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Life appeared to be falling into a predetermined destiny. Sonya continued to play Monday nights to a meager crowd while Daniel’s personal life began to pick up. He seemed to be spending more and more time with Jamie and little time with Sonya. This was probably for the best, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of testiness whenever he had to hurry off in fear of being late with Jamie.
Happily, she still had Saturday morning. They jogged side by side in the wooded park on the dirt trail they followed every Saturday. Daniel was a good jogger. They picked up the sport together almost from the first Saturday after he moved in. It was a mutual activity they both enjoyed; therefore, it was understandable they would meet routinely from that point on.
They had just started down the narrow path on their way back, when she told him slightly out of breath, “The house band has asked me to be lead vocal on some of their songs.”
He smiled over at her. “That’s great.”
“I’ll get to perform every night with them.” She told him between heavy pants.
“What about waitressing?” His voice, on the other hand, did not sound in the least bit breathless.
“I’ll have to split my shifts so that I can sing one or two songs per night.” Holding her hand to her chest, she slowed to a walking pace and took deep breaths of air.
Daniel stopped jogging to walk beside her. More out of courtesy than fatigue as he hardly looked like he broke a sweat.
“I’ll be performing tonight.” She informed him and rubbed the back of her hand against a sweaty brow where she felt a vein pulsating rapidly. “My first real audience.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great.” He walked with his hands on his hips, causing Sonya to wonder idly if maybe he got cramps after all from jogging. His face, on the contrary, looked far from painful. The jagged dirt path they were using became slightly narrow and forced them to walk in a single line.
Sonya watched his back, then asked as casual as she could, “So what’s on your schedule tonight?”
“Jamie and I have to adjust a system glitch and then retest the entire network—”
“Daniel, do you never take time off!” Exasperated, Sonya drew to a stop.
He stopped and looked back at her. “It needs to be done this weekend when no one is there to activate one of the many channels—”
She shook her head angrily at his alien jargon and covered her throbbing head with her hands. “I meant, isn’t there someone else who can do the work. Why must it always be you?”
“It’s my job.” He stated so matter-of-fact it occurred to Sonya that he not only conceded it as his duty but he also did it out of passion. She had a feeling he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Sighing, she began walking again. “You’re spending an awful lot of time with Jamie.”
Daniel frowned, turning to study her profile as she walked briskly beside him. “That’s what interns do.”
“Well, maybe Jamie would like to do something different from working all the time.”
He frowned as if the idea had sincerely never occurred to him. “I suppose.”
“Daniel, you’re unbelievable.” Sonya threw her hands up in vexation. She really had to teach this boy a thing or two about w
omen. “Why don’t you give you and Jamie a break? Say, later, after you’re all done down at the Institute.”
He drew his bottom lip up in acknowledgement and admittedly nodded his head. “Yeah, we could do that.”
Sonya grinned. “Maybe Jamie might be in the mood for dinner and wine and some music—”
“I guess I could order pizza and maybe rent a movie.”
“Pizza?”
“Chinese?”
Sonya’s smile vanished. A romantic dinner at Daniel’s apartment? Unwelcome images suddenly began to form in her head. She could see a naked Daniel stretched out on his leather sofa with a beautiful redheaded starlet draped over him. Her hair would be drawn up in a severe bun and she would be wearing a matching pair of glasses. Dressed in form fitting tailored grey pantsuit, she would straddle him and seductively remove each piece of clothing until at last she was just as stark naked. Daniel would then reach up and remove her glasses and unpin her hair to allow it to flow freely against his bare chest.
With an angry thrust Sonya pushed the image aside and broke into a run, overcome by a sudden urge to get back to her apartment and have a clean cold shower. No surprise, Daniel kept abreast the entire way back.
Chapter 6
