She took a swig, licked her lips and smiled."And a shot?" I said as I poured us both a cold vodka."Oh yeah," she replied and swiftly downed a shot. Th...n she grabbed a pool cue, turned to me and slowly chalked the tip."Let's play," I said as I got another cue. I went to the other end of the table, placed the cue ball and set myself to break."Wait," Jo said. "I want a prize if I win." Oh, yeah, like what?" I replied.Jo grinned, ran her hands up and down the pool cue and said, "If I win, I want. I pushed back from the desk and rubbed my hand across my face. I was having a hard time working on the Morrison project. My mind was elsewhere.The strangest thing about this morning had been how not strange it had been. Waking up next to McKenzie instead of Barbara felt normal, like this was how things were supposed to be. I’d risen before 6 o’clock, as was becoming the norm, and I listened to my BDE recording. I’d decided to try shifting my daily self-hypnosis to the beginning of the day. ’ ‘A girl in every port, as the saying goes?’ ‘Well, that’s the idea, perhaps,’ Zerzinski said. ‘But really, no. Five – that’s maybe five ports. Or more if they’re mobile. ‘But it’s a totally different situation to now. I mean five, that’s a lot more than zero. But a lot less than 365.’ ‘Point taken.’ ‘But those five – they wanted me for who I was. I mean maybe they liked me because I played music, but at least that’s a skill that I learned over many years, you know? Not just some exotic. "She stared at me lost in thought. "Every agreement or contract a witchmakes is a binding. You must fulfill all your obligations to the bestof your ability. As for being suspended, I think you will find thatalmost no one will remember what happened, except Chloe." Then shekissed me gently on the forehead. "Tonight you must sleep, rest andgrow strong. We will rescue your mother when all the pieces are inplace."I slept without nightmares that night, and was full of energy the nextday. One could.