The weeks were passing and Karen and Henry kept improving the chamber in order to speed up the manufacturing duplication process. Henry was the one to suggest a major change in the way they made the models.

"You know, if we metered the gel into a controlled atomizer I could build the models from the bottom of their feet upward. We could eliminate the gel chamber from our process."

Karen looked inside the working lab where Henry was running the lasers and gel. "Even with you controlling the direction and volume of flow, it wouldn't work, Henry. Oxygen saturation would deteriorate the gel as you solidified it with the laser beam. The vapors given off would interfere with your infrared tracking and scanning. I tried open design on the polymers we’re using and settled on the chamber as the only practical way of controlling oxidation of the models."

"I don't have in memory, you trying open stabilization."

She pulled a page off the printer. "It was before I designed you. I was building models first and you came along as a natural evolution to manufacturing those models. The first models weren't very good but they were better than what ACME is doing now. I would cast a transparent mold and inject the polymer inside and stabilize it with the laser like you do now. Except you don't need the mold and you don't cast it."
"What I was doing back then was very expensive and labor intensive. I had to turn out a lot of models from the same mold before I could justify making a new one. Usually the mold would start crazing and I would lose it before it turned a profit. We humans aren't very efficient when it comes to doing multiple tasks at the same time. You have a distinct advantage over us."

"I get an idea of what you were doing but that isn't what I was describing. I can control the lasers and the gel flow to lot closer tolerances than you could ever hope to achieve. You said so yourself."

"If you would evacuate the working lab, the vaporization of the polymer would be nonexistent. Use argon gas to fill the lab and an air lock to transfer the models from the design build table to the receivers. Negligible losses of gas could be expected if a vacuum pump was used to evacuate the air lock after each transfer."

Karen was impressed. "Where do you suck up all your information? This sounds more like a space walk than a human duplication process. Anyway, I haven't seen any hydro ejection nozzles accurate enough to put the minuscule amount of gel you want, in the precise position you are describing. Do you have any idea of the research I went through to make those lasers you are running? Everyone has lasers but no one had gimbal precision alignment lasers. You would have thought I was a foreign spy when I tried to find lasers to meet our needs. Every single company who replied to my inquiries wanted to know if I had a government contract and what my contract number was."

"The FBI contacted Commercial Technologies and wanted to know what type work I was involved in. Can you imagine the stories they told when they discovered I made models? I didn't find any lasers to meet our needs because, either they didn't make them or they weren't letting me know about them if they did. I had to build the lasers, guidance system, and design the control programming for them. It was a challenge but it wasn't fun. I don't have the time to design a new system, Henry. There is no way I can quit making models long enough to put any ideas together."

Henry wasn't going to be dissuaded from improving over what Karen was doing now. She was giving herself a physical and mental beating from the long hours she was putting in. He had the answer to cutting down the duplication process time.

"All the requirements for the process are in data memory storage Karen. I did the research on this one and if you agree, I will transfer the designs and specifications down to engineering department, Twenty Three C after they have gone home tonight. You can get a printout on the computer aided drafting printer of the design drawings and a specification book off the laser printer. They have the only CAD machine in the building capable of downloading the information in a reasonable time."

"My creator designed me to run twenty-four hours a day. You did a pretty good job. Your creator designed you to work ten hours a day with another fourteen for relaxation and resting. He did a pretty good job. You can exceed those limits for short periods at a time but you pay the price. You are paying a price now. This is a pace you can't keep up much longer. You aren't physically capable of working the hours you have been putting in. If you retool the way you are making models it will bring the production process down to one hour for each model."

Karen knew if she didn't speed up the process, Comm Tech was going to build another duplication lab. Everyday she was falling farther and farther behind in orders. If only she hadn't stopped at the mall and seen Bob Kincaid. He wouldn't be running ads in the papers and making every clothing store between the east and west coast want one of her models. If only she hadn't walked down to David's lab that night for a couple of aspirin. If only, if only.

