We should be more like friends. Beer pite ho?” Fir maine bola haan toh boli, “Kyun nahi pehle bola? Ghar pe bas mat btana main bhi piti hoon. Kal ...haam ko bar and restro mein challenge. Fir aache se baat hogi pine ke baad.”Fir main drawer se chadar nikal ke dusre room mein jane laga sone. Toh woh boli, “Ye kya kar rahe ho? Yahi so jao sath mein. Waise bhi mujhe akele sone mein dar lagta hai.” Main man hi man pura khush ho gaya. Agle din main unko flat ka key de diya aur hum dono fir apne apne. There, he laid Elaina down on the soft grass and made love to her until it was time to return to the real world.A week after his meeting with Elaina, Smythe stood at his bedroom window on the Chapel’s second floor and watched the two shirtless par’vali sparring with their practice blades in the hard-packed circle of earth behind the building. The sound of stick on stout stick echoed around the grounds. Kedron, the shorter of the two, yet a little heavier in the chest and shoulders, easily. ”She smiled. “Well, do what you got to do. I’ve got accounting to get to.”I went across the room, parked myself at one of the desks put there for flight planning, and opened my computer. In a minute I was hot spotted to my phone and getting into some papers from Los Alamos.I was trying to wrap my head around the energy requirements for a fusion experiment when I heard the door open. A male voice said “Hi, Shirley ... Who’s the pilot of that 402 out there?”My ears perked up.Shirley pointed. “She. On the Monday at work he was sent for, like a naughty schoolboy he stood outside the MDs office, eyeing the rather glamorous blond secretary or PA or whatever she was. He was called in after a short wait. It was then explained that over the weekend his district manager had had a stroke, thus he was promoted, a huge pay hike, and shorter hours Monday to Friday only 8.30 till 4.30, though he and four others were to share emergency duties at weekends just one a month. He was asked about Rufus.