I still had barelymanaged to gain any ground on the leader. I wasn't even close enough toread the name on her jersey. I didn't need a mathematician to...calculatehow much faster I needed to be going to make up enough time to win. Itwas easy for me to tell that I just wasn't getting it done. If only Iwouldn't have crashed! I cursed myself for being so stupid! If I justwould have had the chance to race head to head with this girl, I KNEW Icould have taken her in the end. Hell, I was blowing her. Then she heard it, then she saw it as it lumbered down the town street, the largest thing the street might experience besides one of the tractors at harvest time or a semi-truck hauling out the grain.When the door opened and the driver put the step down, she stood more anxious than she had for anything in a very long time. Then she saw her. How could she know, but she did. Rosa looked the way she imagined she would. The young woman stepping down from the bus looked like her. Not exactly. This was an abrupt change in plans."Tonight? We were going to take an excursion tomorrow..." I said.Aimee interrupted me, again, completely out of character. "Please trust me, Captain."I knew that when Aimee addressed me by rank, she was trying to tell me something. I didn't know what it was, and Aimee's not answering me directly indicated that either I wasn't supposed to know something, or that she wasn't able to say something for some reason. I decided to trust her."Alright, Aimee. Is there. The meeting was nothing special, except for Vic’s compliment on the work she’d done. It gave her the third blush of the morning.On their way down again he asked her if she had plans for lunch.It took her by surprise; she stuttered a bit as her brain raced. They’d lunched before and it had always been simple and rather functional – just two colleagues grabbing a bite and a coffee.So why did this feel different?They were in the elevator again. He grinned at her predicament, his gray eyes.