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She grinned to herself but continued on her way without turning around.
The party was already well under way when she arrived at her apartment thanks to Audrey who let everyone in. Maura and her boyfriend, Patrick Hunter, arrived shortly before her.
She couldn’t see what Maura saw in Patrick Hunter. He was a clean-cut accountant who could bore the party to distraction if allowed. She was reminded of the math nerd in high school who wanted to hang out with the popular crowd. Everyone had one. Hers just happened to be dating her best friend.
She supposed he was better than the previous guy. Now there was a complete jerk. He believed his fists were the symbol of his machismo. If it hadn’t been for Daniel, Sonya was certain she would have ended up on the receiving end of those knuckles herself when the three of them got into a heated argument and Sonya called him every scum name she could conceive. Their loud voices alerted Daniel and he had come over to investigate. Just in the nick of time.
Not that Sonya was frightened of the lowlife; he deserved every name she lashed out at him. But, considering he was also heavily intoxicated she knew she was pushing her luck. It was the first and only time Sonya had ever seen Daniel strike someone. As a matter-of-fact, she was quite impressed. He took out the guy in one blow.
Her mind idly wandered to Daniel’s apartment and what he was doing. Probably sleeping, you nitwit, she scolded herself. It was, after all, close to three in the morning.
“Hey, Sonya, where do you keep the ice?” One of the bartenders shouted out over the loud music, evidently preparing to play the role here as well.
She shook her head since she figured her words would only be drowned out from the stereo, then turned to Audrey who was closest to the door. “Can you run across the hall to my neighbor’s place? He’ll have a bag of ice we can use.”
“Won’t he be sleeping?”
She shrugged. “Oh, he won’t mind.”
* * *
Daniel lay staring up at the ceiling in his apartment. He was sleeping peacefully until about a half an hour ago. It was obvious Sonya was having one of her parties again. He was surprised she was never considerate of her neighbors. They were on the tenth floor of a fifteen-story building. He was certain she had her fair share of complaints by now. He even idly thought about adding his own to the list.
There came a tapping on his apartment door. His first thought was of annoyance, his second, that she was being unusually quiet. This last abstract thought had him tossing back the sheets and heading toward the front entrance bare-chested and bare foot, instead of ignoring her and letting her believe him sound asleep. When he opened the door he was startled to see a petite blonde standing on his threshold.
“Can I help you?”
She looked up at him with the most apologetic blue eyes. “I’m sorry, but Sonya sent me over. She said you would have some ice we can borrow.”
He nodded his head in understanding. Figured she had something to do with it. “Come on in.”
As she gave a skeptical step after him, she asked, “Did I wake you?”
“No.” He assured her. “Sonya did.”
She giggled and he tossed a return grin over his shoulder.
“Are you and her. . .?”
“Sonya?” His voice held a disbelieving note then more soberly answered, “No.”
As he held the bag of ice out to the girl, she looked pleased, not hurrying to remove the bag from his hands. “Good.”
He felt a sudden rush of discomfort. He was not used to flirting. Was this girl flirting with him? “Did you know that a person spontaneously burns calories when consuming a glass of ice water?”
“Um, I think I heard something about that. Isn’t that some new fad diet?”
“In physics it’s referred to as thermodynamics.”
“Huh?”
“When two sources of different temperatures are in contact, energy passes between them until an equilibrium is obtained. Therefore, when a person consumes a glass of ice water the body immediately begins to burn calories in order to raise the temperature of the ice water to match the body’s temperature. One calorie will raise one gram of ice water up one degree Celsius.” He paused. “So in actual fact, you only burn about 17 Calories per glass. But over a long period of time, one can lose several pounds.”
“You think I need to lose weight?” She glanced down at her tiny frame.
“What? No, no.” He shifted uncomfortably in the doorway and gestured lamely to the bag of ice. “I was just—there was an article—I thou
ght maybe—“
