“I feel sooooooooo bad. I really feel horrible. Is there any way I can make it up to you? Can I take you out to dinner or something? Please. Let me take you out to dinner.”

I was kneeling on his floor with a bloody nose, swollen lips, and a couple of cute cuts. (They were cute -small and very happy to be alive and bleeding.)

“I don’t even have anything here. Let me see if the neighbors are home so I can get some ice.”

He was right. He didn’t have anything there. He had just moved in. It was only us in his big empty house with electricity.

For the past two hours I had been hauling samples from my car through his backyard and into his patio door. I was having a hard time guiding the guy and made multiple trips. After the first three I stopped closing the door.

I was there long enough to watch the sunset. The backyard turned dark. He decided to close the door. I had stopped looking up six trips ago.