The phone was ringing and Henry put it on speaker as he answered it. "Department Fifty Four, Karen Long speaking, may I help you?"

Boy, was he good. Karen thought he sounded just like her.

"Karen, this is Bill Chambers secretary. Mr. Chambers wants you in his office immediately. Do you understand?"

Henry hesitated as he contemplated telling her, no, he didn't understand. For a fact, he was tempted, except he was sure it would cause trouble for Karen.

Karen picked up the phone. "Yes Betty, I understand."

She hung up the phone and looked at Henry accusingly. "Henry, you been up to something I don't know about? You get me in hot water by imitating my voice and telling Bill I want a raise? Something sure has his dander up?"

"Don't look at me like that. I think it has something to do with your being in the papers. It seems you made front page news after your little escapade yesterday."

"I DID WHAT!"

"You made front page news, along with third page news, along with two full pages of advertisement in the women's section."

"Blackbeard The Pirate!" The accusation dripped with venom.

"If you mean Bob Kincaid, the answer is yes. He ran two full pages of advertisement in the paper, along with several nice pictures of you and the model you designed. I thought it was very tastefully done. You probably caused a massive collection of heart attacks among the population of this city. I bet business is booming down at the hospital emergency room. From what I pick up in my surveillance cameras, the consensus is, you were stunning."

"The front page article was about you and your models and how an attractive scientist, like yourself, was one of the best if not the best computer engineer in the world. Of course I could have told them that. Anyway, the accompanying picture was a knockout."

"Page three continued with a nice story of you talking to a young girl by the name of Brenda Stout. You were explaining how she could be anything she wanted to be as long as she was willing to work for it. That story brought tears to my eyes. The picture on the third page, was of you wearing the dress you came to work in yesterday. You were handing the young lady an ID of Doctor Karen Ann Long."

"The two full pages of advertisement were of you mostly. I saw one picture of the duplicate in there. If I knew you would wear clothes like that I would have ordered them for you. I guess I don't know you as well as I thought. You shock me, Doctor Long."

She was livid. "That dirt bag, that snake, that rat, that horses tail, that weasel, that that ..."

"Karen, it wasn't his fault. He saw a business opportunity and took advantage of it. He didn't call you or request your appearance."

She knew Henry was right but it didn't make things any better. "That was what he said when I left yesterday. Well, I guess I better go face the music. Bill probably wants to fire me. You can start packing. If you want to take along your teddy bear it is about all we can fit into the car I’m driving. I should have kept the old volks. We could have packed more in to it when we ran away from home."

It was a long way to Bill's office and she was dreading every step of it. There was no use in prolonging the agony. She might as well get this over with. Like a condemned man going to the galleys, slowly she rose from her chair.

"Now hold on there a minute, little lady. Old John Wayne wouldn't let a pretty little filly, like yourself, out to guard the wagons if he didn't have a plan in mind."

Karen couldn't keep from smiling in spite of the situation. Darn if he didn't sound like, The Duke.

"Now here's the plan."

Listening intently so she wouldn't miss anything she waited for the plan.

"Actually there isn't any plan. He can't fire you, Karen. Stop dreading going up and having a talk with the old boy. You have given this company more good free public relations than they could ever hope to beg, buy, or steal. At the front office, calls are coming in, inquiring about your models on the average of one every minute. Reporters are not only up front in the lobby, but also calling from as far away as London wanting to interview you. You have agents calling wanting to represent your modeling career."

"The company is acquiring the image as the company who treats its female employees as fairly as it does male employees. You are the image the company wants. Smart, intelligent, resourceful, hard working, dedicated, and halfway attractive."

She made a mock frown at him. "Halfway attractive? Do you mean I’m halfway unattractive?"

She pulled a pen from her pocket and threw it at the desk. Thinking about it for a second she picked it up and threw it at one of the cameras. "That was so you could see it coming."

"Ouch, ow, hurt, pain, please mistress, mercy. I promise to work harder, lavish on more false compliments about your looks, and describe in great revolting detail your feeble attempts at being a computer engineer. Please, don't beat me any more, your worshipfulness."

She stuck her nose up in the air. "Very well. I will let you off this time, but don't let it happen again. Otherwise, I will have to send you to the dungeons in irons."

"You mean there is someplace worse than this! I thought this was the dungeon."

She headed for the door. This had helped but it wasn't getting her to Bill's office to face the music. She better go before she lost her nerve.

A few feet down the hall from her lab David caught up with her. "I saw you come out of your lab. Mind if I walk along with you for a ways?"

