It was Friday night. Typically that meant dinner with the family at a restaurant and a trip to the movies, but since Andy caught the shrinking disease, they'd been dining in and playing cards. Despite the break in routine because of his reduced size, it felt like old times, just the three of them.

Saturday Andy spent the day with Alecia, generally avoiding Kimberly. They had acted cautiously around each other since the close call the day before. For his part, Andy didn't know what came next for them. Could he control himself around her? Could SHE control herself around him? He had been in the grips of such maddening lust, he was capable of lapsing back into it at any time, if Kimberly were to repeat her couch tactics or something equally devastating. He knew if something like that happened again, it was only a matter of time before he answered her flesh with his. And that frightened him.

The situation reminded Andy of how he started learning about girls in his late teens. Before he met Alecia, sometimes there was a certain girl in his life whom he was infatuated with. He would be recklessly in love with her one day, with the Wedding March playing in his head, and he would hate her guts the next day, if she had done something—anything—that signaled disinterest. He recognized a similar dynamic with Kimberly. He had to have her or he had to have nothing to do with her. There was no in-between.

Saturday night, with both girls out of the house, Andy and Alecia had a grown-up talk.

"Kim told me what happened on the couch yesterday," she opened.

Andy blinked. Uh-oh. What had Kimberly told her? How much did she tell? "What do you mean?" he said, playing dumb.

"Andy! She almost crushed you."

"Oh, yeah." Twice, he didn't say, and the second time was deliberate. Kimberly must have prudently left out those details.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He shrugged. "I guess I was embarrassed."

"Andy, you need to take this seriously. You need to factor your new size into your decisions. This shrinking thing is going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

Andy didn't like her condescending tone. "What do you want me to do, Alecia? Stay off the couch? Avoid normal-sized people for the next 2 months?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Staying off the couch is a start. And I think it's time we find a new place for you to sleep. All it would take is for me to roll over in my sleep and you'd be dead."

He looked around the bedroom. "Like where?"

"I was thinking I'd get Brooke's crib out of the attic—"

"A crib?! I'm not a child, Alecia!"

Her voice was stern and guttural, suppressing anger. "You need a child's protections, dear, if we're going to keep you safe."

He tried to imagine how sleeping in a crib would play out. "Assuming I go along with the crib idea, how would I go the bathroom at night?"

"Pretty soon you won't be able to go to the bathroom on your own. Get it?"

She had a point, and it unsettled Andy deeply. In the future he would be dependent on others for EVERYTHING, even to take a leak.

"We can try it," he said defeatedly.

"That brings me to something else. About Kim. I think we're very lucky to have her help around here."

Andy stared at her as if she was speaking an alien language. "Huh?"

"Hear me out before you say anything. I think it's a blessing in disguise that her parents kicked her out. She can stay here and take care of you while Brooke and me are at work." She paused to register his reaction. "I know we told her she could stay until she found an apartment, but I want to ask her to stay with us—until you can take care of yourself."

Andy couldn't believe it. It was the perfect solution to their problem. How could he say no? What reason could he give? She can't stay, honey, she's too sexy, I don't trust myself around her. Yeah, right.

Andy's mind lit on the couch incident. "But she's a total klutz. She almost killed me on the couch."

"Kim assures me she learned her lesson and she'll be more careful. Frankly, that you've already had a close call makes me confident she'll be extra careful around you."

Andy sat before his wife, dumbstruck. His wife was telling him that the girl with the flawless skin and the 38F+ breasts and the legs of a thoroughbred, the girl who effortlessly dominated his thoughts, HAD to stay with them. Alecia must look at Kim and still see the 12 year-old girl Brooke invited over to play, Andy thought. Which was plausible. Until a few weeks ago, he didn't see Kimberly any differently than his wife did.

"Hey," Alecia tilted Andy's chin so he was looking up at her. "I know it seems like you can get along on your own now, but you're going to get a LOT smaller. You still have 40 percent of the height you started with. The doctor said you won't start to recover until you get down to between 1 and 3 percent of your original height. Won't you be glad to have Kimberly around then?"

The image of Kimberly literally holding him in the palm of her hand, eyeing him like a piece of candy, flashed in Andy's mind. He shrugged it off. "I bet if we asked Brooke to quit her job to stay home with me, she would."

Alecia pursed her lips. "Brooke wants to pay for a new car. We decided as a family that's what she'd work towards over the summer before going to college."

"Dammit, then the plan should change! Look at me!"

Alecia stayed calm. "With Kimberly working nights at Twin Peaks—" She shook her head in mild disgust. "—we know someone capable will be here in the morning and afternoon when you need them."

Andy was dejected. It sounded like Alecia had worked all of this out on her own. When did he lose his say in the arrangements? When I became an insignificant pipsqueak, he thought.

"Are we in agreement?" she asked.

Andy accepted his powerlessness over the situation. "Yeah."

"Good." She sighed. "That brings me to the hardest part." She took his small hands in hers.

Oh boy, what next?

"The law firm I'm working for has a hearing in Virginia starting the week after next. A government client is going on trial in federal court. They want me come."

The hits, they just kept on coming. "But you just started a week ago."

"I told the partners my reservations, and they heard me out. They offered me a raise."

Andy's ears perked up. "Really? How much?"

"I'll be making double my salary while traveling, plus travel expenses and a $1,000 bonus if they win the case."

Andy scratched his head. "Wow."

"I know. What do you think?"

