Table of Contents Sorry it's been a while. Does everyone remember where we were? Here's a refresher:
From Part 8:
Finally!
“Hello, Dr. Klein. It’s Clark Kent. Lois Lane and I spoke with you a couple of days ago...”
“You did?” the doctor’s voice sounded a little confused.
“Uh, yeah, remember... Project Nirvana?” Clark shifted the receiver to his other ear so he could grab his notes from the other side of his desk.
“Oh. Oh, yes, of course. Sorry, I’ve been really busy...”
“Yeah. I know.” He didn’t need Dr. Klein to tell him that. “That day we were in your lab, you were about to tell us more about the drug.”
“Yes.”
Clark waited but got no further response. “Well...?”
“Oh! Now? No, I don’t think that would be a good idea. Better to meet me in person. Can you meet me at the lab tonight? Say six o’clock?”
Clark grimaced, exactly when Lois was supposed to have dinner with Dan. He had wanted the opportunity to be “available” during that time frame, so that maybe he could swing by and check on things... okay, spy on them. He shook his head at himself.
Then an idea hit him that brought a slow smile to his face. Maybe he could convince Lois to cancel her dinner and interview Dr. Klein with him instead.
“Six o’clock would be perfect. Thanks, Dr. Klein.”
**********
PART NINE
**********
Lois sat behind the little glass pane, staring at the telephone receiver next to her on the wall of the cubicle. She probably should have called Clark to tell him where she was going.
But why? What was he? Her nursemaid? He certainly wasn’t her boyfriend. So why call him?
Because he’s your partner... and your friend, her mind berated her.
Well it was too late now. The guards had confiscated her purse – and therefore her cell phone along with it - before admitting her to the visitation area. So she couldn’t call him now... besides, she’d head straight to the Planet after she got finished here.
She turned her attention back to the glass in front of her. What exactly was she going to ask him when she saw him?
The door on the other side of the glass opened, and Bill Church, Jr. swaggered in through it.
His eyebrows went up in surprise when he saw who was there to visit him and he flashed her a smug smile as he pulled out the chair to sit down.
They both picked up their receivers and he was the first one to speak. “Well, Ms. Lane, what a surprise. What brings you to my humble little abode?”
“Project Nirvana.”
If her knowledge about it surprised him, he wasn’t letting it show.
“What about it?” he chuffed. “You do know that no connection has ever been made on that one to Intergang.”
“And *you* know that’s only a matter of time," she bluffed. "Here’s your chance to get the facts straight," she persuaded.
“What facts? Why should I tell you anything? Give a little, get a little, Ms. Lane.”
That phrase seemed oddly familiar... like she had said it recently. The thought was there, just out of her reach. She shook off the feeling and sighed in frustration before answering him. “After the arrest of Knox, the remaining samples of the drug were sent to STAR Labs for testing, and I’m just guessing here, but probably for experimentation, too.”
“No doubt. I’m sure the government would love to discover how to manufacture a drug like that... unofficially, of course.”
“Of course,” she agreed. She was certain there were people, or entire groups, that the CIA, FBI, or NIA were just dying to brainwash.
“But what does this have to do with me?”
“The drug was stolen from STAR Labs two nights ago, along with the research notes.”
“Really...” he said with feigned disinterest, “and you’re telling me this because...?”
“Cut the crap, Church, who is helping you?”
“Helping me? I had nothing to do with that break-in.” He lifted an appraising eyebrow at her. “I am in prison, you know.”
“I never said that you did.” She grinned at him – she had his interest now. “I think someone is about to set you up. So who else knew about Project Nirvana?”
For several seconds he sat frozen, his eyes looking past her as he considered her words. Then Bill Jr. swore under his breath and rose from the table, turning his back to her. His hands clenched and unclenched and then he turned back around. When he sat down again, his face had lost every trace of its former polite disinterest. “She double-crossed me. She’s fooled everyone,” he said softly.
Lois wracked her brain. She? There was a ‘she’ behind Intergang? Then she remembered the article about Bill Church, Sr., getting remarried. Lois had even seen *her*, just this morning on a chat show while she was in the doctor’s office waiting room. What was her name? Cindy? Mindy? Whatever it was, the vapid blonde on-screen had simply made her snort at the vanity of men like Bill Church who thought they could turn back time with a trophy wife.
“She who? Your father’s new wife?”
