Somehow the topic had turned to home owner associations, and she started to complain about them, before I could stop her. The thing was, that my client was the president of one.

"They've got the most asinine rules. A friend of mine, who's got her husband,a member of the reserves,in Iraq is getting fined for having the American flag on her window. She's now got a lien on her house for being supportive of him."

"The rules you call asinine are for the good of all." my client said neutrally. "Have you ever owned a home?"

"Okay...so you wanna keep property values up, but power corrupts. Power is like cocaine. The people in charge of the HOAs..."

I pretended to choke on my food so that she wouldn't finish her thought...I agreed with her, but now wasn't the time to discuss this issue...

"Babe?" she looked worried, and by her posture, I could tell that she was ready to do the hemlich.

"Fine..." I said after a few more fake coughs.

"You okay?" Georgina asked.

"Something went down the wrong pipe.." I shrugged and drank some wine.

Deftly, I changed the subject, not really blaming Nat, as she didn't know that he was the president of an HOA.

99999999999999999999999999999999

After what seemed like a long time, dinner finally ended, so Alan and I could finally go home. In the car I made my apologies. I really felt bad about what had happened!What was it with me, and rubbing people the wrong way? I had realized, after some thinking over dinner, that maybe bad mouthing anything wasn't the best of ideas.

"Don't worry!" he assured me. "There was no way you could know that he was the president of an HOA without me having told you."

"What? You're kidding right?"

Suddenly, Larry called me in a panic on my cell.

" Red Adder is plucking himself again!" he wailed so loudly, that I had to hold the cell away from my face.Soon,I could hear him begging the bird"Red! please!"

"He seems to have some trouble adjusting and probably misses his owner" I told him.

"Could you come over?" he requested. "I'm at my wit's end!"

"Give me a bit, and I'll be there as soon as possible." I told him. After some more reassurance, We hung up and I explained the situation to Alan.

"Do you want me to drop you off ?" I offered.

"I'll go with you." he generously said. "You can take care of the bird, while I help Larry through this."

"Great!" I said, and what he said made sense. Alan, having had kids, knew exactly what Larry was going through.

With that, we were both on our way to Larry's place.

TBC