Andy's mind turned. "How long will you be gone?"

"Sunday afternoon to Friday night. Maybe Thursday night, but that's a long shot.

"Sunday to Friday," Andy said. "So I'll be about 16 inches tall when you leave—"

"And 10 inches when I get back on Friday."

He nodded. "I… think the girls can manage that."

"Forget the girls. Can YOU handle it?"

Andy shuddered. He felt very lonely all of a sudden. He touched her long, warm leg, which was tucked underneath her.

"I think so."

"I love you." She leaned over and kissed him on top of the head.

"I love you, too. Alecia?"

"Yeah."

"We're gonna make it through this."

She kissed him again. "I know."

After midnight Sunday night, Kimberly arrived home from work, exhausted. It had been a long night serving drinks to rowdy men and getting ogled every second and occasionally hit on. But the tips were really good. Tonight she had finally made enough money to afford a deposit and first month's rent on a single-bedroom apartment.

On her way to the stairs, she found Alecia asleep on the couch in the living room, curled up underneath a blanket, the bright TV screen lighting up the room. Kimberly stepped quietly towards her and noticed dried tears on her cheeks.

She turned towards the TV. On the screen a 23 year-old Andy was playing with his infant daughter Brooke on a bed. He was dressed as if he'd just gotten home from work, his shirtsleeves rolled up his muscle-corded forearms and the tie around his neck loosened.

He looks the same as he does now, Kimberly thought. A little slimmer, perhaps. A little paler. But the same.

On screen, Andy was sitting Brooke on the bed, then letting go to see how long she could stay up before falling over. Kimberly heard Alecia's laughter play through the TV speakers. She must have been behind the camera. 23 year-old Andy let go of his daughter and waited, but she remained upright, smiling at her dad. Andy pushed the bed down in front of her, and Brooke fell forward onto her face.

Kimberly giggled, but the younger Alecia in the home movie wasn't happy. "Andy!" she admonished.

"What I would give to relive those days."

Kimberly was pulled out of the home movie and back into the living room. She turned and saw Alecia was awake.

"Sorry, Mrs. Speed. I'll leave you alone."

"No. Stay. Sit." She patted the seat cushion next to her. Kimberly sat down, felt Alecia's eyes flit to her chest, and she awkwardly trying to cover herself in her barely-there Twin Peaks uniform.

Alicia passed the blanket to her. "Seems like yesterday Brooke was learning to sit up. Children grow up so fast. You'll learn when you have children of your own. Andy and I planned to have more kids after Brooke, but…" Her voice trailed off. A fresh tear rolled down her cheek.

"Mrs. Speed?" Kimberly said. Alecia met her eyes. "Mr. Speed is going to be just fine. By the end of the summer, you'll forget any of this had happened. Everything will be back to the way it was."

As she said the words, Kimberly felt sadness in her heart. Did she want things to go back to normal, before these… possibilities—for lack of a better word—opened up between her and Andy?

Alecia smiled tenderly. "That's sweet of you, Kim. But I don't think things will be the same again. Brooke is going to college. We'll be empty nesters soon." She wiped her face. "God, I didn't think I'd feel so old at 39."

Kimberly sat still, said nothing.

"You've grown up fast, too," Alecia said. "If it were any other girl working at… THAT place, I'd tell her she was out of her mind. But I know who you are, Kim. I know who your parents raised. They know, too. They're just scared for you. There's a lot of traps the world sets for girls like you, which is why your parents set boundaries. Those boundaries are practical, even if they don't seem fair. For most girls, a job that calls that kind of attention to themselves is a mistake. Not for you. If there's a girl who can manage attention without compromising herself, it's you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Speed."

She patted Kimberly's leg. "Andy and I have talked it over, and we want to invite you to stay with us. For Andy."

It took a moment for the offer to sink in. "You mean live here?" she asked.

Alecia nodded. "Rent-free. For the next 2 months or so. You've shown great patience and tenderness to Andy these past few days, way more than I would expect from a girl your age. When this shrinking thing started, I thought Brooke and I could handle it ourselves. But now I can't imagine doing it without you."

Kimberly was overwhelmed with guilt. Whoever this virtuous, trustworthy girl Alecia was describing, it wasn't her. She was a girl who lied to her parents and got kicked out of the house. She was a girl who took money from men to indulge their weakness for flesh. She was a girl who basically tried to seduce her best friend's dad, using his disease to fulfill a schoolgirl fantasy. What kind of person uses another's disease to their advantage?

"Mrs. Speed, I don't deserve the trust you're putting in me…"

Alecia's bottom lip quivered. Kimberly hesitated, realizing Alecia hadn't considered she might say no.

Alecia reached out and touched her hand. "Please, Kim. We need you."

Kimberly's heart was touched. It was like God's grace. She didn't deserve this chance, but it was being given to her anyway. She knew from experience she couldn't be trusted. But by receiving the gift of Alecia's trust, she would find it in herself to serve in a manner deserving of her trust.

"I'll try not to let you down, Mrs. Speed."

Alecia held Kimberly's shoulders and looked at her fondly before pulling her into a hug. She stifled a sob. "I know you won't Kim. Thank you."

Alecia looked at her again, a look of great warmth and pride. She let go of Kimberly's shoulders and stood up. She walked to the TV to turn it off.

"Andy has an appointment with the shrinking specialist tomorrow at 10. Use the car seat in the garage."

"Yes, Mrs. Speed. Good night."