“If I give you this necklace, will you give yourself to me?”

“Sure, honey!” When a guy who looks like Omar Sharif comes to your table, then stays after work just to talk to you, what else is a gal going to say? After all that sweet-talk and wine, I’d been ready to give myself to him for nothing. And now he offers this gorgeous cat’s eye? I’m no gold-digger, but no way I was gonna pass that up!

“I ask again: if I give you this necklace, will you give yourself to me?”

“I already told you, yes!”

We had gone to a hotel, and he had shown me the gem. It sparkled hypnotically. “For me?” I asked.

“It complements your eyes,” he told me. And then he’d asked the question.

Now he smiled apologetically, “I must ask one more time, to be sure.”

“If you give me that necklace, I will give myself to you, yes!” I said impatiently. I was starting to feel a little uneasy, but ignored it. I wanted to look in the mirror, see that gem on me.

“Very well.” He fastened the chain around my neck.

And suddenly, I belonged to him.