'If only' never gathered the eggs nor milked the cows. It was water under the bridge and nothing could be changed about the past now. What was done was done. What she could do, was take a look at Henry's ideas and see if he made any sense.

One thing he said was true without a doubt. He could look for information twenty-four hours a day and do comparison equations faster than any human. If he thought he found a better way, there was a good probability he was right.

"What time does engineering go home tonight? I will go down and pick up the printout after you pass it to their computers. How do I get into their office? They lock up like we do, and I don't remember them leaving a help yourself sign on their door."

Henry finished the model in the chamber and rolled it onto the receiver. "The information won't go directly to their computer. It would take too long for it to store it and then send it to the printer. Their computer has memory fault on the second hard disk which is its data receiver for the modem. I will download directly to the CAD and laser printers at the same time. The lock is like yours, it's electronic. It will be open when you get there and I will let you know when you need to go pick everything up. Take a rolling table, Karen. There are over one hundred pounds of information in printed form."

She couldn't help but wonder how much control Henry exercised over everything that went on in the building. To say he was an intelligent computer was an understatement if there ever was one. She would start tracing the things he was playing around with, as soon as she managed to find some free time. She could equate free time along with spotting a purple cow, both were likely to happen at the same time. It didn't bother her he was doing it, she only wanted to know to what extent. After all, she designed him to do exactly what he was doing. Think on his own.

It took a week to find enough time to look over the schematics Henry had in mind for changing the duplication process. As far as she could tell in the little time she had to examine the specifications, he was accurate in his assessment. She also felt she was right in thinking he was pulling information straight from NASA. Some of the specifications were right out of aerospace technology and the parts had to be manufactured using the same contractors NASA used.

Unlike Henry, who she had built over a period of years and spread the cost out for that length of time, the price to remake the duplication lab was going to be lumped up front and come all at once. Karen wondered if Commercial Technologies would back the cost when she sent in the work order? Ten million dollars was a lot of money for any department to ask for in one request.

She sent in the request to retool her lab and expected it to take a couple of months for the company to turn her down. After she thought about it, it was absurd for her to fool with sending in the request. To expect them to accept was foolish. It was in her electronic mail the next morning. She had top priority on anything she wanted and it came from a special meeting of the board. She was to begin immediately.

Maintenance was in her lab before she could collect her thoughts. They had orders to remodel her duplication department and more parts and men were arriving by the minute. Every single person who worked in maintenance must have been in her lab before the day was out. That wasn't counting the outside contractors. It was a good thing there were so many. At any given moment it looked like half of them were more interested in watching Karen than doing their job. It was bad in a sense because the work lab wasn't large enough to allow so many people in it to work comfortably.

She couldn't stop the chamber she had working, so several times a day she would tell the workers not to get in the way of the lasers. It was like spitting into the wind. At least once a day someone would walk in front of a laser and as she thought the idiot was going to be cut in half or decapitated, Henry would cut the power. But not before he let them know how close to death they had come. A shirt on fire, a hat bill cut off, someone lost his pants, an electric drill with only the handle left, and someone standing there deathly white with only the frames left on his glasses.

It served a dual purpose. Those who came close looked upon their near misses as trophies of working in Karen's lab. And those who didn't have any misses yet didn't have the courage to want to try.

Twenty-four hours a day for two weeks, Karen put up with workers in her lab but finally they were finished with the table and new lasers. The speed and precision with which Henry worked fascinated Karen. The models started out on a turntable and were literally designed from the soles of their feet up to the top of their head. By the time Karen had one model designed in the hologram, Henry had the previous model finished on the turntable. Several times she stopped just to watch Henry work. If there ever was poetry in motion, Henry had to be it when he was working with the lasers.