David was nice to have along for moral support but she didn't think she should tell him where she was going. He didn't need to get fired along with her if it was what Bill had in mind.

She glanced over at him. "It's a free country. You can walk wherever you want. I didn't think you ever got out of your lab except to go home at night. Al and Jr. lost again?"

"Not this time. I thought I might check in Bill Chamber's office and see if the funding for my research on monkeys has come through. I sent in the requisition a couple of months back."

She stopped in the middle of the hall. "Henry tell you about my call?"

Taking a couple of steps past her, he turned around to look at her. "Henry thought it might be a good time to see if they have approved my funding."

"You don't make a very good liar. I'm a big girl, I can handle this by myself."

He turned around and started down the hall. Boy, was she fiercely independent. "I know you are. Its not you I'm worried about. I’m going down to protect Bill from you. He doesn't have any idea of the secret weapons you have designed in your lab. Silly man still believes you change oat meal into corn meal and pop out a finished duplicate. He still thinks of you as mom baking an apple pie in the kitchen."

"I, on the other hand, am the only person who knows you are really the infamous 'Jack the Ripper'. You rob cemeteries at night to smuggle corpses into your lab so you can cover them with silly putty and sell them as duplicates of ourselves."

Karen caught up with him at the elevator. "How did you find out? I know. You were in the parked car I thought was empty when I robbed the crematorium the other night. You must have film of me doing the dirty deed and this is blackmail. Isn't it?"

She screwed up her face and threw him her best sneer. "You better be careful. You could be my next victim."

Chimes announced the elevator's arrival as the doors opened and Karen and David stepped in. The elevator already had six people in it and as it began its assent David fell against the back wall. Everyone had been staring at Karen since she was the one whose picture was splashed all over the papers this morning. It wasn't everyday a person had an opportunity to meet a real celebrity face to face. As far as everyone thought, Karen was a real celebrity. Now, forgetting about Karen, the passengers edged to the far side of the elevator as they looked nervously at David.
Knowing he had a rapt audience, David grimaced at Karen and laughed the best villain laugh he could muster. "Ha, ha, ha. You don't dare kill me. I haven't told you where I hid the film."

Bringing her hands up and bowing her head in shame, Karen hid her face. She could imagine what kind of film these people were thinking she would kill David for. It was a stage whisper and everyone heard it. "David, tell them this is a joke and you didn't mean what you said."

David stood up, spread his arms out, shrugged his shoulders, and managed a look of dubious truth as if everything he was about to say would be a lie. "Okay, it's a joke."

Folding his arms across his chest, contempt curled the corners of his mouth as he looked defiantly at Karen. "But, I’m still not going to tell you where I hid the film."

"DAVID!" It wasn't said in any stage whisper and it had a tinge of coming wrath associated with it.

Someone punched the next floor button and the elevator emptied out in a stampede leaving David and Karen behind.

"Thanks a heap for your help in spreading gossip about me in this building."

He could see fire in her eyes and feel the frost hanging on every word. "Lighten up, will you? Look at it this way, if they’re talking about you, they don't have time to talk about someone else. Somebody always wants to gossip about something. If the subject is you, then I want to listen in and see what they are saying. You're my favorite subject, too."

As the lights blinked for the top floor, the doors glided silently open. "I don't need THAT kind of gossip. Don't I recall someone in my lab asking me, if I knew how I affect people?"

"No, what I said was, do you know what you are doing to people."

He opened the door to Bill's office and waited for Karen to enter. "I will wait here with Betty while you go talk to the Old Man and see what he has up his sleeve."

Betty looked up sharply at David as he said old man. She thought he should know not to call Mr. Chambers 'the old man'. "Miss Long, you may go on in. Mr. Chambers is expecting you."

As she opened the door to his office, Karen swallowed hard trying to work the cotton out of her throat. No one ever received an order from Mr. Chambers to come to the office for a friendly visit. It was a long way across the room. Step by slow measured step, it took a lifetime to walk the width of that huge office.

Bill Chambers was rapping his fingers on the chair arm as he gazed out the window. He waited until he no longer heard the click of her heels on the floor as she approached his desk. Then he made her wait a while longer while he watched the traffic, way below, run past on Mileline Highway.

"Mr. Chambers, ..." Before she could say anything, he acknowledged she was there with a wave of his hand.