“She’s not the brainless ‘Little Miss Innocent’ that she claims to be, Ms. Lane. Don’t let her fool you. If someone’s stolen that drug, you can bet that Mindy’s involved.”
Lois smirked. “That was a pretty abrupt change of heart. Just why are you so willing to share this information with me?” she asked him, feeling suspicious of his sudden charity.
“Why? Because it’s Mindy’s fault that I’m in here to begin with, double-crossing little tramp!”
“Oh,” was all Lois managed to say. She remembered reading something about Bill Jr. having sworn it was Mindy behind not only the attempted bombing of the art museum, but also the attempt on Lois’s life – whatever that had been about.
Was there anyone who wasn’t out to get her?
She pulled her mind away from that depressing thought and back to Mindy Church. This could definitely be the break they had been looking for in the story! If she could tie this back to Mindy Church and further tie her back to Intergang...
She could practically smell the Pulitzer now!
**********
Clark checked his watch again. Lois still wasn’t back yet and he was getting worried. He had called the doctor’s office and they had told him that she had left over an hour ago in a cab.
He had tried calling her cell phone but she wasn’t answering. He strode purposefully up the ramp to the elevators and reached out to press the down arrow.
So where was she?
His mind immediately jumped to conclusions. What if she was being held hostage by some criminal mastermind? What if she was hurt? What if she was lying unconscious somewhere in a gutter? Images flashed through his mind of lifting her unconscious body up into his arms and flying her to the hospital.
He had known that she wasn’t dead, even before the doctor had explained that she had a concussion, but that hadn’t made him feel any better.
And these thoughts weren’t making him feel any better now...
Impatiently shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he stood almost plastered to the outside of the elevator doors. In fact, he was standing so close to the doors that when they opened Lois plowed right into him.
“Mmmpf,” she exclaimed, bouncing off of him like a pinball. He reached out and steadied her before she could fall.
His body perked at the contact of her body against him. She was here and she was safe. The anxiety that had been building inside him slowly ebbed away. Oh god, he wanted to throw his arms around her and hug her tightly to him.
Not that she would have let him do that.
“Lois! Are you okay? Where have you been?”
She could hear the concern in his voice and her heart lurched, making her feel just the tiniest bit guilty. She held onto him a little tighter even though she had regained her balance. It wouldn’t take much for her to embrace him. Part of her just wanted to wrap her arms around him and shut out the rest of the world.
But he wouldn’t have let her. And she certainly wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of turning her down, again.
“Interviewing Bill Church, Jr.,” she answered, trying to focus on the story so that she didn’t have to think about things that would only upset her.
“In prison?” Clark asked, letting go of her.
She made sure to hide her disappointment at the loss of his touch. “No,” she rolled her eyes, “at his summer home in the Hamptons. Yes, in prison.”
“Why didn’t you call me? I could have gone with you.” His face looked hurt and the ache in his voice broke through the barrier to her heart, causing her to briefly wonder exactly why she really hadn’t called him.
Because you’re mad at him, she reminded herself. Focus.
“I’m perfectly capable of tracking down some leads on my own, thank you very much. I’m an amnesiac, not a five-year-old,” she scolded him.
“I know that,” Clark said a little sharply. He strained to control his voice. He knew she was still upset with him, but couldn’t she see how worried he had been? Didn’t she care? He continued on softer, letting a little of the hurt creep into his voice, “But when I called the doctor’s office to check on you they told me that they’d had to call you a cab. I would have picked you up if you had only called.”
Lois steeled her heart against the pain in his voice. Not this time. She wouldn’t be feeling this way or treating him this way if he hadn’t abandoned her to begin with. How could he expect her to lean on him now when he had deserted her like that before? Was he really that dense?
She waved him away and started heading towards her desk. “Clark, I’m not going to call you up every time I have some eensy weensy little problem – after all, you’re not my boyfriend.” She turned and eyed him pointedly.
“I’m your partner,” he chastised her. “And hopefully I’m still your friend. And your doctor told me to look out for you.”
There was that whole ‘friend’ thing again. He couldn’t be engaged to her, married to her, but it was okay to be friends with her?
Yes, he apparently really was that dense and in more ways than one.
“Well, I’m doing better. The doctor seemed pretty encouraged at my progress.” She purposefully left out the ‘passing out in the doctor’s office’ part, not feeling like listening to a lecture from Clark or being fussed over by him. “But anyway, enough about that. I don’t want to talk about *that* anymore. What I do want to talk about is Mindy Church.”