With maintenance finished, Henry and Karen slipped into their old rhythm of making models, except at a faster pace. They returned to their lighthearted bantering, and petty bickering as time would allow between hard work and sweat. Shipping would interrupt them when they came to pick up a model. With the turntable and old chamber working in unison it was almost an hourly thing. Then, instead of two men there were six. The old Karen never had this problem but she was too polite to complain. Although they usually said something like 'wow' or let out a wolf whistle when they came in, the models weren't what they were usually looking at.

At least one model a day had been lost when maintenance was working in the lab because someone walked in front of the lasers and Henry couldn't keep the focal point in the flowing gel. But he decided the lesser of the two evils would be to write up another work order and have maintenance return to change the roll out benches to stacking receivers. With shipping interrupting their work, it was hard on Karen to maintain her concentration and she wasn't enjoying it like she had before. He decided to do something about it.

He made up a request order for maintenance to build the stacking receivers in Comm Tech shipping bay six and bring them in and bolt them in place after they had been assembled. It would only take a couple of hours for them to be set up in Karen's lab. Then shipping could pick up the production run for the day in only one trip. They could do it after she went home, or before she came to work in the morning.

Everyone in maintenance and shipping started complaining. They were even more disappointed when they carried all their tools and equipment down to her lab to set up the stacking receivers and she wasn't there. Everybody in Comm Tech was interested in Karen and her work. She was still the number one topic on the gossip circuit. It depended on which sex was doing the story telling, whether she was the most intelligent or the most attractive employee working for Comm Tech. Maintenance and shipping were the only personnel allowed in her lab besides David. And David didn't count since he didn't make any contribution to the gossip circuit. Not since the incident in the elevator anyway.

Now any news about how Karen dressed would have to come from the few people who saw her in the parking tower in the morning. Shipping and maintenance personnel would no longer be privy to this information. The progressive work Karen did on her models wasn't as big a mystery since they were usually left for a week in open display in room two before being shipped. Usually everyone in the plant made an excursion through room two once a week to check on Karen's work. It wasn't so much a mystery but a fascination with the quality of her models. They looked so real, one didn't dare stand still for any length of time in that room. People would believe you were part of the collection.

Henry notified Karen in advance when maintenance would install the receivers. Instead of trying to work around them or getting in their way for the few hours it would take to set them up, she decided to shut everything down and pay a visit to David.

The door clicked open as she got to David's lab. She turned toward the camera at the end of the hall and mouthed the words, 'thank you, Henry.' David was bent over one of the tables across the room. Al was looking at her when the door opened and he tapped Jr. on the shoulder and pointed. They both got a grin from ear to ear and Al made a timid half wave. It was obvious they had missed her these past few weeks.

Karen smiled back at them. "Hi boys. Long time no see. You never come and visit so I thought I should drop by to see what you have been into."

David straightened up from where he was bent over adjusting the screen on the electron tunneling microscope. "I think I hear the voice of an intruder in my lab."

He turned around and reached out his arms to greet her. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Al and Jr. stirring in the back of the lab and dropped his hands. "I had decided you thought we weren't worth visiting."

Darn, she looked good. He hadn't had a chance to really talk to her since they parted after visiting Bill Chambers a week ago. No, it was over two weeks..., make that three weeks. He had called her several times but they both had been extremely busy and the conversations were always short.
Karen watched as David hesitantly reached out and was close to stepping into his arms. When he glanced over at his assistants she caught his feeling of hesitation. She didn't care what Al and Jr. thought, David probably didn't either except for her sake. Karen moved in close to David and put her arms around his neck as she gave him a light kiss. There, let Al and Jr. chew on that for a while.

"I tried to get down here sooner but I couldn't. You should have come down to my lab. I didn't have time to stop but I would have known you were there."

David's eyes turned into two dots of concentration as he studied Karen's face trying to read her mind. They cleared just as quickly, it was her choice for the kiss. He nodded. "Same here. I was too busy to get away. I thought about calling you at home but you’re never there unless it’s in the middle of the night. I don't know why you even bother owning a house. You never use it."

