Previously on Seed of Doubt...
Clark subtly slipped his glasses down, just enough to telescope in on the red gem at Miranda's neck, going down to the stone's molecular makeup.
Kryptonite! he thought with surprise. But red? Is it possible that more than one variety exists? As his head started to pound, he knew with certainty that it truly was a type of Kryptonite. That explains why the perfume was able to affect me though.
That made him feel a little better. At least he'd had a legitimate reason for allowing himself to climb into bed with Lois, breaking every rule he'd ever set for himself. Chief among those rules was the solemn vow to himself to never sleep with anyone who didn't know the full truth about who he was.
Still, now that there's no perfume in the air, I wonder how this is going to affect me, if at all.
"I doubt that you're as innocent as you're trying to make yourself out to be," Lois retorted. "And I intend to expose those lies. Don't leave town. The police are going to want to speak with you."
"Miss Lane," Miranda said coldly, "forgive me, but I hardly think that the unfounded suspicions of two reporters qualifies as a criminal investigation. Luckily for us all, you need evidence of wrongdoing. And you have none. Now, if you don't mind, I have work to do. I'm going to kindly ask you to leave my shop before I call the police and charge you with harassment and defamation of character."
Clark quickly focused on Miranda's carotid artery. He could hear her heart racing, much more than anger could account for. She was lying and scared.
"Fine," Lois snapped. "Come on, Clark. We have work to do."
She grabbed him by the sleeve and ushered him out of the door. Clark felt instantly relieved to be away from the strange breed of red Kryptonite, and the potential to be once again exposed to Revenge. Still, some of the odd perfume's scent must have been in the air, even if only the barest trace of it. His head became crowded with thoughts of Lois.
"She's lying," Lois declared as she stomped her way to the crosswalk.
"I know," Clark said. "Her pulse rate was over one-fifty."
"Huh? How'd you know that?" Lois asked, giving him a funny look.
"I...uh...it's just an expression. Like 'going a mile a minute' or 'shaking like a leaf.' What? You've never heard of it before?"
Lois shook her head. "Must be one of those famous Kansas expressions." She sighed as the light turned green just as they reached the sidewalk. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited to be able to cross. "So, we know she did it. But we need to prove it. I'm just not sure how, yet."
"Ah," Clark replied, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out the miniature atomizer.
"How did you...? Never mind. I don't care how. I just love that you got that," she said, kissing his cheek in her glee.
For Clark, it was a struggle not to float away as the love of his life praised him and put her lips to his flesh.
Here we go again, the tiny voice in the back of his mind said with a resigned sigh.
***
Miranda waited a moment before moving out from behind the counter and to the windows of her shop. Keeping to one side to hopefully stay undetected, she watched as Lois gave Clark a kiss on the cheek. Both reporters were hunched into their coats against the cold, hands shoved deep into their pockets. Overall, Miranda was pleased.
"Those two idiots will never pin this on me," she told Warlock as the cat entered from the back room, jumped up on the counter, and laid down. "They have no evidence. True, they figured out the trail quicker than I would have liked, but they can't prove a thing. Lex will be sorry he didn't listen to me."
"Meow," the cat asserted.
"Yes. I suppose you're right. I probably should call him and arrange for another little test. Someplace different this time. I can't go back to the Daily Planet. Not with those two trying to crack the case."
Lois and Clark disappeared around the corner of the other block, their pace as fast as the Metropolis foot traffic would allow them to go.
"But, where?" she pondered.
Warlock blinked slowly and yawned before shutting his eyes.
"Where, indeed?"
***
"So...where to?" Lois asked. "S.T.A.R. Labs?"
Clark shook his head. "I'm not sure they have the manpower to get this processed right away. There's a woman I know at a government run lab downtown. She can probably do a rush job for us, getting this analyzed. Besides, she owes me a favor."
"Okay, just tell me where to go."
"I can just hop a cab and run it down. No need to make you drive out of your way," he said.
Please, more than anything, I want to be by your side forever.
"I might as well go. This is our case. We both have been affected by this witch's brew."
Clark nodded. "Okay."
"Clark?"
"Yeah?"
"At some point, we're going to need to talk about something other than work."
Is that an invitation to ask about our date? Or does she want to rehash what happened last night?