Clark *did* want to talk more about things. He kept trying to look for an opening, watch for an opportunity to tell her that he had been wrong not to discuss his decision with her. That he was ready to hear what she had to say.
That he was willing to concede that he might have been wrong.
But that opening, that opportunity, wasn’t now. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with her in her current frame of mind so he let it go... for now. “Mindy Church? As in Bill Sr.’s new ditzy, blonde wife?”
“Uh-huh. According to Bill Jr., she may have gotten her hands on information about Project Nirvana.”
Clark knew immediately where Lois’s brain was headed with this... amnesia or not. “And you think she could possibly be the one behind the break-in at STAR Labs?” He paused for a moment and then shook his head, a broad smile breaking out on his face. “You’re not serious, are you? Mindy? Are we remembering the same woman? Have you forgotten how...”
Lois gave him a stare that could pierce steel.
He ducked his head and gave her an embarrassed grimace. “Sorry, bad choice of words. Of course you don’t remember her. Lois, believe me, Mindy is not the one behind this. She called Bill, Sr. her ‘Hunky’.” He rolled his eyes. “She’s nothing more than a ‘trophy wife’ – the looks of a Barbie Doll with the depth to match.”
She scowled at him. “Maybe your hormones are clouding your judgment. I haven’t actually met her.” The scowl deepened. “At least not, that I can remember, anyway. Maybe there’s more to her than meets the eye,” she argued, even though she had thought the exact same thing when she’d seen Mindy in that interview earlier. “She may not be as ditzy as everyone believes. Anyway, I think it would at least be worth the trip to interview her. I was going to see if she could meet us for a late lunch.”
“Fine by me. We’ve gotta get moving on this story. Perry said he could only keep the publishers at bay for probably one more day before he had to either give them something or reassign us.” Clark paused for a moment and ran a hand through his hair tentatively. “I also have dinner plans that might interest you.”
Was he serious? Lois put her hand on her hip. “Dinner plans? Clark, don’t start with me. Surely you remember that I’m having dinner with Dan tonight. I need to find out what he can tell me...”
“Dr. Klein agreed to meet with me at six tonight,” he interrupted, “to enlighten us on what he was about to tell us the other day.”
He could see the sparkle of interest in her eyes – but obviously it wasn’t enough because she began shaking her head from side to side. “Nope. Sometimes partners have to work together and sometimes, for the greater good, they have to split up.” She gave him a pointed look. “Especially if we’ve only got one more day to get something for Perry. I’ll interview Dan, you interview Dr. Klein and we can meet up tomorrow and compare notes.”
He didn’t look happy.
The funny thing was, Lois didn’t feel very happy, either. Isn’t this what she had wanted to do? Hurt him? Make him realize that he was wrong? Show him what it would be like if she moved on without him?
No. That’s not what she really wanted. What she really wanted was to be with him.
But she wasn’t about to tell him that.
Before he could open his mouth to offer any alternatives she picked up her phone and began dialing. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll see if I can get us a lunch date with Mrs. Church. I get the distinct feeling after talking to Bill, Jr. that she isn’t the brainless blonde that she pretends to be.”
**********
“Oooh, Ms. Lane, Mr. Kent. I just love to read your paper,” Mindy said enthusiastically after they had all exchanged greetings and sat down at the table.
Lois picked up a menu and glanced at it. Her stomach growled - everything looked good. But, first things first. “Oh? You read our articles?” She was surprised Mindy would admit to that if she was trying to pull off being a bombshell boob, which if Mindy’s outfit was any indicator, that’s exactly what she was going for. Lois tried her best to hide her feeling of revulsion at the skin-tight, low-cut dress Mindy had chosen to wear for their interview.
Really, did the woman have no pride? No shame?
<The looks of a Barbie doll with the depth to match...>Lois risked a glance over at Clark to see what he was looking at... Mindy’s face. His eyes appeared to be glued to Mindy’s, not allowing his vision to drift even a millimeter lower.
Good.
Good? Was she honestly even thinking of feeling jealous over Clark? Better yet, over Mindy? Yes, yes she was. She sighed inwardly. Apparently Clark wasn’t the only one who hadn’t thought about what it would be like to see the person he loved move on. She hadn’t thought about it either.
And she didn’t want to think about it – especially not right now. She had more important things to focus on.