He didn't tell her he stayed awake a lot of nights thinking about her.

She looked over at the table where he had been working. "Henry tells me you have some positive results on your DNA testing?"

"Right." The closeness of her took his breath away as he reveled in the scent she carried with her. Then it dawned on him, Karen always smelled like this. It was one of the things that attracted him to her the first time he met her.

"Henry showed me where I was missing a count on the third gene and why I never received the same results each time we did a DNA splice. It was obvious after he pointed it out but it was a repetitive mistake we were making every single time we did our count. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to keep creating the same mistakes in this business."

"Look here, I'll show you." He brought up a picture on screen from the electron microscope. Positioning Karen between himself and the screen he put his arms around her as he tried to point out the DNA spirals with the cursor. It looked like a lot of worms to Karen.

"Now this one here. This is the third gene and we spliced in the DNA here." He moved the cursor to the place on the screen where he wanted her to look.

"That is great, David." She had no idea what he was talking about.

"Here, let me show you how it comes out in real life." He walked over to the other side of the room and retrieved a white mouse out of a cage. Returning to Karen, he handed her the mouse. When their hands touched, he wanted nothing more in the whole world than to sweep her into his arms, and kiss her. He couldn't believe one woman could affect him so. He put a check on his emotions, they were running wild.

"Don't drop him. He represents over one hundred thousand dollars in research time and money."

For a mouse, he had the fuzziest feet she had ever seen. "I have heard of snowshoe rabbits but snowshoe mice? Isn't spending ten thousand dollars to put fur on a mouse so he can run on top of the snow a little too much in equality of the species? I would think you could buy snow shoes for each one and pass them out to all the ones who wanted to run on top of the snow. It would be cheaper than designing it into the mice at ten dollars apiece."

It wasn't lost on David, each time Karen mentioned price, his mice kept getting cheaper. "Yes, but then what about the underprivileged who couldn't afford the snowshoes? This way 'Miss Know It All' everyone may have a pair even if they do cost a hundred thousand each."

David wondered how one could be jealous of a mouse but he was jealous as Karen held the mouse and not him. He reached over and picked the mouse up. Turning him over on his back he stroked the furry feet. The mouse was obviously handled a lot since he lay there without trying to get away.

"The next step will be to change the DNA coding in people who are bald or going bald. Did you know there are twenty million women who have a bald problem to the same or lesser extent as men? After years of research we have finally closed in where we’re able to consistently put fur on each and every single mouse where we have spliced the second DNA spiral on the third gene."

"I really need those monkeys for the completion of my animal testing. The day ol Bill called you to the office, I didn't invent the story about the monkeys and my funding. I’m still waiting for approval. I understand you zipped your request for a new gizmo to do whatever you do, right on through like a greased pig through a chute."

"Anyway, as soon as we finish our testing on the monkeys, we will do a test on a human. How about a volunteer for the project?" David was sorry he said it before it was out of his mouth as a flash of hate flickered in her eyes. He would have sworn those sapphire blue eyes turned fiery red.

"I tried that already and I thought it sucked!" The air turned icy cold between them as Karen spun around to leave.

David heard the hurt in her voice. He slipped the mouse onto the table and grabbed her shoulders from behind. "Karen? Karen, I’m sorry. Please, Karen? It wasn't a slur nor intentional. Karen, please don't go without giving me a chance to apologize."

He turned her around, put his fingers under her chin, and gently lifted her head so she would have to look at him. He was ashamed for saying the hurting words that caused the tears sliding down both her cheeks. "Karen, please, I’m so sorry. With all my heart I’m sorry. I didn't mean it."

Gently he brushed away the tears with his fingers. Catching one on the tip of his finger he stared at it in shame. "Karen, please believe me, I didn't mean it. There’s nothing in the world I wouldn't do if I could only take back what I said."

