"Thank God," he sighed, both at the fact of his being alone and it being Friday.The cab doors closed and the elevator began pulling him upward. He adj...sted his glasses, returned his hand to the laptop bag and grabbed a stick of gum from the front pocket. He downed the rest of his now lukewarm coffee and popped the gum in his mouth."Can't have shit breath today," he said to himself as he chewed. His boss, Aileen, had requested he stop by her office after the morning meeting. Normally, this. The woman before him flashed him a look of smug satisfaction."A true magician never tells their secrets. It ruins the magic. Now, let me see if I can find where that troublesome piece of obsidian went." She patted her pockets and muttered, "No, not there."She looked about on the floor. "No, not there either."She rolled her head in a comical gesture and stared expectantly up at the ceiling. After a moment of silence, she lifted her shoulders in a shrug and grinned."Guess not. Not even I can defy. " "That's all right," she said, feeling ridiculously relieved that he had called at last. "I know how busy you must be with the traveling. Congratulations on the game the other night, by the way. I watched at Dee's place." "What? No Cherie?" he teased. "Oh, please," she said, rolling her eyes. "Cherie doesn't know a ball from a bat. Dee, on the other hand, is getting to be quite the knowledgeable student." "How is the lovely Dee?" he asked. "I think Karl's soft on her." Lani laughed, and Dom. She quickly cleaned off the chair and discarded the wet ones. She then picked up another pile and began wiping the wet spot on the front of Mark's pants. Her strokes were firm, teasing, and not doing much to dry him off at all. It was probably, in fact, making him spring some wood.He looked at me a little uncomfortably for a moment. "Better be careful," he told Steph with a smile, "or it might suddenly get a lot wetter."She chortled. "I'm good," she said, "but I didn't know I was that good.".