You didn’t hurt me. It was just some paint. We got it all off. It’s no big deal, okay Bob? Please, I need to talk to you about something important...”She thought I was talking about spilling paint on her. But how could that be? That was just a silly accident. That wasn’t the major thing that had happened in the last hour.I decided to keep my mouth shut and just listen for a while. “Okay, shoot. You have the floor.”“Good.” She sat there. For some reason she was looking at her feet. “Okay. Here. Herheart skipped a beat as she pondered what to do; while she contemplated hernext move she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She immediately movedto the side of the stairs and crouched. Mike was a little thirsty and was coming down to get a glass of water. Ashe came down the last couple of steps he felt a draft – had he left theback door open? Mike took the final step onto the floor, turned to see a windowopen, and then his world went black as he briefly felt a pain to the side ofhis. "What's the damage, Jack?" Well, laddie, that depends." Depends on what?" On how long you want to stay," he grinned.I blushed. "Well, I don't know." I looked at his sympathetic smile. "Hell, Jack, to be honest I'd as rather write the car off and be stuck here for ever." I sighed. "But I've got responsibilities elsewhere and a living to earn. How about tomorrow." Tomorrow it is." By the way, what is the problem?" A fuse."I laughed, the tears streaming down my face. It wasn't really that funny. All the offices had glass walls, so it was easy to see Larry. Her other partners were drinking and laughing as the Christmas carols played loudly in the background. There were Christmas lights up and some were flashing. Cases of booze were half opened as everyone was drinking and being merry. She remembered seeing a couple of people from the mailroom dancing with some people from finance. Kim smiled. She didn’t know why she was smiling, but something made her happy. Another flash came back..