad ...can it be?" I man-
aged to stammer out. I felt my ears growing hot. My hands were visibly
shaking. Liz's small, perky handfuls of breast looked great that day. She
giggled, obviously amused at my use of the word "rurkley"

"Oh, it's pretty bad, BD;' said Marie.

Fuck. T-Dave and Iexchanged glances across the table. Fuck
fuck fuck. She used the nickname. FU CK. My chances at getting laid
are done for. Fucking shit, fuck, fuck, fuck fuck fuck, fuck me, goddamn
it, fuck me with a rake. The business end, if you please. Fucking fuck.

"BD?" asked Liz, clearly out of the loop on something.
"What's that? Is that some kind of nickname?"

"Oh, you know;' I said, trying to cover it up and talking loudly,
so neither Marie nor Troy would feel inclined to interrupt. "Just my ini-
tials. Billy Daniels? You know ..." I struggled to show her a grin. It must
have looked pained. Her brow furrowed.

"But your name is Billy McCallister;' Liz answered. Damnit,
she's not as dumb as Ithought she was!

"You don't know, Liz?" asked Marie, an unpleasantly-sardonic
rictus crawling across her face like some little piece-of-shit squirrel
crawling across a very sexy tree-trunk. "You don't know about BD?

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