For five minutes he let her stand there as he watched the cars crawl by on the highway below. Bill was disgusted. There was no nervous fidgeting because she wasn't shuffling her feet on the floor. The waiting wasn't getting to her the way he planned. He would use another tactic. Slowly he swiveled around to give her his coldest look. He coughed. The first few days he had missed seeing her when she was doing public relations work. Her photos were all he had been able to look at. This wasn't what he expected. The model and the pictures he had seen didn't prepare him for anything close to this. Something like this in a photo or that you know is a dummy is one thing. Something like this that walks, talks and, is real is another.

"Karen." It didn't sound anything like what it was supposed to. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"Karen." Not any better, it was still high pitched and squeaky.

"Now Miss Long." It was going to have to do. Bill didn't think he could get the frog out of his throat as long as she was standing there.
"Miss Long, I want you to know we don't approve of our employees working outside the company. I want you to know we certainly don't approve of our employees getting their pictures in the paper unless it is some community project. I also want you to know, what you have done is not in the best interest of the company. We may have to reconsider you as one of our employees."

"However, I’m a lenient man and am willing to overlook this wild abandonment of yours if you promise to not let it happen again. Unless of course you notify me first, so we can check it out to see if it is in keeping with company policy. I want you to know you are walking on very thin ice here, young lady. And ...., it is only through my personal intervention on your behalf, you still have a job."

There was a lot more he had planned say but he couldn't think of what it was. She was looking straight at him eye to eye. Bill was looking into two of the deepest blue eyes he had ever seen. Those liquid pools of sapphire had drawn him into a mindless void. He fought his way back to the surface.

"Ah, umm, anyway, do I make myself clear?" His voice had lost its authoritative command.

It was infuriating, to stand here and listen to this man tell her she was company property and, had no right to her own time. "Mr. Chambers I expect a raise and bonus on my next pay check."

Now why had she said that? If Bill hadn't been ready to give her a pink slip before, that would do it.

"You want a raise?" He choked on every word.

"And a bonus. What I did yesterday was on my own time. I gave this company more free publicity and helped your public relations department in a way you never could."

Listening to Henry will get you into trouble. It was too late to stop now. Might as well plow on ahead. There was no turning back. "You have more orders coming in than you ever had before. The company has an image that has turned the competition green with envy. But not if they knew what you have been telling me."

"I built the duplication department, or I mean to say, my cousin built the duplication department. And a darn good department it is, too. If you want a resignation then you got it, but not until after I go downstairs and talk to those reporters you have in the visitors lounge. I’ll explain to them how this company treats its female employees. I’m sure they would like me to give them an interview this morning. I can tell them the truth about the double standards this company operates on for its' male and female employees."

"I know some of the other department heads have been in the papers and it wasn't any community project they were promoting. How about the time Karl Adder made the news while drunk driving? Did you call him to your office? I doubt it."

Was that last one too much? Had she overstepped her boundary? Karen had no idea if Bill had talked to Karl or not but knowing both Bill and Karl she didn't think so. Karen waited for Bill to tell her she was fired.

Bill felt as if he was swimming in quicksand. First, a memo from someone who claims to have him on video doing things he shouldn't, and threatening to send him to prison if he didn't make this woman head of her department. Now she was threatening to talk to the papers and tell them how he had talked to her. It would be her word against his. After that publicity coup she pulled off yesterday and looking at her right now, he had no doubt who they would believe.

Bill wondered if he could salvage this situation. "Sit. No, what I meant to say is, please have a seat. The papers were right. You are smart. I was bluffing and you figured it out before I ever began. Didn't you?"

Bill held up his hand as she started to speak. "Please, if you don't mind, let me finish. I felt like you did something for this company no one else was capable of doing. It was one hell of a publicity stunt and I didn't have anything to do with it. Our public relations department is down stairs beating their heads against the wall trying to figure out why they didn't think of it first. They have me asking the same question."

"If I could have put you in your place and hid you in a corner by telling you what a sorry job you did, I wouldn't have you making any noises while I took credit for everything. I don't take too kindly to letting one of my employees make me look like I don't have everything under control around here. You just did."

"I know I should have leveled with you from the start, but I figured I could get you and your department back under control before you suspected anything. I also know I’m going to have to pay the price for playing the game and losing. You will get your raise and your bonus. And, I will get my humble pie for getting in the game with you."

"Miss Long, you don't know how glad I am you are working for us and not for one of the other companies. I would hate to be head of ACME Duplicators right now and trying to figure out a way to stop the hemorrhaging in their company you caused with your little publicity stunt. I know Cal Ryan. You can bet everything you own, he is pulling his hair out right now. My guess is he will try to contact you and see if they can get you to go to work for them."

