"You said you had a proposition for me." Rachel was not concerned about sounding impatient or overly business-like, as long as she covered the delicious unease that she had felt from the moment Amanda had opened the door. "Delicious"? Yes, that was the right word. Amanda had a way of looking at her that made her feel incredibly desirable. What made the feeling uneasy for Rachel was that the gorgeous, statuesque redhead's appetite for her body went beyond the sexual and into the gastronomic.

"Eat first," Amanda said amicably. "Can't I have a pleasant evening with an old friend?"

Rachel could have pointed out that the two of them would hardly be considered old friends, since they had only met once - no, twice, actually. The first time had been when Amanda had caught her in a hunt, made love to her, and then prepared her for slaughter, planning gut her alive (Rachel's idea, actually - Amanda had originally planned to simply cut her throat and let her die first), eat a few of her choicest parts, and then pack her for cold storage and future dining pleasure. The second time had been when Amanda had visited her in the hunting lodge's infirmary, having saved her life after a poacher had shot her. That second meeting was actually very cordial and could have been the start of a friendship if Rachel had not so completely rejected Amanda's overture. Amanda had accepted rejection gracefully and responded thoughtfully to Rachel's questions about the peculiar arousal she felt at the moment she had been about to die. Amanda could have made a wonderful friend, or even more, if not for her practice of hunting and eating people. That was simply too big of an "if not" for Rachel to ignore.

"Just don't serve me anything with people in it." The room was filled with aromas from the kitchen, meaty aromas. Rachel was sure that Amanda would respect her limits, but she wanted to state those limits clearly.

Amanda responded with a mocking, but not unfriendly smile. "As if I would. We're having a South American stew made by my cook. Shall we adjourn to the dining room?"

The stew was quite tasty and the tensions between the two women were pleasantly palpable.

Throughout dinner, Amanda continued to radiate desire - or at least Rachel continued to feel Amanda's desire. It seemed that the huntress had learned to modulate her projections of hunger perfectly. She could make a television interviewer quiver with excitement at the notion that Amanda wanted her, and that excitement was communicated over the airwaves to the viewing millions. Yet, Amanda avoided being scary and that probably made her much more dangerous.

Rachel had been scared, though able to maintain some poise, when the amazon, with no warning, laid her hand on Rachel's shoulder and said in response Rachel asking what would happen next, "Now, I eat you. Unless you want to play a little first." Something about Amanda's easy, matter-of-fact, friendly manner put Rachel at such ease that she felt no fear at all when, a few hours later after preparing a fire, Amanda approached her and said, "Time to get you cleaned and cut off my supper. It's been nice knowing you, Rachel."

Was it an act of kindness that Amanda didn't terrify her prey? Or was it part of a deliberate, sophisticated seduction that made her an even more dangerous predator? Of course, Rachel realized, it could be both.

Not only was Amanda not scary, but she didn't seem malicious; at least Rachel never felt the slightest trace of malice from Amanda. In fact, Amanda went out of her way to tell Rachel how much she liked her and admired her spirit and cleverness. Those same qualities that endeared Rachel to Amanda made Amanda want to eat her all the more.

During the years since their first two meetings, Amanda had extended several invitations to Rachel at irregular intervals which had been politely declined. The huntress's persistence stopped far short of stalking. Now, for reasons of her own, Rachel had finally accepted one of Amanda's invitations and the two women were finally having dinner together, after their first dinner plans had been interrupted. Unlike that original plan, however, this time both women were alive.

Sitting across the expandable dining table from Amanda, Rachel was aware that probably, even though there was no human meat in her portion of stew, someplace in this spacious house - in a refrigerator or freezer or pantry - there was what was left the body of someone (almost certainly a woman) that Amanda had killed. Maybe some of her meat was in Amanda's portion of the stew. Would Amanda do that, eat girlmeat in front of Rachel? Even if Amanda wouldn't trick Rachel into participating in cannibalism, would she derive a bizarre pleasure from making her an unwitting witness to the act?

No, probably not. And, even if she did, what did it matter if Amanda was eating girlmeat now or if she had had some for lunch? Sometimes, Rachel reflected, timing is NOT everything.

Who was the woman whom Amanda was currently eating? Rachel wondered. Had she agreed to be hunted for money or for the thrill or because, like Rachel, she had lost a bet? Was she surprised when Amanda caught her? Had Amanda made her last moments as nice for her as Rachel's intended last moments had been? Did she die an easy death? Did Amanda like her?