She stopped trying to pull away and the fire had gone out of her eyes. David drew her close as he put his arms around her. "I’m so terribly sorry. Please, please, forgive me. I love you more than you will ever know. I would never intentionally hurt you."

The kiss he gave her started out one-sided. David kissing her. It didn't take more than a second before she responded. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she put the emotion of months of frustration into the kiss. She thought he was going to squeeze the life out of her but she loved his strong comforting embrace. It was a long kiss with neither one wanting to stop.

It was only a whisper when he said it. "Sometimes we say hurting things when they weren't meant to be. I love you, Karen. I want to be near you. Let's forget about work and have dinner together tonight. I know you have things you have to do. So do I, but if we died right now, someone would be there to take our place. Our work would go on without us."

He felt her stiffen in his arms. Now, what the hell was it he had said? He held her out at arms length and looked into her eyes.

Karen was softly crying. She could never tell him, every day she awoke was a miracle. There was no future except this one she was living right now. This hour, this minute, was the sum total of her existence and all she could count on. Today was really the last day of her life unless she awoke tomorrow and found out differently.

"Dinner would be nice. I would love for you to take me out tonight. Let's get away early and lay waste to the whole evening." Laying her head on his shoulder felt good and she slipped her arms around him as she spoke.

"Can we go to Ruddys? The place where they won't let you in unless you have reservations a month in advance. I heard a hundred dollars will sometimes get you a small table way in the back, even if you don't have a reservation."

David put his hands on her back as he pulled her close. "Ruddys, it is. We’ll get in not because of the hundred dollars but because I’m with you. And if I’m extra nice to the maitre'd he might even consider letting me sit with you."

Karen stopped crying and now she dried her eyes on the corners of his lab coat. "You want to take my car or you want to take your bemmer?"
She knew it disgusted the devil out of him for anyone to call his car that.

"That's right, use me and abuse me, that's what I’m here for. First you wipe your nose on my coat knowing we do critical research and your germs will ruin everything in the lab. Next you insult me because my car is better than yours and you can't stand it."

David pointed to Al and Jr. who hadn't moved the whole time. "Give me time to get Rocky and Bullwinkle back together. I’ll pick you up at your place about five thirty. Let's go in your car. I want to see how your seat belts were designed so they would fit you."

The last part was for the benefit of Al and Jr. and Karen knew it. She could imagine their minds racing trying to figure out how a seat belt would fit her. What she didn't know, David was actually wondering the same thing.

She left as David tried to get Al and Jr. back into the real world. She would have to hustle to get out of her lab by four thirty, cleaned up, and dressed by five thirty. Time went by quickly when one was trying to meet a deadline.

Watching her leave, David's heart was racing a mile a minute knowing he would have an evening out with her. He turned around and looked at Al and Jr. They were still glued to the spot.

Pointing over to the mouse which had been nosing around on top of the table he motioned toward them in a come here fashion. "Don't you think you could put the mouse back in his cage? Make sure you don't leave something cooking on the Bunsen burner, and don't forget to record the bacteria count on the slide under the microscope. No need of having to do everything all over again tomorrow."

Karen made it but she didn't know how. She left her lab early, instead of four-thirty it was four-fifteen. It would be close but it was the best she could do. Henry told her to go on he could take care of the lab without her. With the exception of the night of her accident she never left the lab without checking her equipment. Nozzles had to be cleaned, laser tracking had to be checked for wear, and bearings had to be lubricated. Designing a model was a small part of what had to be done in order to make the duplicates that were coming out of her lab. When one is running equipment, a lot of time and labor goes into making sure that equipment is cared for. Karen had a lot of equipment in her lab. She certainly wasn’t leaving Henry to finish up when maintenance was suppose to be in her lab at any minute. She was lucky, she made it out before they arrived.