Bill pushed a stack of papers toward her. "I planned on making you sign a ten-year contract with us after I intimidated you and had you trying to decide if you were going to keep your job or not. I counted on you jumping at the chance to get back on solid ground after you were left hanging on the edge for awhile."

"You had me figured out all along didn't you? I know I can't get you to sign any new contracts until you find out what the competition is willing to offer. I will meet with the board this month to recommend we pay you a third again whatever the competition offers. Don't quit Miss Long. I know the company could stand you leaving Commercial Technologies but I couldn't. You quit and the directors will have my head on a platter before your resignation reaches the front desk."

Karen and Bill sat quietly looking at one another for what seemed an eternity. This wasn't what she had been prepared for.

Bill figured she was making him sweat before telling him she quit. He couldn't think of anything more to say. Obviously she was enjoying herself and getting even with him for trying to make her sign a new contract. She was making him pay for his stupidity before she lowered the boom. How many times had he played this same game on other people? He lost track of the numbers. It was what one did to get ahead in this business. It was a dog-eat-dog world and the losers were the wimps.

"Mr. Chambers, I like working in my department. I intend to stay as long as I’m useful and I make the company money. Don't try to use me as a piece of equipment. I’m a human being like everyone else. You tried to manipulate me and I resent it. Because I’m a woman you thought I was stupid. I especially resent that."

"We share your work, we bare your children and, we support you in whatever you do. To repay us, you pay us less than a man for the same work. You expect us to do your laundry, cook your meals for free, and be ready for sex anytime you feel like it. You want us to look like movie stars and work like dogs."

"I could go on but I know you understand. You see, I assume the other person is intelligent."

Sliding forward in the chair, Karen partially turned in the seat and rose up. It looked graceful and ladylike. She was learning.

"Is our meeting over, Mr. Chambers?"

"Yes, Miss Long. Thank you for coming." He didn't mean what he said. She just raked him over the coals and he was still smarting, but he was thankful for the opportunity to bring this meeting to an end.

He was on the intercom as Karen walked out of his office. "Betty, I want you to give Miss Long a raise and a bonus on her next pay check for the fine work she did for us at the mall yesterday. Fine work. I wish all of our employees would take as much interest in the company image as she has."

"Yes sir, Mr. Chambers." Betty took an incredulous look at Karen. She typed up the contract Bill called Karen in to sign.

David put down the magazine he was reading and walked out the door behind Karen. "Hey, that was great. Congratulations. I heard the Old Man over the intercom. And Henry thought you might need a cheering squad for your team. Goes to show Henry doesn't know everything."

Karen turned around and collapsed against David, her shaking hands grasping for a hold as her head came to rest against his chest. She was trembling all over.

He put his arms tightly around her waist and held her close while he tried to figure out what happened to her. Was she having a seizure, or her nervous system collapsing? Was this the result of the change she had? It frightened him to think she might be dying in his arms as he held her. David needed some answers quickly before he lost her.

"What’s the matter, Karen? Hang on and let me call medical."

She wouldn't turn loose of him and finally she stopped shaking enough so those two pieces of rubber made a pair of legs again. "I don't need medical except for them to find where I left my brain. I let my mouth run on ahead while my brain took a pit stop. Hold me for a little bit until I can stop shaking."

That was a request she didn't need to make. "Has this something to do with the meeting you had with Bill?"

She felt nice to hold. David thought about the first morning he found her lying on the floor and picked her up. Soft but firm, a contradiction in definitions. He put his face in her hair. She smelled nice, too. Kind of like ..., all woman.

"I got carried away and let Bill have it with both barrels. I’m lucky to still have a job. I have been listening to Henry too much lately. I promise you, he can get you in trouble if you pay too much attention to him."

Squirming to get out of his embrace didn't do any good. David was holding on pretty tight. Those sexy, full, luscious, lips that had been begging for weeks to be kissed, were a hairsbreadth away from his. He looked into her liquid, sapphire, eyes. David loved what he saw and felt a strange emotion from what he was holding. His heart began beating like a drum. Unable to resist temptation any longer, David put his mouth on hers and kissed her.

A little moan of protest but then it was too late. Karen slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She didn't want this to happen with David but they could worry about it later. She felt her breasts crush against his chest as he pulled her closer and tighter.

Karen's right foot lifted slightly to up on the tip of her toe and ever so lightly she pressed her hip against David. She didn't think about what she was doing. It happened naturally with the passion of the moment. It surprised her when she realized what she had done instinctively. If this was what Henry meant when he said men and women were different, he was right.