What was odd was that Rachel knew Amanda would answer all those questions if asked. But Rachel didn't want to ask. Eat anyone interesting lately? Kill anyone you liked recently?

The truth was, Rachel didn't want to know.

Rachel also knew that Amanda would tell her if she had girlmeat on her plate. But Rachel didn't want to know that, either.

As Rachel watched Amanda eat, she could not help but think, there but for good luck and Amanda's peculiar sense of decorum, go I. As a piece of meat disappeared into Amanda's mouth, Rachel identified with it. What if Amanda were eating my filet? Or my breast? As those thoughts crossed her mind, Rachel actually imagined that she felt a tingle in those areas of her body.

Amanda met Rachel's gaze. Rachel was embarrassed. It seemed that Amanda knew what she was thinking.

The civilized, cultured, charming cannibal seemed to be in a playful mood.

Keeping eye contact with her guest, Amanda smiled and raised another piece of meat to her mouth, but hesitated before inserting it. She opened her mouth and engulfed the meat with her lips, ever so slowly. Then she bit down on the meat and held it between her teeth, curling her lips so that Rachel could have a full view of her teeth sinking into the cooked flesh. Rachel jerked ever so slightly as she felt a tingle as the meat was split by Amanda's incisors. Amanda chewed slowly, half closing her eyes as though transported by the flavor and aroma.

Rachel was perfectly aware that she was encouraging Amanda's show by continuing to watch. Amanda was playing to an audience and sending the message.

Again, Amanda raised her fork and this time, she opened her mouth wide, and placed the meat on her tongue, leaving it there in full view for what amounted to a very pregnant pause before closing her mouth and withdrawing the empty fork.

Rachel, indeed, felt a thrill and realized that Amanda was playing her like a violin.

I've come here for a purpose tonight, Rachel reminded herself. And I won't accomplish that purpose if I just let Amanda dazzle me or play me or dominate me. If I'm going to bring this off - and for her good and mine, I really hope I do - I've got to show her that, somehow, on some level, I can be a match for her. Well, I can play, too.

Rachel looked down into her stew to find a prop of her own. She selected a large slice of onion, stuck her fork into it, cut a radius from the center to the edge with her knife and then raised the slice to her mouth. She caught the outmost ring of the onion in her teeth and began to turn the fork, peeling off the ring and then sucking it into her mouth. She then repeated the performance with each ring until she was down to a one-inch circle which she pulled off the fork in one piece. She maintained eye-contact as consistently as her hostess.

Amanda barely betrayed her surprise at Rachel rising to the occasion as she did. Amanda did react a bit more visibly at Rachel's consumption of a carrot in a manner that might have earned the scene a "restricted" rating from a film review board.

Rachel soon decided, however, that her tactics weren't quite appropriate. Amanda wouldn't fully understand the significance of pealing away the layers of onion until later in the evening and, in any event, she wanted to more clearly send the message that she was not intimidated by Amanda and her appetites.

"Amanda," she said, with a coy smile, "would you like to eat some of my meat?"

"Beg pardon?" Amanda did not choke.

"I'm not a vegetarian, but your cook is used to satisfying your appetites and has been overly generous with me. I can tell that you are enjoying your dinner very much, and I really dislike the idea of seeing this meat just sit here neglected when you could put it to such excellent use."

"You're a very thoughtful guest, Rache. Here, I'll pass my plate to you and you can give me whatever you can spare."

"Oh, no," said Rachel, getting up from her seat. "Let me bring my plate to you."

Rachel was wearing a sweater with a plunging neckline and, as she bent over to offer her plate to Amanda, significant cleavage was revealed.

"Do you see anything you would like to sink your teeth into, Amanda?"

The smiling carnivore looked her guest in the eye and said, "My, what a generous offering you make, Rachel," and let her eyes trail slowly down to the plate Rachel held, not allowing them to linger at the neckline. She very carefully made her selections, speared them with a fork, and pushed them on to her own plate with a knife. "Thank you, Rachel. I am satisfied."

"It has been my pleasure to do so." Rachel stood up straight and began to return to her seat, swaying her hips just a bit more than necessary. She stopped just short of sitting down, turned and said, "Oh, Amanda! You've left one of the very best portions! I can't imagine you passing up a good piece." She picked up her fork and approached Amanda again.

