[intuition897]

Thanks for all the advice, folks. I'm probably going to try to just pretend like nothing happened. If she wants to confront me about it, she's free to do so, but I'll warn her upfront to not go looking for truths unless she realizes they may not be what she wants to hear. If she persists, saying it WAS me she heard, no doubt about it, I'll probably just say that I'm not going to try to explain it because the truth of it is probably stranger than what she happened to overhear. And it really wasn't meant for her to hear anyway, so I'm sorry for burdening her with the worry of it. Please, can we both just forget the whole thing? It really isn't something she needs to worry about...honest.

She IS a good friend, and it would be her concern for me that would cause her the grief I had hoped to spare her from by being discrete about our activities. If she knew the real deal, she wouldn't be worried, but the trouble is, her upbringing has made it utterly blasphemous to even consider questioning what she's been taught. So...ignorance of the issue at hand reigns supreme, and because of that, fear and superstition cripple any attempts at effective dialogue. You can't convince a mind that doesn't want to be convinced.

I'll update you when I speak with her next.