“No,” Mindy said absently. “I don’t really care for the news. But I do read the fashion articles and movie reviews.”
Lois smirked. Hah, big surprise there... that is, if you took Mindy at face value.
Mindy took a little sip of her water through a straw and smiled brightly at Clark. “And I love the sale ads. They’re so perky and shiny and you always have my favorite stores.”
Ahh, yes. That was definitely more like Mindy, Lois thought, or more like the woman that Mindy *wanted* people to see.
“Mrs. Church,” Clark said, catching Mindy’s attention before Lois could say something insulting, “we came here to find out if you know anything about something your... uh... stepson...” Clark stammered. It took an extreme stretch of the imagination to think of Bill Jr. as her stepson, “...was working on, called Project Nirvana?”
“Project Nirvana? I thought maybe this was an interview about the new perfume fragrance I’m designing.” She crinkled up her mouth into what she obviously deemed to be a cute little pout.
And it would have been a cute little pout - to um... the right interested party. Clark just happened to *not* be that party. He found Lois’s pout much more persuasive. In fact, when Lois turned that look of hers on him, he was putty in her hands.
He wondered if she knew that?
He wondered if that’s why he had left so abruptly the night he told her that they couldn’t be together any longer.
Oh, it was true that there had been an emergency and Clark had been called away. But it hadn’t been *that* big of an emergency. A drunk driver had run into a fire hydrant in the uptown commercial district; water had been shooting everywhere, flooding the street.
But hardly something that had required the assistance of Superman.
And yet he had flown there anyway. He had stopped the leak and assisted the police with the cleanup and removal of the wrecked vehicle.
Anything to have gotten him out of Lois’s apartment.
He had already seen the look on her face, the tears in her eyes, when she had realized what he was telling her. The same tears he had seen in her eyes last night. If he hadn’t left that night when he had, he might not have stood by his decision.
Would that have been such a bad thing?
But he had done it for her. Couldn’t she see that? He had done it because he loved her too much to be the reason that she had been hurt.
The only problem was that, now, he was seeing things differently.
“Hmm, Project Nirvana?” Mindy said again, looking bewildered. “Isn’t that like a rock band or something?”
“No, more like something a rock band might take,” Lois mumbled, rolling her eyes. “Project Nirvana is a drug that we believe your husband and step-son were working on through Intergang with a company by the name of Omnicorp. Have you ever talked to or met a man named Charles Knox?”
“Intergang? I don’t know anything about Intergang, Ms. Lane. I was as shocked as you were to learn that my sweet little Hunky could possibly be involved in anything criminal.” Lois rolled her eyes – no *she* hadn’t been surprised at all. Lois had been working for months trying to prove a connection between the Churches and Intergang.
Clark decided to try a different tactic. “There was a break-in two nights ago at STAR Labs, Mrs. Church. We’re trying to track down anyone who may have known about Project Nirvana or who may have had connections to Intergang or Charles Knox. Has anyone called you, trying to contact your husband or Bill Jr.? Or asked you for any information?”
“No. But that’s probably because they know I don’t know anything. When the police arrested...” she broke off to let out a sniffle and dab a dainty hanky to the corner of one eye, “my husband, they couldn’t find much of anything about Intergang. All the files, the computers, everything had disappeared, and anything that was left behind was confiscated by the police and locked up for the trial.”
It seemed to Lois that Mindy got an almost wicked gleam in her eye before she continued, “It’s a good thing that whoever cleaned everything out missed the one file about the bomb at the museum and ‘Joe the Blow’, otherwise the police might not have had enough to arrest...” she let out a small sob and drew her face into that *pout* again before continuing. “Little did I know I was married to the ‘Devil Incarcerate.’”
“Devil Incarnate,” Lois corrected her and then smirked – although incarcerate sort of worked in this case...
Mindy gave her a confused look. “Huh?”
“Never mind,” Lois soothed. If Mindy really was a smart as Lois thought she might be, it had to be painful to act this dumb. But if so, it was a very good diversionary tactic.
Mindy sobbed again, blotting at her eyes and sniffling. She looked back up at Lois, looked over at Clark, and then back at Lois again. “Hey... are you guys still a *thing*? You looked so cute together at that museum party. I just knew you had to be a *thing*.”
“Uh, no,” Lois answered her, throwing an annoyed look over at Clark, “We’re not a *thing*... anymore... It didn’t really work out.” Lois shook her head mentally – what was she doing telling this woman about her social life?