"Here." Rachel stuck he fork into a piece of meat and raised it to Amanda's mouth. "Open wide." When Amanda complied, Rachel carefully placed the fork in her mouth, laid the meat on her tongue, and told her, "There. You can close your mouth now." Rachel slid the fork from between Amanda's lips and smiled warmly. "Chew your food thoroughly." With that piece of advice, she returned to her seat, again sashaying provocatively.

The two women faced each other, this time, each of them smiling slyly.

What they had just performed had not been a contest; it was communication.

When they had finished dinner - and they both cleaned their plates - they withdrew to the living room. Amanda poured them each a glass of wine and put on some soft music that would not overwhelm the conversation. They both sat, not side by side on the couch, but each in her own easy chair and Amanda began to tell Rachel about the proposition she had in mind.

"My agent was contacted by a television producer who feels that he has come up with the ideal vehicle that would showcase my, uh, talents - and my breath-takingly beautiful body - and would capitalize on my, well, renown, my fame, my public persona." There was just a slight hint of self-mockery in Amanda's voice.

"I'm glad to hear it." Rachel really meant that - she wished Amanda well in her career. But what did have to do with her?

"It's a sword and sandal adventure series. A sort of female 'buddy' show, as they might all it in the States. Lots of bare-midriffs and choreographed fight scenes."

"You would be excellent in a role like that."

"Yes, well, straining my modesty to the absolute limit, I'm forced to agree with you. However, there is a bit of a problem."

"Which is?"

"Well, in order for it to be a 'buddy' show, I need a buddy. The problem is that there is some difficulty finding an actress willing to play Gabrielle to my Xena, or drag-Damon to my drag-Pythius. No actress is interested in the project."

"Do you suppose that has anything to do with the fact that you've been known to kill and eat your co-star?" Rachel could not keep the sarcasm completely out of her voice.

"That only happened once," Amanda said, "and Carol knew exactly what she had signed up for. And, actually, I think she rather got into it. Of course, she would have preferred an outcome that would have left her available for a sequel, but, as you know, I do have a way of, shall we say, making difficult transitions acceptable."

"Yes, I remember." With fondness, Rachel might have added.

Amanda fell into dark humor. "I mean, is it fair? You spit roast one starlet alive on camera and suddenly you find yourself boycotted" - she made a quizzical moue - "or should that be girlcotted? - by your fellow lesbians - I mean, thespians. Isn't it odd that male thespians are assumed to be gay but females aren't? But I digress."

"Yes, people do tend to be judgmental where death and cannibalism are concerned." Rachel tried to adopt Amanda's wry attitude and delivery.

"Anyway, I was thinking of women that I know who are attractive and who have some athletic capabilities and who might present a nice contrast to me on screen in size, coloring, and mannerisms. It might even be nice to find a woman who knows that I am capable of NOT killing. Someone who knows that I do have a kinder, gentler side - even if it only comes out under very special circumstances. Maybe even someone who has seen me at what most people would regard as... my best."

Rachel didn't know whether to be disconcerted or relieved that Amanda had not asked why, after declining for so long, Rachel had finally accepted an invitation to dinner. Why this lack of curiosity? Maybe Amanda was being polite and nonintrusive. Maybe she didn't care. Maybe she already knew - in that documentary/horror flick/snuff film where she roasted that actress Carol, Amanda certainly seemed capable of reading minds. Somehow, Rachel didn't think Amanda would intrude on her like that, but, well, she was Amanda and, therefore, unpredictable.

It was probably just as well Amanda hadn't asked, because Rachel wasn't sure how to answer. It wasn't that there weren't plenty of answers. It was a problem of which one to give first.

There was definitely something akin to a feeling of indebtedness. Amanda had done some very nice things for Rachel and, while Rachel didn't exactly feel that she "owed" Amanda anything, she wanted to do something nice in return.

Rachel didn't like to say that she owed her life to Amanda. Nobody would want to be in Amanda's accounts receivable column. But it was true that Amanda had not only refrained from killing and eating her when she had had a prefect right to, but the Amazon huntress had gone to extraordinary lengths to save her life. Because she had been unconscious, Rachel had no memory of anything from the time her abdomen was ripped by a poacher's bullet until she awoke in the hunting lodge's infirmary. After her recovery, Rachel had gone back and walked the distance between the lodge and the clearing where Amanda had been about to gut her as she hung upside down from a branch. Having been told the extent of her injuries and how quickly she could have bled to death, even with the field dressing Amanda had applied to her wound, Rachel found it incredible that Amanda could have covered the distance in time to save her. Rachel could visualize Amanda running naked, her beautiful red hair streaming behind her, carrying her dying burden through the darkness. It was as though some Amanda had tapped into some extraordinary source of power.