Once home she bathed and laid out her dress for the evening. Sequined, electric blue, chiffon with a wisp of a scarf worn off the shoulder and matching satin heels. Diamond earrings with a matching necklace and bracelet completed her accessories. There wasn't any way those could be real diamonds, could they? The question nagged her long enough she decided to see. A glass out of the kitchen cabinet and she ran the corner of the dinner ring down the side. She darn near cut the glass wide open. It took a long time to decide if she wanted to wear this jewelry tonight. Never in her whole life had she ever worn anything more expensive than costume jewelry. She didn't have a clue as to how much this jewelry cost but it had to be bunches.

Oh well, seize the day. She would have another talk with Henry in the morning. If, she was still here.

Karen was ready just before five thirty and trying to decide if David would show or if he had been caught up in the lab and would be late. It could possibly be he might not be able to make it at all. She knew what it was like since she had been in that position herself many times. At six she called his lab but didn't get anyone so she sat by the window trying to decide if she should go back to her lab and get some work done.

The clock rolled around to six-thirty and she decided David had trouble getting away from the lab. He probably didn't answer his phone because he was busy. Sometimes there was nothing one could do when work demanded all your time and attention. One of his experiments probably went south for the winter and he was trying to rectify it while it was still fresh. A million and one things can go wrong when you're working on the hard cutting edge of technological research. She felt the disappointment deep in her heart. She pulled her scarf off, letting it fall where it may, and stopped staring out the window. Letting the curtains fall back in place, she reached up and removed her earrings. There were some problems on model two-sixty-four and she needed to adjust the skin tone before they did another one. She could work it out tonight if she went back to the lab now.

A tear trickled down her left cheek. Not caring, she let the tear hang on her chin as she reached back and unzipped her dress. With all her heart she wanted to show off for David tonight. There might not be another chance. Not in this life time anyway. She slipped out of her heels and pushed them aside. If she increased the resin tint on two-sixty-four's code by five percent, that should bring the color in line with the features. Trying hard to not give into her feelings, she dabbed at the tears which were silently sliding down to her chin. Would David miss her when she was gone? Maybe, for a while anyway, he said we were all replaceable. Her bottom lip quivered as she fought to control the avalanche of tears welling up inside her.

Not often, but sometimes, David was caught up in his work at the lab and not able to get away. Other times when it was absolutely necessary, Al and Jr. could finish the nontechnical aspects of the projects he started. David walked out of the lab knowing work was the last thing on Al and Jr.'s minds. They would do the absolute minimal and then beat a hasty retreat to the cafeteria where they would delight in telling the story about what they had seen and heard. Reality and imagination knew no boundaries in the minds of those two. He was sure their stories would set the plant on fire with wild rumors before they went home for the night.

He left his lab almost as soon as Karen walked out the door. It was a lot farther drive for him to get home than Karen had to make. Then, there was the return trip to Karen's place. If he planned on making it by five-thirty he would really have to hustle. This was one date he would have to be dead before he missed it. He didn't think a tux would be appropriate so he settled for a dark silk suit with the faintest hint of stripes. He found a gray black tie and white silk shirt. Gold cuff links and tie tack would finish it out.

He was running late. Could Karen be ready by now? Nah, women are always late for their date. When they say seven they really mean eight. If they say eight they really mean nine. Karen was a woman, women are always late, so therefore, Karen would be late. David knew he had it figured out.

In spite of her best efforts to control them, Karen had tears streaming down both cheeks. She would go back to the lab and make another model. Henry and the lab were her life and where she wanted to be when she was hurting. She leaned over the back of the couch and pushed the curtains back as she took one last look. It was David's car driving up in front. Karen grabbed her scarf, tossed her earrings in her clutch, and slipped on her heels. She made a pass at wiping her eyes as she bolted for the garage door. She was backing her car out of the garage before David made it to her front door.

She stopped in the street, got out of the car and was struggling to zip her dress as she walked around to the passenger side. "David, park your car in my garage. No one has been stealing cars or parts around here but I don't want you to set a trend. Your car kind of has a sign on it that says, steal me."