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Mindy told them, doing a good job of sounding sincere. “What happened? I mean, it’s not like you found out he was the crime boss of Metropolis or something.” More sniffles.
“I, uh,” Lois stammered, feeling increasingly more uncomfortable about disclosing information from her private life to a complete stranger... especially with Clark sitting right here.
Clark... sitting right here...
“You’ll have to ask him,” Lois told her, jerking her thumb over towards Clark. “He’s the one who broke it off.” Lois didn’t understand why she was doing this. It was ridiculous and she really needed to get Mindy back on track, but something inside her just needed some justification – even if it was from Mindy Church.
Mindy looked up at Clark expectantly and he could feel the color in his cheeks visibly deepening. “Um, Mrs. Church, back to the topic of Project Nirvana. If you think of anything or come across anything that might help us...” Clark wrote the Planet phone number down on a piece of paper and handed it to her. “Give us a call, okay?”
“Sure.” She smiled suddenly at them, her tears apparently forgotten. She scooted her chair back and started to stand up.
“Are you leaving? We haven’t even ordered yet.” Lois eyed her suspiciously. Where had she decided she needed to go, all of the sudden?
“Oooh, all this talk about Bill and Intergang... I just don’t have an appetite anymore. Besides, the two of you look like you could use a lunch alone. I’ll call if I think of anything.” Mindy reached out and gave Lois’s hand a quick squeeze before applying her lips to Clark’s cheek in an affectionate *smooch*. “Bye!” she called out happily as she walked away from their table.
Oh, great. Lunch alone with Clark.
Perfect.
Lois watched as Mindy made her way to the front of the restaurant and then out the front door.
She had better things to do than sit here and try to be pleasant with Clark over food that would end up giving her indigestion from the conversation. Lois grabbed her purse and stood up, never taking her eyes off of the retreating figure of Mindy Church, whom she could still see through the outside windows.
As she started to walk away from the table, Clark’s hand reached out taking hold of her. She tried to ignore the tendrils of electricity that played through her hand at his touch, but it was difficult. “Where are you going?” he asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.
She pulled her hand free to rid herself of the distraction. “To the restroom. That conversation was enough to make me lose my lunch before I ate it.”
“You wouldn’t possibly be thinking of sneaking off to follow Mindy Church and ditching me here, would you?”
Lois sighed disgustedly. What, now he was a mind reader, too? No... Her chest tightened a little. No, he just knew her that well now – because she had made the mistake of letting him in. “Now what on Earth would give you that impression?” she snipped. As she walked off, she called out over her shoulder, “If you’re coming then hurry up, I don’t want to lose her.”
**********
Perry leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands in front of him. “So, let me get this straight, you think that Mindy Church is running Intergang now?”
Lois rolled her eyes at the sarcasm in his voice. “Yes. Don’t you see? It makes perfect sense. With both Bills out of the way, who does that leave in a perfect position to take over Intergang?”
“There are plenty of other crime syndicates out there who would have leapt at that chance,” Clark jumped in before Perry could respond, trying to reason with her. “Besides, Bill Sr. probably had men under him who would have moved up in the ranks and taken over things when he was arrested.”
Lois was irked. Clark was arguing with her... in front of Perry. It wasn’t bad enough that she felt like she had to prove herself to Perry due to a loss of memory, now she had to deal with Clark trying to undermine her. “No. If it were other criminals either inside or outside the organization that were trying to take over and run things, we would have heard something. None of my contacts on the streets, Bobby Bigmouth included, have heard anything about a hostile takeover... or *any* takeover, for that matter. Everything related to Intergang has been very quiet since the Churches’ arrest.” She paused, allowing a smirk to crawl across her face. “Or at least that’s what I’ve been able to discern from my notes on the case and from what you’ve told me, Clark. Do you know something you’ve failed to bring to my attention?” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him.
She saw Perry look from her to Clark and give him a questioning glance. “Clark?”
“No. I don’t. She’s right. No one seems to know anything about what’s happening with Intergang right now, but maybe that’s because nothing’s happening. Right now the Churches are in prison without bail, waiting for their trial. Do you think anyone is honestly going to make a bid for power before the fate of the Churches is decided for sure?”