David felt the press of Karen's breasts against his chest and about went out of his mind. When she put her hip against him in the slightest hint of a touch, he exploded emotionally. Breaking off the kiss and pushing her back to arms' length he knew he was close to hyperventilating. They were both mature adults with college degrees and she had him feeling like a teenager parked in lovers lane again.

"We better get back to our labs. Medical examination is over Karen. Take it as the gospel from your personal physician. There’s nothing wrong with you as a woman. But your doctor needs some therapy now. A long cold shower."

He meant it literally, he felt hot all over. "Someone must be working on the air conditioning in this place."

He opened the top button on his shirt and ran his fingers around his collar and tie to loosen them. "Man, its hot in here. Do you think it's hot?"

Karen laughed at him. She felt hot too but she wasn't about to let David know it. "David, walk me down to the cafeteria. I would like a soft drink with lots of ice. I need a jolt of caffeine and sugar to get my mind working again before I return to work."

She slid her arm through his as she laid her head on his shoulder. "You have any money? Mine is in my purse in my lab."

David started her off in the direction of the front lobby elevator. "One kiss and you want to make me pay for it? I want you to know I don't have to pay women to kiss me. It's the other way around. They usually pay me to kiss them. Sometimes when I’m feeling extra generous, I may give a free sample."

She whacked him in the stomach with an open hand. "Why, you self-conceited, arrogant pup. I may make you buy me a doughnut too for your insolent remarks."

Bill Chambers stood looking out his office window with his hands clasped behind his back. Turning he pushed the intercom. "Betty, would you come in here and take a memo, please?"

Ten thousand times he had called her and he never said please. Betty picked up her pad and within seconds was in front of his desk.

"Take this down and every week for a month I want you to come back and read it to the person it is addressed to."

"Note. Internal company memo to Mr. Bill Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Technologies."

"Content. Next time you go out hunting wildcats, take along plenty of protection."

"Now, add dummy."

"Sir?" Betty had stopped writing.

"No, not sir. Dummy."

"Betty, you have been my personal secretary for over six years and I have always expected you to be at the desk when I wanted something. From now on, starting right now, I expect you to take a morning and afternoon break like everyone else in this building. You will find someone to cover your desk while you are on break. We will make it where you can switch everything over to another secretary as soon as we can get the technicians to do the wiring. Make up a work order and get it done."

"Do you have any iodine for my cuts?"

"Where are you cut, Mr. Chambers? I’ll go down to medical and get some bandaids and alcohol right away." She was looking but she couldn't see any scratches. Could he mean Miss Long had scratched him?

Betty, do you know what a lynx cat is?"

"No, Mr. Chambers."

"I can tell you from experience not to get in a fight with one. It’s a souped up bobcat with racing stripes on it. I had a fight with one and I feel fortunate to have escaped with my life."

"Go take your break. I’m going to sit here and feel sorry for myself while I try to recover from my wounds." He sat down in his chair and swiveled around facing the window again.

Betty was halfway across the room when Bill started talking with his back to her. "Betty, don't forget to come back and read the memo to me every week. It will remind me how lucky I am to have this job and not ever go cat hunting again."

She was puzzled by the conversation but it was nice to get a chance to take a break. Things sure have been changing since that new Karen Long came to work for Commercial Technologies.

Bill leaned his chair way back and clasped his fingers behind his head as he looked out across the landscape. Maybe lynx cat wasn't the right species? Miss Long reminded him more of a black panther with that black dress she was wearing. Those fingernails she had reminded him of the claws on any cat. Long and sharp. Was it her beauty that lured him into thinking she was stupid? He would never make that mistake again.

And last of all, those eyes of hers. He could have sworn he was looking into the depths of hell when he looked into those fiery sapphire eyes of hers as she raked him across the coals. A chill ran down his spine as he thought of it again.

David walked Karen back to her lab after their break at the cafeteria. He didn't think they were ever going to get away from the people wanting to chat with Karen. It wasn't a relaxing break like he planned and most of all it wasn't just the two of them like he wanted. Then there were all the offices up front they had to pass on the way back to their part of the building. People kept coming out to congratulate Karen on the articles and pictures in the papers this morning. Some wanted to know if she had made plans for any future public relations work. They wanted to be notified before hand if she did. Everyone told Karen what a good job she was doing on her models. David knew it was Karen herself all of them were interested in. After all the gossip and rumors running wild in Comm Tech, everyone had heard of her, but not that many had seen her. It was only some of the lucky few who parked in the tower where Karen and David did who got the chance to see her in person day by day.