"Okay," he said in a non-committal tone, unsure what else to say. If he said much more at that moment, he was afraid he'd wind up confessing his deep, abiding love for her.
The perfume is getting to me, he realized. Faster, this time, even though my exposure today has been considerably less than yesterday. Could be because I spent more time today closer to that piece of that strange red Kryptonite she's keeping so close. I wonder where she picked that up, and if she knows just what she's got there.
He saw Lois' frame tense for a fraction of a second. Was she angry with him? Frustrated? He was certainly feeling frustrated. The woman of his dreams was right next to him and he was terrified to speak to her, lest he say things he wasn't yet ready to let out into the open.
"Come on," Clark said. "Let's get down there. There's a great little pizzeria close enough to the lab. We can grab some lunch on the way back to the Planet, my treat."
"Sounds good."
They reached the Jeep and climbed in. Clark patiently gave Lois directions, all the while stealing loving glances at her from the corner of his eye. He tried to pretend, however, that he was focused on the other drivers Lois came close to hitting on more than one occasion. Lois' aggressive driving did have one upside to it - they arrived at the lab just about half an hour later.
Three hours and a shared small pizza later, they were ready to make their way back to work. Lois still sipped her cream soda through a straw from the Styrofoam cup, while Clark still nursed his Mountain Dew.
"Pheromones, huh?" Lois asked. "Never heard of 'em."
"Sure you have, Lois," Clark said, feeling a bit more cheerful now that they had a logical explanation for everyone's bizarre behavior. "Pheromones. 'A chemical substance secreted by animals which produces specific responses to other individuals of the same species.' You would have learned about them in basic biology."
Lois gave him a funny look. "Did you memorize the dictionary?"
"I read a lot. Speed read, if you must know," he added, gauging that she wasn't done asking questions from the look on her face.
"At any rate," Lois said, "I'm glad it wears off as quickly as it does."
"I agree. Can you imagine more than twenty-four to forty-eight hours of not being in control of your emotions? Of being completely and hopelessly uninhibited?"
"Those hours yesterday were more than enough for me," Lois grumbled.
Clark's heart sank. While he hadn't liked feeling so out of control, being with Lois had been one of the most amazing moments of his life. Now, however, she sounded bitter about everything that had transpired.
"I don't get it," she continued. "Your friend, Dr. Friedman, said that this stuff only works if you are already physically attracted to a person. Only then can it override a person's normal restraint."
"Right," Clark said, though cautiously. Was Lois about to deny that she was attracted to him, despite having agreed to date him? "If there's any animal magnetism there to begin with, the perfume inhibits the part of their brain which would normally act as an intellectual defense mechanism, leaving that person completely helpless to control themselves."
"You can't tell me that all of our co-workers are just a perfume sniff away from tearing each other's clothes off. I mean, just about everyone in the newsroom went nuts for each other. And Perry! Attracted to Rehalia? I just...I'm having a hard time seeing that. At all."
Clark nearly collapsed from relief. "I guess you really never know," he said, shrugging, and struggling to maintain his composure.
"I guess that's true."
"Anyway, at least we have a defense for Perry to fight his harassment suit with," Clark observed.
Lois nodded as they got back into the car. A moment later, she pulled away from the curb.
"I just don't get it. Why would Miranda want to wreck havoc on the Planet?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.
Clark shrugged. "Maybe she was having a really hard time trying to find a date?" he offered, though he knew the joke had already been made before.
Lois cracked a small smile, but that was it. Clark mentally sighed. He just wasn't sure what to do next, or how to interact with Lois. And with the lingering effects of the perfume from just being in Miranda's shop, he was terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing. At least, this time, the exposure had been so slight that, although he knew he was being affected, he felt mostly in control of himself, a reassuring thing after the previous night.
They rode in relative silence after that. Clark occasionally broke the quiet to give her directions, taking several shortcuts that he knew of. The uncomfortable silence lasted until they rejoined the rest of their co-workers in the newsroom. They took their findings straight to Perry, who they found sulking in his office, a white bandage gingerly placed on his broken nose.
"Oh, geez, Chief. Does it hurt?" Lois asked, peering at the bandage.
"Only when I laugh," the Chief grumbled. "And there is very little danger of that happening."
"Well, we have some good news for you," Clark said. "We have your defense right here." He handed over the sheet of paper that Dr. Friedman had furnished them with.
"What's this?"