“Yes, I do,” Lois answered him. “I think Mindy would - and I think she has. Whatever she’s up to has something to do with keeping Bill Jr. and her husband locked away for good. When I talked to Bill Jr. at the prison, he said that it was Mindy’s fault that he had been locked up to begin with. I think maybe she set them up or helped someone set them up.”
Clark frowned at her. “I don’t think we should trust Bill Jr. He’s given us no reason to trust him. And I think you’re reaching.”
“Yeah? Well, I think you’re blind!” she huffed. Perry looked surprised at the intensity of her words, but she was too irritated with Clark to care. “Where did Mindy go when we followed her? Straight to Costmart, that’s where!”
“She owns the store!” Clark countered.
“So. You’ve seen what the woman wears. She might own it, but she doesn’t shop there,” she retorted. “Then we lost her when we went inside. It’s like she vanished.” Lois turned to address Perry, “And Mr. Boy Scout here wouldn’t let me pick a couple of little locks to see if I could sneak inside the restricted areas. I think the reason we lost Mindy is because she went down inside that underground bunker - the one that Bill Church and his son ran Intergang from. The one where they were holding you captive.”
Lois had asked Clark to use his x-ray vision to see where Mindy had gone, but Clark had told her that everything below Costmart was lined with lead. So Superman hadn’t been any help. But she could have been – if Clark just would have just left her alone to her own devices. He could be so infuriatingly protective sometimes. And at the wrong moments.
“Chief,” Clark broke in, “all I told her was that before we attempted breaking and entering, maybe we should go back to the prison and talk to Bill Jr. again. See if was willing to share any more information with us about Mindy. I’m still not sure we can trust him, but I am interested to hear what he has to say.”
Perry had been sitting there in silence, looking back and forth from one reporter to the other, waiting for them to finish - like a parent waiting to hear both kids’ side of the story. “Look, it’s obvious to me that things are *strained* between you two right now, and that’s understandable with what...”
“Chief, it’s not like that, you don’t...”
“Lois, don’t interrupt. I think we’ve gone about as far as we can go with this thing today. Clark, didn’t you say you had a meeting with Dr. Klein later tonight?” Clark nodded silently.
“And you have a meeting with Agent Scardino?” Perry continued, looking at Lois. She nodded, biting down on her lip so as not to correct him – something in her desperately wanted to blurt out the word ‘date’.
Perry gave them something that resembled a strangled attempt at a smile. “Then let’s wait and discuss this further tomorrow morning, after you’ve gathered more information. And I think Clark is right, Lois, I think the two of you should go back and talk to Bill Jr. - but not today. Tomorrow. First thing. I think with the level of stress everyone’s dealing with that the two of you should call it a day... uh, for today.” He paused for a moment and then added for emphasis, ”Okay?” It wasn’t a question.
“Fine by me, Perry,” Lois said, turning around to walk out of his office. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Thanks, Chief,” Clark told him and then turned to chase after Lois. He caught up to her as she reached her desk. She angrily snatched up her purse and then threw her coat across one arm before turning in the direction of the elevators.
“Lois, wait. Where are you going?”
“Home.”
Clark stopped short. Home? Really? “You’re going home?” he asked in disbelief. Not off to talk to Bobby Bigmouth, or to the jail to see if she could get in to see Bill again, but home.
“Yes. Home. Perhaps you’ve forgotten, but I have a *date* tonight.” She reached out and pushed the button for the elevator.
Clark looked down at his watch - it was just a little after four o’clock. Her *date* - ugh – wasn’t until six. “Yeah, but Dan’s not coming by to get you until six. What are you going to do until then?” As he spoke he closed in on her, standing so close to her that he could feel the heat coming off her body.
The close proximity of his body was sending mixed signals to her brain. No. No, she was mad at him. She was mad and she was going to make him pay. Isn’t that what she had decided earlier?
She took a step away from him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I need time to get ready.”
“Ready?”
“Yeah, you know, for my date. I have to wash my hair, shave my legs, paint my toenails... oh and then there’s my eyelashes – I probably should curl them since Dan made that comment about them being pretty. Then again, after all that effort, I might not feel like going out at all. Maybe we’ll stay in and I’ll make him something. *He* loves my cooking, you know...” The elevator opened and she stepped inside. “Goodnight, Clark. Have fun on your date with Dr. Klein.”
Then the elevator doors closed and Clark was left standing there to contemplate the jealousy that was flaring up inside him.
What did she mean she had to shave her legs?
**********
To Be Continued...