A simple "thank you" is not an adequate response to what Amanda had done - and NOT done - that night. But that was all Rachel had ever given her. She had turned down Amanda's overture for a continuing relationship based on almost any terms Rachel would ask for. And Amanda had done nothing to make Rachel feel guilty about her rather cold refusal.

That was the part that really touched Rachel's heart: Amanda's nobility in the face of rejection. Someone else in Amanda's position might have said, "Hey, I saved your life. The least you could do is go out and have a drink with me." Amanda was above that sort of manipulation.

And that was why she could never let Amanda think she had accepted her invitation out of guilt or a sense of indebtedness.

Although saving Rachel's life might have been the most obvious thing Amanda had done for her, that was only the beginning of the benefits Rachel had derived from knowing the huntress.

Amanda, on the day of the hunt, had made Rachel feel more desired than she had ever felt in her life. Of course, Amanda's desires included killing and eating her, making Rachel a part of herself. Yet, somehow Rachel sensed that Amanda never wanted to victimize her. At least, Rachel never felt like Amanda's victim. She felt like Amanda's... prize? She felt cherished, even when - especially when - Amanda had been about to kill her.

Amanda had cared about her life passionately, both when she wanted to take it and when she wanted to save it.

In this respect, Amanda was so, so different from the so-called "friends" who had got Rachel into the hunt in the first place through their little game of chance.

When Rachel returned home, of course, she was greeted with "Welcome back" and "Glad you made it." But it was not the heartiest welcome she had ever received. In fact, she felt that some people were disappointed at her survival. They would not be able to tell, in later years, the anecdote of how "when I was younger, the group I ran with really did some crazy things. Once we had this drawing, a sort of game of dares. Now, the gal who lost, Rachel Johnson - no, Rachel Jones - she actually didn't want to play at all; we had to sort of shame her into it by teasing her about only being young once - she had a hang up about growing old. Well, anyway, she wound up being dinner for Amanda Blake, the people hunter. Yeah, I tell you, that was the closest I ever came to death. If poor Rache hadn't have drawn the short straw, it might be my head on Amanda's wall - or wherever she keeps them."

No, Rachel had survived and her "friends" would not have the vicarious thrill that her death would have provided them. With "friends" like that, a cannibalistic Amazon who frankly says, "I'm going to eat you," can be almost refreshing.

Only two people from the group actually apologized later for having been a part of the game. One, a woman who was now engaged in stem-cell research, had told Rachel that, considering her career was a matter of saving the lives of strangers, the fact that she had been a part of a game that had nearly caused the death of one of her closest friends was a source of irony and regret. She said she was glad Rachel had lived so that someday there might be a chance to make amends. The other apologetic person was a very junior associate in a law firm. One day, while explaining how informal contracts can have serious consequences, he had cited Rachel as an example. In the course of his explanation, he had realized what an incredibly stupid, thoughtless, callous thing had happened and he called Rachel immediately to tell her how sorry he was that he had ever been a part of it.

Other than those two people, Rachel never got so much as a holiday card from the "friends" who had cajoled her into jeopardizing her life. Since the whole affair, though, she had not worried so much about being thought "prematurely middle-aged."

Amanda, for all of her disturbing qualities, was at least genuine in her feelings.

Really, Rachel thought, it was probably better to be an object of Amanda's desire, either as food or as a lover (could it be the same thing to Amanda?), than the object of indifference that she apparently was to her "friends."

How would Amanda react if Rachel told her that? Rachel wasn't ready to find out.

Then, beyond saving her life and giving her some kind of lesson in values, there was also the matter of the way Amanda had affected her as a sexual being.

First of all, Amanda had shown Rachel that a penis is not the most important requirement in a lover. Rachel had had plenty of opportunities offered her in college to pick up that insight. However, in what were supposed to have been Rachel's final hours, Amanda had presented her with a "now or never" offer that, in the following years, Rachel had been extremely glad that she had accepted. It wasn't that Rachel began bouncing between genders like a tennis ball in a doubles match, but she did take advantage of her newly broadened perspective to investigate possibilities that the pre-Amanda Rachel would never have considered.