"Everything you need to defeat that harassment suit," Clark said. "We can prove you weren't in control of your actions."
Perry lifted a suspicious eyebrow. "How?"
"Pheromones," Lois said simply.
"Huh?"
"Basically, you...us...we were all sprayed with pheromones and it made us lose all our inhibitions," Clark quickly explained.
Perry looked over the paper. "This should help the suit," he finally conceded. "But what about Alice? She found out and kicked me out of the house."
"Go to her," Clark urged. "Shower her with gifts. Show her how much you love her. Wine and dine her."
Perry sighed resignedly. "This is going to cost me a trip or seven to the opera, isn't it?"
Lois shrugged helplessly. "Maybe?"
"Aw, hell. Jimmy! I need you to run down to the opera house for me!" Perry yelled out the door. "You two," he said, pointing with two fingers. "I want you on this until whoever is responsible for this has been caught. Got it?"
"We'll make it our top priority," Clark said.
One of them, anyway. We still need to take down Luthor.
"Got it," Lois said at nearly the same instant. As they left Perry's office, she looked at Clark. "Let's start with a bio on her."
"You read my mind," he replied, leading her to his desk.
He stole Jimmy's chair from the adjacent desk for Lois, before sitting in his own. He cracked his knuckles as he waited for his computer to boot up. As soon as he was connected to the system, he began his search for whatever information he could pull up. After ten minutes, he grinned.
"Got it. Our bio on Miranda."
"First in her class at M.I.T.," Lois said, reading the screen.
"Research funded by Luthor Industries," Clark said, his eyebrows raised.
"He funds half the scientists in the city," Lois pointed out. "I'm not sure there's enough to link the two."
"I think there is," Clark argued. "Think about it. She has a perfume named Revenge. A perfume the entire newsroom got sprayed with - leaving us all feeling like we were no longer in control of our actions. The same excuse Luthor gave the police after his arrest."
"You think she sprayed Lex first?"
"I'd bet on it, yeah." His voice barely broke above a whisper as he said the words, hating that it seemed like Luthor had a defense for his heinous crime.
Lois seemed to freeze as the implications of that statement hit her, especially since she and Clark knew first hand how overwhelmingly strong the perfume's effects were. After a moment of what looked to be some internal struggle to retain her composure, she seemed to return to the Mad Dog reporter that Clark knew and loved.
"Then what? She got bored and hit the newsroom?"
"I don't know," Clark said, shaking his head. "Maybe the perfume failed to produce the intended result. Maybe hitting the Planet was a test to see if it actually worked at all. Or maybe it was an attempt to prove that it did, either to Luthor or her fellow scientists. I'm not entirely sure it matters. All that matters is stopping her before she decides to do something like this again."
"Obviously she hasn't read the news," Lois said. "She hit the bullpen after Lex was already in police custody."
Clark shook his head. "Maybe not. Who knows?"
"At least it's worn off," Lois said, glancing around at their co-workers. "This place was a real mess yesterday."
"That, we can agree on," Clark said, nodding.
"Agree on what?" Cat asked, strutting by, still in the previous day's clothes, holding her sparkly silver heels in one hand.
Clark bit back a laugh as Lois said, "Well, maybe not."
"What?" Cat demanded to know.
"Oh, nothing," Lois said, grinning. "Just thinking. You must have gotten a huge whiff of that perfume yesterday."
"Perfume?" Cat asked.
That was all it took for Lois. She began to laugh and Clark couldn't help but join her.
"What are you talking about?"
"You didn't get sprayed with that god-awful smelling perfume?" Lois asked, now serious.
Cat thought. "I don't..."
"You know what, never mind," Clark said, shaking his head.
"No, what?" Cat said, angrily tapping her foot. It was no secret that the self-styled "Gossip Queen" hated to be left in the dark about anything. "Tell me."
"Okay," Clark said, in an effort to make Cat go about her business and leave them to theirs. "Most of the newsroom got sprayed by a pheromone-laced perfume. It made everyone lose their minds and go head over heels in love. We thought, since you, uh...were so friendly with the copy repair guy, that maybe you were affected too."
"Head over heels in love?" Cat repeated. "Felt left out, did you, Lois?"
