Next day, he calls Salome & makes a date with her for tomorrow night. He feels very guilty about it, though he is only seeing Salome as a suspected drug dealer, not romantically. He takes a shower & calls Heather, but Amber tells him her mother is out a peace rally. She must be at the weekly protest in front of the Bechtel office, he realizes. He had been offered some overtime duty there tonight but turned it down in favor of a guy he knows on the force who's wife is expecting & they certainly need the OT more than Ulises does. Now he's doubly glad he didn't take the job...he doesn't want Heather to find out he's a cop by seeing him in riot gear. He asks Amber if she is alone & when she says she is, he decides to go over to babysit & wait for Heather.

On the long drive to Topanga, Ulises starts to worry even more about telling Heather about being a policeman. A lot of the people who go to those protests really hate cops...he's been called 'pig' a few too many times for his taste. He shudders as remembers the way Heather said 'cops' last night. When he gets to Heather's house, Amber is playing outside. He plays 'market' with her for a while.

She shows him her handstand.

Amber's a sweet kid & clearly very lonely because her mother leaves her alone all the time.

It gets pretty late, so Ulises makes some dinner. Amber tells him she likes him a lot better than that ski loser, Frankie. Who the hell is Frankie? Ulises wonders.

Of course, he does the dishes. It's getting really late now: he knows the rally that Heather is at is usually peaceful & over long before now, so he's started to worry about her. He calls the guy he knows that was doing OT at the protest, and he told him nothing went down, no violence, no arrests. Ulises hopes her van is okay: it is a long & twisting road out of Topanga to anywhere, and anything could happen.

Heather comes home some time after Amber is asleep. She is suprized to see Ulises in her living room, but she greets him very warmly. "When Amber told me she was alone, I came over to look after her," he says.

Heather smiles & laughs & says "That's so sweet, but you didn't have to do that," And she starts to dance with him.

Ulises forgets everything else when he dances with Heather, like the world is made of music & Heather's perfume.

Heather asks him if he's busy tomorrow. Tomorrow? he thinks with deep chagrin...tomorrow he's going out with Salome, a suspected drug dealer. He tells Heather he has to work tomorrow...and waits for her to ask what he does. Instead, she says, "I'm making dinner for Thanksgiving. It'll just be me and Amber & my step-brother Coby. We'd be happy if you came. If you don't have any plans" Thanksgiving..that's the day after tomorrow he realizes. "I'll be there," he promises & kisses her goodnight.