This increased flexibility had not led to happiness in a long-term relationship for Rachel, however. Ironically, this was, in part, due to Amanda's second influence on her sexual life.

The moments before the death from which she had been spared by the poacher's bullet had been the most sexually intense of Rachel's life. Hanging by her ankles, her face buried in Amanda's womanhood, thrusting her belly up to receive Amanda's knife, Rachel's excitement had been so overwhelming that all fear and regret had left her; she was entirely possessed by erotic arousal. Had Amanda plunged the knife in as planned, Rachel would have never come down from her sexual high, but would have drifted out of life on a wave of bliss so all-consuming that the fact that she was dying might have been barely noted by her conscious mind.

Having once attained that sexual high, other experiences, no matter how attractive or competent her partner might be, suffered by comparison. Rachel strove to avoid making those comparisons without total success. What she had had with Amanda was intended to be, because of the timing, a once in a lifetime thing. So, no, that exact feeling could not be recreated with any other lover. But the memory of the events that led up to those feelings were forever a part of Rachel's awareness and she often made use of them.

Rachel had always been multi-orgasmic - once she experienced the first orgasm.

Getting that first big O could be a real trick for her and for her lover.

Rachel never wanted her partners to feel incompetent and so, as much for their sake as her own (at least, she was pretty sure it was for mutual benefit), Rachel often would call up the memories of her night with Amanda. Mentally, she would put herself back in the woods, about to be slain, slaughtered, and eaten. A ravenous beast/goddess/lover was about to kill her and ingest her substance. She was offering herself to be taken without resistence, to be expelled from life for the pleasure of another. She was going to become meat - dead meat, tasty meat, sought-after meat.

Once she had that image in mind, the floodgates would open and her lover would feel the satisfaction of seeing Rachel climax.

The problem was that, in this visualization, Rachel cast her lover, of course, in the role of Amanda.

Now, Rachel never said to any of her lovers, "Hey, I got off by thinking of you as a blood-thirsty lesbian cannibal." This would not have gone down with the males at all well, and most of the females would not have appreciated it much, either.

So, Rachel kept this secret to herself. What was the harm, if no one knew?

Then, one morning, after a night of love-making with a sweet, gentle woman named Libby, Rachel had awoken to find Libby making breakfast for them, humming to herself.

Libby, literally, would not hurt a fly. Rachel had watched Libby spend five minutes once herding a fly out through an open window rather than kill it.

Rachel was disgusted with herself for having put Libby in the role of a killer who ate her victims. That was the start of Rachel's realization that she was being incredibly unfair to her lovers.

Rachel mitigated her self-criticism by assuring herself that very few people could swear that they never fantasized about someone else in order to please themselves and their lovers. On the other hand, fantasizing about a killer who ate her victims probably placed her in an even smaller minority.

In spite of those moral considerations, Rachel did not stop fantasizing about Amanda. If it works, use it! A very practical approach.

So, if Rachel were to make a list of things that Amanda had done for her, the result would look like this::

A) Amanda had saved her life

B) Having been the object of Amanda's intense interest in her, both as a lover/dinner entree and someone in need of rescuing, had helped Rachel realize the shallowness of the so-called friends for whose amusement she had risked her life.

C) Amanda had introduced her to the sexual pleasures to be found with members of her own gender.

D) The erotic memories of Amanda were so powerful that accessing them would give an almost instant orgasm on command, even if it entailed some guilt.

And then...

Rachel was sure that there was also something else. An E) for the list.

What was that?

Rachel didn't know.

Why, then was she so sure that there was something that she was overlooking?

Well, there were the dreams.

Now, the dreams could be seen as the chicken that sprung from the egg of nagging certainty that she was overlooking something.

Or it could be the other way around.

Of course, Rachel knew it would be irrational to consider that the dreams had any source other than her own subconscious. Knowing that did not help much, because if they were from her SUB-conscious, then, by definition, they were inaccessible to her control. She could not grab the dream figures and shake them and make them answer "What the hell are you talking about?"

One dream figure was Carol, the actress Amanda had spitted on camera for the world to see.