Lois bristled at the dig, but said nothing. Clark supposed it was better than alerting the presses that he and Lois had intimately spent the night together. They would never hear the end of it, especially from Cat. The woman was forever trading insults with Lois and making unwanted advances toward Clark, though she never pressed him hard enough that he felt comfortable making a formal complaint against her. He'd long ago come to accept that that was just the way Cat was.
"Cat?" Clark asked politely.
"Yes?"
"Would you mind giving us some space? We have a lot of ground to cover trying to gather our proof so we can get this woman in jail, where she belongs."
Cat eyed him, perhaps trying to assess if there was more to his request, but she did nod. "I have to get home and changed anyway. I'm supposed to be interviewing Lenny Stokes tonight at his new club." She did a little dance move, indicating that she was ready to party. "I hear that I fit his type."
"Loud and trashy?" Lois retorted with a snort of disapproval.
"Ooh, the burn," Cat said, rolling her eyes, but at least she started to walk away.
"Don't let her get to you," Clark said, giving Lois a smile. "She knows she'll never be as classy or respectable as you."
At least that chased away the scowl on her face. "You think so?"
"I know so. Now, let's see what else we can dig up, okay?"
By six o'clock, however, no fresh information or leads had turned up. Clark yawned and stretched, causing Lois to do the same as she looked over at him from her own desk. She looked tired and frustrated, he could see. As for himself, he was feeling frustrated as well, and a bit stiff from being bent over his work for so long. It was time to throw in the towel for the night. Perhaps some time away from the case would help put it into fresh perspective - and hopefully a new angle - when they returned to it in the morning.
He stood and stretched again, hearing the muscles in his back and shoulders pop. It felt good. He looked to Lois, and realized, for the first time, that the perfume must have worn off again. He was no more besotted with her than normal. That was the first good news for him in hours. He went to her desk and shrugged helplessly as she looked expectantly up at him.
"Nothing," he said simply. "You?"
She shook her head. "Nothing."
"I think we should call it quits for the night," Clark suggested. "We can come back to it tomorrow with fresh eyes and clearer heads."
"I hate to admit it, but you're probably right," Lois said. "Dinner?"
"Sure. What do you want?"
"You tell me."
"I don't know," he said as he helped her into her coat. "Did you want..." he swallowed around his discomfort. "Did you still want to stay at my place? Just to be on the safe side? Or would you prefer to go back to your place?"
"My place," Lois said decisively, as relief and sadness dueled in Clark's heart. "I need to pick up something. Then yours. I'm still not sure I'm ready to be alone at my place."
Clark nodded. "I promise, no surprises this time," he joked weakly. "I'll stay on the couch, all night." When Lois didn't respond, he added, "So, what are we getting at your place?"
"Huh?" she asked, distractedly. "Oh. You'll see."
That was all she would tell him, no matter what else he asked, or what he guessed. She even made him wait in the car when they arrived at her building. She was gone all of fifteen minutes, then came rushing back down the steps in the front of her building, a bag in her hands. She jumped behind the wheel once more.
"Everything okay?" Clark asked, as she pulled away from the curb.
"Everything's fine. At least, it appears to be. I think I was half afraid to come back and, I don't know, find the place ransacked or something." She sighed. "I hate this, Clark."
"I know," he said sympathetically. "And I promise, I'll do whatever it takes to make you feel safe again. You have my word."
"I know," she said, giving him a smile, before turning back to the road.
A little while later, they arrived safely at Clark's apartment. He unlocked the door and went straight to the kitchen, checking his closets and fridge. He nodded to himself as he took stock of what he had, and what he could possibly make with it.
"How do fajitas sound?" he asked, pulling his head back out of the fridge for the third time.
"Lovely," Lois replied, but again, he heard the distraction in her voice.
"Go, get changed," Clark told her, as he gathered what he needed for their dinner. "I'll handle this."
"Thanks."
She disappeared, only to reappear half an hour later, showered and clad in pink flannel pajama pants with a matching top. Reluctantly, she took over for Clark while he changed, promising to keep a distant, but watchful, eye on the sizzling chicken that was cooking in a pan on the stovetop. When Clark reemerged into the kitchen, she was fearfully poking at the chicken with a spatula.
"Thanks," he said, now in his pajamas to match Lois, though his pants were red and his thermal style shirt gray. "Looks like you kept things well under control." He took up a pair of tongs and checked the doneness of the chicken before systematically flipping each of the strips that he'd cut.