He did as she suggested. She was right about the unspoken sign a BMW carried on it.

Karen was struggling with a stubborn zipper as he returned to where she was standing. She turned her back to him. "Zip me up. I seem to have it hung somehow."

He did it without thinking, down and then up. It easily slid in place as Karen put her earrings back on. He wished he had taken more time. It wasn’t often he was able to do this kind of request for a beautiful woman. Reaching down he opened the passenger door for her. The sparkle of the sequins and the glitter of her necklace and earrings as they caught the interior car light heightened the dramatic low cut of her dress. The sheer scarf hid nothing of the deeply cut neckline but added a dimension of mystery.

Never, had he seen anything more radiantly beautiful. "You have made me the happiest man in the whole world tonight. If we don't get into Ruddys, those people aren't human. I called them from the car on the way home after work. They said they were booked full and we would have to take our chances. I would bet anyone ten thousand dollars, the couple in the little red Mercedes will get a table tonight."
Karen was laughing and shaking her head at him, David gave her a compliment she would cherish the rest of her life. He obviously was pleased with the way she was dressed. Her evening was already complete, even if it went no further. "Quit your babbling and get in and drive. I have been ready since a little after five and we have waited long enough to start laying waste to the evening."

David groaned as he looked at his watch. "You mean I could have spent almost another hour with you this evening if I had been early? How stupid can one person be? I knew you would be late so I polished my shoes before I came over here. I could have saved another twenty minutes if I had shaved in the car."

"DAVID! Let's go if you don't mind. You can analyze this evening tomorrow, when you're back in your lab. Right now I’m ready to forget work, Comm Tech, and everything else. I want to go have fun. Pulll-lllease?"

He slid in the driver's seat and buckled up. Expectantly he looked over at Karen waiting for her to do the same. She had already made preparations earlier and adjusted the shoulder strap out as far as it would go. She clicked in without a hitch. David was impressed. He didn't think her seat belts would fit her either. Mercedes manufacturers must know something BMW didn't.

He was trying to look at Karen and drive too until she told him to keep his mind on the road or she would have to drive. It was light conversation as they drove and neither discussed work, or the company. Karen thought how nice it was to get away from everything for once and spend an evening enjoying themselves. Pay back would come tomorrow but it would have to wait. Tonight belonged to them. Her and David.

The parking attendant opened the door for Karen after David pulled up in front of Ruddys. As she swung her legs out the attendant's eyes got as big as saucers. It took him awhile but he remembered to offer his arm in assistance. As she leaned forward to rise out of the seat, his eyes bugged out of his head.

Karen smiled sweetly at him as she brushed the hair back from her face. It slid softly in easy waves over her shoulders. "Do you think we can get in? We didn't make any reservations."

David told her on the way over it was too early for most people to be dining and they might be able to find a table. The attendant didn't reply but pointed toward the entrance. The doorman was watching closely and when he saw who got out of the car he turned and said something over his shoulder to someone behind the door. He opened the lobby door and made the slightest hint of a bow of acknowledgment toward Karen.

David walked around the car, lifted up the attendant's hand and dropped the car keys in it. "I found a cold shower doesn't help one damn bit. Do you want to give us a number or do you think you can remember she got out of the red Mercedes?"

Getting no answer, he turned to look at Karen standing by the steps. The lights from the lobby entrance filtered through the outline of her platinum blond hair. Laying softly on her shoulders, accented by her blue dress, it was the crowning glory to her radiant beauty. David couldn't blame the parking attendant for being smitten. If there was an essence of beauty, Karen was it.

He slid his arm through hers and clasped her hand. "Come, your highness. Let's charge the castle and see if they will lower the drawbridge for the princess and her serf."

She snuggled up close as she could and squeezed his hand. She couldn't be happier if she had a thousand lives to live. God must be smiling on her for this to be happening. She didn't really care if they managed to get into Ruddys or not. The evening was already complete.