In the dreams, Carol might say, "Amanda killed me, yes. Did I want her to? No. Did I give informed consent that allowed her to? Of course. Do I hate Amanda for what she did? No, because Amanda, whether she did it for me or not, took revenge on the people who put me where I was. And she let me know before I died that she had done that. She may have done what she did to the film crew for her own reasons, but telling me about it was just plain nice of her. Amanda does good things for people and it shouldn't matter to them whether it's intensional or not. Amanda has done even more for you than you realize."

Rachel would ask dream-Carol what that was and, if she ever got an answer, she never remembered it upon waking.

Other figures that Rachel did not recognize might appear, but only one seemed hostile: a dark-haired, well-muscled woman who spoke with a snarl. Not only was this woman's attitude distinctive, but her topic of conversation was different. Her message might be, "Hey, because of what Mandy did to me, she is definitely off my list of favorite people, to put it mildly. Okay, to be fair, all she did was put my life in the hands of people who were supposed to be my friends and they decided to kill and eat me. So, I suppose I'm mostly to blame for what happened to me because I should have picked my friends better. Hey, I guess that means you and me got something in common! Anyway, I get the idea that you want to do something for Mandy. Now, I've got the inside track on what would really make Mandy a happy camper and it's something that I think you could handle. Yeah, I think you could probably give Mandy just what she wants most in the world. Thing is, I'm not going to tell you what it is. Ha! Ain't I a bitch?"

Even the unfamiliar figures could have come from Rachel's own subconscious: she had heard many tales of Amanda's hunts. Could they be spirits of the dead? Rachel couldn't prove they weren't, but that didn't help one way or the other. Could they be thought forms that Amanda had created to lure Rachel back to her? Rachel couldn't be sure that they weren't, even though she doubted Amanda would pull something like that on her. If Amanda had that kind of power and was willing to use it, well, Rachel thought, I'm a dead duck anyway.

What made the situation with Amanda even more complex was that there were things about her that Rachel liked very much; Rachel wasn't prepared to characterize the feeling in any stronger terms. There was something endearing about the way Amanda had accepted rejection with quiet dignity. Rachel suspected that Amanda was no stranger to rejection. The powerful, intelligent, beautiful, sensuous woman had so much to offer, and yet, there was much about her that made a prudent person want to keep her distance. Leaving aside all of the special considerations about Amanda's hunting, the fact was that Amanda had such a strong personality that most people would be afraid of being run over in a relationship with her. That was probably unfair; Amanda was perfectly capable of being kind and respectful and considerate. Of course, those were not the first terms that came to mind when one saw her outfitted for a hunt.

Rachel had considered the possibility of simply being Amanda's friend. She wondered if Amanda had any friends at all. But the feelings between them seemed too intense for simple friendship - at least, it seemed that way to Rachel. And she had horrible visions of the consequences for either or both of them if she opened her heart further than friendship to Amanda.

The dilemma Rachel was twisting on had its horns deep into her where it hurt the most.

She wouldn't feel right until she had done something for Amanda. Amanda done a lot for her and she had done nothing for Amanda. Amanda probably didn't expect anything and, somehow, that made Rachel want to do something for her even more.

Yet, Amanda, being who she was, seemed an almost impossible person to do anything for - anything that would have meaning. Not only was Amanda probably the most self-sufficient person Rachel had ever met, but Rachel really didn't want to convey to Amanda that she approved of what the huntress did: killing and eating women, no matter how tenderly or erotically one did it, was NOT okay as far as Rachel was concerned. Rachel had no idea why Amanda did what she did, but she was certain that the motivation was so strong that Amanda would never change.

It occurred to Rachel that she could simply ask Amanda why she hunted people, but for some reason that she couldn't define, she was afraid to be so simple and direct.

There should be a way for Rachel to let Amanda know that she cared about her, without implying approval.

Rachel finally hit upon a plan. She would make Amanda a very attractive offer, but she would attach a condition to it that would make it almost certain to be rejected. Rachel could use the occasion of presenting the offer to make a few points about why she disapproved of people hunting, including what she felt were some real inequities in the rules. Rachel had no illusions that she could persuade Amanda to agree with her, but at least she would be able to speak her mind.

It would also give her a chance to show that she was not indifferent to Amanda. Rachel had the feeling that if the two of them worked together on finding a way that they could relate to each other, they would arrive at something workable. This would provide a means of opening a dialog.

Rachel had carefully formulated her proposal and waited for Amanda to extend another invitation.

That moment had come. That was why Rachel had accepted the invitation to dinner.