After Karen showed up at the permit office yesterday in the white satin dress, there wasn't a soul in Comm Tech who hadn't heard of the story in one way or another. The black, crushed velvet dress she was wearing today didn't disappoint anyone who had heard the half-truths and all out lies about how Karen looked and dressed.

David felt a twinge of jealousy along with a touch of pride in the fact she was so popular. After all the time and effort she put in this place, she was finally being recognized for what she was. A very intelligent woman. Well, maybe they would recognize her intelligence after they finished looking at her beauty. David was almost exasperated beyond human patience when some reporters broke through and started taking pictures and interviewing Karen. He was impressed with the aplomb she fended off their questions about other publicity stunts, joked with them, and then quietly posed for pictures. There was no doubt left in his mind. She was one really attractive, super intelligent, lady.

Henry opened the door for Karen as she and David stood out in the hall. They finally escaped the crowd, and made it to their labs in the back of Comm Tech. It was times like this they both appreciated the fact they were so far removed from the rest of the building.

"Thanks for walking me to Bill's office. I appreciate the break at the cafeteria. If you will wait a minute I’ll get some money out of my purse and pay you back."

"I can't be bought so easily. I never told you how much I charge for my kisses." David didn't know if she was going to take it as a joke or not. She looked serious.

"I wasn't offering to pay you for one of those sloppy kisses. I received better kisses from my dog when I was a kid. I was offering to pay you for the pop but I changed my mind. I have to get to work. It was super late last night before I quit and I have already lost too much time this morning. Mr. Chambers calling me to his office threw my whole time schedule off. Now I will have to make it up again tonight before I go home."

David took her hands in his. "I better go check on those two I left running the lab. They have been by themselves for more than two hours and are probably goofing off. I bet they’re sitting around drinking the juice they’re supposed to feed the mice."

Reaching behind his head, Karen slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. She touched his lip with her tongue. David put his arms around her tiny waist, lifted her off the floor, and held her in a bone crushing embrace as he passionately kissed her.

To Karen it felt like forever before she was able to gently push him back. "Work is waiting."

"Karen I ..."

"Don't say anything, David. I’m not ready for this. I can't make any commitments now. You are a friend and I would like for you to stay a friend. Right now I’m feeling vulnerable and we’re both running on emotions. As a friend, I’m asking for some time before you say anything. Please?"

He squeezed her and pulled her back into his arms with his nose nestled in her hair. God, she smelled good.

"Karen, as your friend, I would do anything in the world for you. I can't take your place and know what is going on inside your mind since the change. I need some guidance to know how to treat you. Just being close to you is driving me crazy. When you touch me I lose all control. I never had a woman affect me the way you have. I love you because you are you and I hate you because everyone else thinks of you the same way I do."

David held her out at arms' length and chanced a look into those liquid eyes of hers. Breathtaking. "Don't ever change. You’re driving me insane and I love it."

Karen closed the door between them. How do you tell someone you're never going to change? What David was looking at right now, was probably the same thing he would be looking at a year from now. If she lived that long. Well, she had lived for more than four weeks now and it seemed like a lifetime already. There could be a year or more in her future, God willing. Take Henry's advice and live each day as it came. What was it she had heard somewhere? Carpe Diem. Seize the day.

"You two were disgusting."

Leave it to Henry to bring her back to earth. "What did you say?"

"I said, you two were disgusting. You looked like a pair of moose in rutting season."

The console was alive with lights and she slid the keyboard into her lap. "That is moose in mating season, you dope. Rutting season has to do with the antlers losing their velvet."

"Which is what I thought you were about to do."

Karen looked down sharply at her black velvet dress. It was best to change the subject. "How come the hologram is so fuzzy? I thought we had it locked in when I went to the office this morning? You have a power blip while I was away?"
"Au contraire, ma chère. I have been waiting for you to stop your pussyfooting around so you could bring the second one online for today. I have the first one loaded up in memory and am setting the world afire with my lasers. The model isn't completed yet but it's coming along. If you start right now in designing the next model, I will finish the first one ten minutes after you have finished. We will save a full hour and half between models."

Henry was right. She could see the first model was coming together faster than she would have believed possible a few weeks back. "Not bad but you sure do sloppy work while I’m gone."

"In your dreams, Miss Computer Engineer. I do better work alone than what I can get done with you sticking your nose in my work."

It felt good to get back to work with Henry. He was a rock she could lean on.