"I'll set the table," Lois said, sounding relieved to be not be responsible for the food anymore.
Ten minutes later, Clark removed the chicken from the heat and brought everything to the table. After some internal debate, he decided on offering soda to Lois, rather than wine. He still wasn't sure how familiar he should be acting around her. Would she see wine as an attempt to get her even slightly drunk and back into his bed?
Hungrily, they both dug into their food, eating with gusto. Clark kept Lois talking, mostly about other cases they were working on. He refused her offer to help with the dishes when they were finished, tasking her, instead, with finding something to watch on television. But when he finally joined her in the living room after putting everything away, he found her sitting cross-legged on the couch with the television screen lifeless before her.
"Nothing good on?" he asked, settling down on the opposite end of the couch.
"I didn't check."
"Oh," he said, feigning understanding, though her answer confused him.
"I thought you might want your birthday present first," she said, nodding to the cheerful blue, green, and orange wrapped item sitting on the coffee table. "I meant to give this to you yesterday, but then things got a little...out of hand and I totally forgot about it."
"Thank you, Lois," Clark said, reaching for the thick rectangular item. It was heavy in his hands as he picked it up.
Carefully, he tore the paper on one end. Once he got a hole made, he slid his finger in and pulled it along the rest of the paper, leaving a long tear in his wake. Finally, he pulled the paper away, only to smile as the item was revealed.
"My favorite book," he said. "Thank you."
"Open it," Lois instructed him, waving toward the top cover.
Clark did as he was told. He sucked in a breath when he saw the inscription inside, along with the author's signature.
"How did you get this?" he asked in awe. "Richard Karhold never signs his books."
"Well, not never but rarely," Lois corrected him. "Let's just say I know a guy who knows a guy who knows Richard Karhold. I cashed in a few favors when you mentioned this book to me a couple of months ago." She shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
Clark shook his head and put the book down. "Thank you, Lois. I don't know what to say. I love it."
I love you more.
He went to hug her but stopped midway, unsure. For a moment, he hesitated, then finally allowed himself to give her a brief hug, too brief for his liking and far too brief to even be called friendly. It made him mourn for the easy friendship they'd been sharing for so long.
"I'm glad you like it," Lois said, though it somehow sounded awkward, as if she was also unsure of how to act and speak.
"Like it?" He shook his head again. "Lois, this is one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received."
She gave him a timid smile as a blanket of silence fell around them. A minute or two passed, each looking uncomfortable in that fragile silence, each appearing to want to broach the quiet but failing to find the right words. Another minute passed before Lois finally cleared her throat gently.
"Clark...I think we need to talk."
"Talk?" he asked, aware that he was parroting her.
She nodded. "I'm not sure how to start this," she confided.
"Start what? You know you can talk to me about anything."
"That's just it!" she said, seeming almost grateful for the opening he'd provided for her.
"That's what?"
"I used to be able to talk to you about anything. But ever since the other night, when I showed up here after my interview - and especially since we slept together last night - it's like...like I don't know you."
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Of course you know me."
"Not the way I used to," she said, shaking her head. "Clark, you're my best friend. I've told you more about myself than anyone else. Hell, you even bring me my favorite snacks when I'm upset even before I admit to being upset. But in the last two days - minus whatever we might have said while under the pheromone perfume's influence - it's like you're a different person. Like...like you're walking on eggshells around me."
"I didn't realize..."
"I think you did realize you were acting differently," she said, cutting in. "You've been acting so...aloof, I guess. Well, maybe that's not the right word. But...different. Like you have no idea what to say to me or if you're allowed to still be my friend. All day, since we first left for the Planet, you've been strictly business. All through lunch, all through dinner. All business. It's like my best friend disappeared and was replaced by some stranger."
"I wasn't sure..." Clark said, struggling for words.
But Lois didn't seem to hear him. "I mean, we were supposed to go out on our first date tonight, Clark! Instead, we're sitting here in our pajamas after a home-cooked meal during which all we talked about was work! I mean, don't get me wrong. Dinner was wonderful. I can't remember the last time I had fajitas that good. But...and I don't want to look like some greedy, high maintenance woman here...but I'd really hoped for something a bit more romantic. Was last night so bad for you that you wanted to back out of our date?"
Clark's jaw opened in shock. "No! Of course not!"
