79 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
79 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
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"Oh, there's my wife now," he murmured, half to himself.
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She took her time making her way over. We all, the Walshes and I,
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kept our eyes locked on her as she wandered through the room. I had
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to check myself and force my focus back to my rye, lest Walsh get
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the wrong idea.
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When she got to us, she didn't so much as glance in my direction.
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Smart girl. Still, it hurt like hell to be that close to her and
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feel nothing but cold distance.
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"Are you almost finished here honey? You know we have to swing by
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the house one more time before going to the shuttle." she said, in
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a bored sort of drawl. Yet, was that love I sensed in her gaze? It
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seemed that way. It seemed she was talking to a guy she really
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loved, a guy that wasn't me. I started to get a bowling-ball
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feeling in my stomach.
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"Yes, darling. We're all done here." Walsh got up and extended his
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hand toward me. "Nice doing business with you Mr. Jules."
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Now she finally looked at me. That look of hers still knocked me
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off my feet so easily. It took me longer than it should have to
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shake Walsh's hand.
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"Yes, well, we'll be in touch after your trip," I muttered, still
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trying to recover my senses.
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Her eyes widened. They were staring right at me and fixing me in
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place.
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"Oh, honey, you mean you haven't sorted all this out yet?" she was
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looking at him again, and had re-adopted her bored expression.
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"Yes, dearie, all finished."
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"But, don't you have to /sign/ something? I really don't want to
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have to bother with all this when we get back."
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"That's not how these things work, my dear. Mr. Jules here has to
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go and draw up the new policies for me to sign."
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"Oh, policies! I'm sure he has plenty of those lying around,
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right?" She looked right at me again. Her gaze seemed to be moving
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my arm into my briefcase, forcing it to magically produce some
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papers.
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"Why, yes, yes I do," I said, sheepishly.
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"Really?" replied Walsh, he was starting to get confused and
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annoyed.
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"Sure I do, sir. And they are those fine, airtight contracts I was
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telling you about."
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"But surely you don't go around with them... oh, anyway, just give
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me one, we must be on our way. I'll look over it on the shuttle."
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"Perhaps..." interrupted Judy, she still wasn't happy, "Perhaps
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this gentleman could join us. Just in case you need to change
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anything in the policy."
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This was starting to get ridiculous. The risks this girl was
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taking.
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"That's absurd, darling. I'm sure he has much better things to be
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doing."
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I knew I had no other choice at this point. If I wanted her - I did
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- I had to follow her lead, right to the bitter end.
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I spoke up, just as they were all turning away from me,
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"Actually, Mr. Walsh, I happen to have all the time in the world."
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And just like that, we were all heading off to the stars together.
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