“You made me think that you didn’t get the job.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. “When do you start the new job?�...“I have to go to Virginia for a week of training. After that, I have to meet with the outgoing regional manager to go over the territory. I’ll probably visit some dealers with him. Then I’m on my own. I have a choice of working from home or, if they have space, from my current office. Either way, I’ll also have to hire a secretary. If I work from home,. My mouth opened and closed like a fish but no sound came out, as they all looked at me expectantly. “Deuce!” was the umpire’s response. The decision was taken for me, but Mrs MacDonald stood staring at me, then the umpire, then me again, shaking her head as she did so. Her eyes dropped to stare at my groin and then fixed me in a glare, her face bright red, clearly furious at the decision and my part in it. She turned to the umpire and was almost about to say something before changing her mind. His eyes are a shade of green so rarely seen outside of television and his smile is bright and wide. He has wrinkles at the corner of his eyes and mouth indicating that, for all his boyish charm, he's not nearly as young as he appears. He must be in his mid-to-late thirties, she reckons. "Quite right," he tells Mr. Johnson with an English lilt, "however, nothing but first-hand experience is going to teach her that." He looks at Talia and, almost impossibly, smiles wider. "You must be Sasha. Strike that. I feel a hell of a lot intimidated, and it takes all my concentration to keep from shaking like a leaf. The house looks as if it has been pulled right out of a cheesy movie, with those fucking huge Ionic columns framing the entrance, with all the neat bushes and trees everywhere and the gravel driveway that loops around and which right now crunches under the tires of the departing taxi. My heart does little somersaults in my chest and stumbles when a muffled, harmonic gong sounds.