"Then why are you treating me so differently?" she asked in a quiet voice, having lost the momentum and passion she'd had just a moment before.
Clark turned in his seat to look at her directly. Lightly, he touched her shoulders with both of his hands as he looked her in the eyes.
"Lois, last night..." he shook his head, embarrassed, but mentally trying to will Lois to see the truth in his words. "Last night...from what I remember of it...it was the best night of my life. I never knew that things could be that amazing. If I've treated you any differently than normal, it's because I'm not really sure what to do here. I'm lost, Lois. I'm afraid. Afraid of making you uncomfortable. Afraid of doing or saying something that might...push you away."
Lois sighed, but at least it sounded a little relieved. She laughed a little and the vice around Clark's heart loosened a little. "Haven't you ever done this before?" she asked, mischief in her eyes.
Clark looked down as a blush crept over his features. "Not exactly."
"Not...exactly?"
"I've uh...I've never actually...uh..." he stammered.
"Clark? Are you telling me...?"
Clark sighed. "I could never be with anyone I didn't love, Lois."
Lois looked to be on the verge of panic. "So, what you're saying is...that you're a vi...v...very patient man? Someone who saved himself for...what? Marriage? His engagement? At the very least a long time girlfriend? And that I...stole that from you?"
"No! Yes. I mean...you've got it half right, Lois. I did...save myself for when I found the one woman I could love and share everything with."
"Oh, God," Lois moaned in embarrassment.
"But you didn't steal anything," he quickly amended. "Lois, last night...it wasn't about you taking charge or me pressing for us to sleep together. We both wanted what happened."
"Because of a stupid perfume!"
That was a blow to Clark's heart. "Not for me, it wasn't," he said in a quiet voice. "Lois, you had to have known, before tonight, that I've liked you for a long time. I started to fall for you the moment you stormed in on my interview with Perry. By the time you warned me not to fall for you, that you didn't have the time for it, it was already a lost cause."
He stood up and paced to the dining room table where they had shared their dinner. "Last night...it wasn't a mistake. At least, it wasn't for me. What I...gave up...last night? It was to exactly the person I'd been waiting for my whole life."
"So, why did you try to push me away?" Lois asked.
Clark ran his fingers though his hair. "Because I was sure that you viewed last night as a mistake. I know you haven't had a great track record with sharing a bed with men you work with. I was afraid you'd mark me off as another disaster, even though I wasn't going to go out and steal an award winning investigation from you."
"Clark?"
"Yeah?" he asked, now feeling thoroughly punched in the gut.
"Come here," Lois instructed him, and he did what he was told, retaking his seat on the couch. Then, "I never said last night was a mistake."
"You...what?" he asked, wondering if he'd possibly heard right.
"Look, I'll admit it. I hate the idea, in general, of starting a relationship off by exploring the physical aspects of it. But, I don't know. Last night...it wasn't some stranger that I was...doing that with. It was...I don't know. Different. I thought I knew Paul and Claude when we finally...you know. But you. I know you, Clark. I know you wouldn't hurt me."
Clark nodded, in an effort to conceal how hard he was swallowing.
But I already have, he thought bitterly. And I have to continue to do it for some time to come. I need to know. Will you - can you - choose the ordinary man, without knowing of his super side?
"I guess I owe you a real date," he said instead, being as cheerful as he could. "Do you accept I.O.U.s?"
Lois smiled. "Only from special people. But don't make me wait too long, Kent. I'm patient, but I have my limits." She waggled a warning finger at him in mock remonstration.
Clark laughed and felt the last of his apprehension falling from his shoulders and chest. "I'd say tomorrow, but I doubt we'll get a table at Chez Reynaldo's with such short notice."
"Chez Reynaldo's? Clark, that place is ridiculously overpriced!"
"Maybe, but they have some of the best food in the city."
"Clark, you realize that you don't have to prove yourself by emptying your wallet on one meal, don't you? I don't mind something more low-key."
"Well..." he said, thinking. "If you're not on board with Chez Reynaldo's, there's always Lucia's on Edison and Hickory."
"Much better. I could go for their shrimp parm. Besides, we'll definitely be able to get a table there. And it's a more intimate setting - so much easier to have a conversation in."
"It's settled then," Clark said with a grin. "Tomorrow night, we'll have a real first date."
To Be Continued...
