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daydreaming at her window. She was thinking of leaving when she heard the door open and close with a quick click. She turned and was not happy to see Joe standing there.
    “Lydia,” he crooned.
    “I’m not going to endorse it,” she said abruptly. “You know better.” She grabbed her briefcase and began packing it up for the weekend. She had been surprised Thursday morning to find his paperwork waiting on her desk, complete with a cover letter that smelled like his cologne. The odor had infiltrated her office and it served as a terrible distraction, which, she was sure, he had intended it to do. She made to leave and he grabbed her arm as she passed.
    “Not once,” he began. He liked her startled look.
    She extricated herself and stepped around him. “No, so you know better, I said.” She disliked his expression. “I’m leaving now,” she added.
    He blocked her exit. “Not even when I was screwing you.”
    He saw the blood rise to her cheeks.
    “You approved of that, didn’t you, your highness? Screwing your brains ou–”
    “Your…these numbers don’t add up…you…” she stopped and took a step backwards.
    He was pleased to see he could still wound her.
    She grabbed the papers from the desk. “You can’t make these projections,“ she said, throwing them at his feet. She watched silently as he picked them up, then sidestepped him and held open the door.
    He was wearing his sneer; she had learned to hate it. “You have absolutely no right to speak to me that way,” she whispered angrily.
    He didn’t reply.
    “Get out,” she finally said in a shaky voice.
    He did.

    _____

    C’mon ta my howz, my howz-ah c’mon…happy hour…I’m gonna give ya candy…c’mon ta my howz…ahhh…my howz-ah c’mon…I’m gonna give ya…everything at Frank’s seemed normal.
    That was reassuring. Lydia fumbled in the doorway with her jacket, decided at last to keep it on and then left the briefcase at the coat check instead. She then managed to collide with the rubber tree plants that lined the entranceway to the dining room and while her friends watched with bemused expressions she attempted to right them again. After this, she went back to the coat check and deposited her jacket.
    Starting the journey all over and aware this time of the hazards, she proceeded stiffly through the aisle of plants to stand at last and rather stupidly at a now hushed table of raised brows. She glanced wordlessly from face to face, and then over to the window seat whose occupant also seemed somewhat stupefied by the performance. At least she had the wherewithal to nod with a smile and go back to her book. Whereas, at her own table, The Land Of Obvious, Lydia’s colleagues sat with their jaws agog, gaping at her and expecting an explanation.
    C’mon ta my howz, my howz-ah c’mon…someone finally thought to give her a chair…I’m gonna give ya candy…she winked at them and smiled sheepishly…gonna give ya…everything’s fine.
    “Death to the rubber trees!” declared Delilah.
    Everyone clapped and resumed their conversations.
    “What,” she muttered to Lydia, “you don’t get enough attention?”
    “I guess not!”
    “You’re flushed. Is that from your stunning entrance or did something happen today?”
    “It was stunning, wasn’t it?”
    “It was an abomination unto me and I forbid you to do it again.”
    “I can’t make any promises, Del.”
    “Then we shall have to get you a net.” She handed her a glass.
    A net? Lydia laughed, sipped her wine and picked at the appetizers. Yah! A net. Wouldn’t that be nice?
    She realized they had all been seated one table closer to the window than they were last week and she searched the room for the usual suspect.
    She found the waiter examining the row of plants in the walkway. Evidently he was satisfied that they were unharmed because he grinned when he discovered her watching him and made a rolling motion with his hands as he headed toward the bar. She stared at