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If the sounds from the mudroom were an indication, Spock had no trouble with his share
"They’re not so bad" Ford forked a dripping pile "Andout to see monkeys, we stay in and haveout pretty well Who aue? What do you usually do on rainy Sundays?"
"You eous blondes?" He shrugged "I , or fat-ass around and read Maybe hang out with Brian or Matt, or both If I had absolutely no choice, I’d do laundry How about you?"
"Back in LA? If I had a project going, I’d tackle some interior work, or paperwork, or research If I didn’t have a project, I’d scour the Internet and real estate ads looking for one That’d pretty much sum up my life for the past few years That’s pitiful"
"It’s not It’s what you wanted A lot of people thought it was pitiful I’d rather hole up scribbling and sketching than, say, play basketball Being tall, you know I sucked at basketball Never got it On the other hand, I was good, and got better, at the scribbling and sketching"
"You’re frighteningly well adjusted Or maybe just compared to me"
"You seem pretty steady froestured with a dripping forkful of pancakes "I have a drug phobia due to a fa an aspirin I suffer froht that escalated inin the same room with three people at a time The only way I can cope with my mother, sanely, is to stay away fro myself or my father for the fact that we didn’t-don’t, really-know each other"
He made a pfft sound "Is that all?"
"Want ot e in detailed conversations with randmother, whom I nevermember of my family My best friend is my ex-husband I’ve had four stepfathers, and countless ’uncles,’ and being not stupid, understandthat is part of the reason that I’ve never had a long-term, healthy relationship with a man other than Steve I expect to be exploited and used, or I expect the atteed any potentially long-ter"
He forked more pancakes, ate theh, she shoved her plate away, picked up her coffee "That’s probably enough over breakfast" She rose, held out a hand "Let’s take a walk in the rain Then we can come back and dive in your Jacuzzi"
They left thekissed in the rain? Cilla wondered Anything more lovely than theh the summer rain while all the world huddled inside, behind closed doors and s?
Drenched, they raced back to the house to strip off dripping clothes In the hot, bubbling water, they took each other slowly
Drained, they went upstairs to curl together like puppies to sleep on Ford’s bed
She woke hile of liain, the rain slowed to a quiet patter
Later, Cilla slipped out of bed Tiptoeing to Ford’s closet, she found a shirt Pulling it on, she eased out of the rooo down to search out a bottle of water-preferably ice cold-but detoured to his studio Thirst could wait for curiosity
When she switched on the light, the drawings pinned to his display board pulled her forward So odd to see her face, she thought, on the warrior’s body Well, her body, she adgested, it rode on Brid’s biceps
Wandering over to his workstation, she frowned at the papers on his drawing board Small sketches covered them-sparse sketches, she mused, all in separate boxes, and each with a dotted vertical line running top to bottonized as speech balloons, with numbers inside She spread them out for a better look
It was like a storyboard, she realized The characters, the action, so And if she wasn’t mistaken, the sizes and shapes of the boxes had been calculated mathematically as well as artistically Balance, she mused, and impact
Who knew so much went into a coer sheet lay on the counter More squares and rectangles, she noted, holding detailed drawings, shaded and inked Yes, that was the word Though no dialogue had been added, the setup, the art, drew the eye across, just as words in a book would do
In the center, Dr Cass Murphy stood in what Cilla thought of as her professor suit Conservative, acceptable Bland The clothes, the dark-fralasses and the posture defined personality in one shot That was a kind of brilliance, wasn’t it? she thought To capture and depict in one single i, she picked up the panel, took it to the display board to hold it against the sketch of Brid
The sae was both remarkable and complete Repression to liberation, hesitation to purpose Shadow to light
When she started to walk back to replace the panel, she saw another stack of pages Typewritten pages She scanned the first few lines
FORD WOKE HUNGRY, and deeply disappointed Cilla wasn’t beside him to slake one area of appetite Apparently, he decided, he couldn’t get enough of her
She was all beautiful and sexy and wounded and sh that h, and fall to pieces He’d witnessed her absolute devotion to a friend, watched her handle acute embarrassment and lash out with temper
She kneork, and oh boy, she kne to play
She ht be, he mused, pretty damn close to perfect
So where the hell was she?
He rolled out of bed, snagged a pair of pants and stepped into them on his way to hunt her down
He was just about to call her nas tucked up and crossed, shoulders hunched, one elbow propped He had the quick and fleeting thought that if he sat like that for more than ten minutes, his neck and shoulders would lock up for days
Walking over, he set his hands on her shoulders to rub what he iined would be knottedan ax at her head
She pitched forward, caught herself, reared back as her legs scissored out Then, spinning around in his chair, she clutched her hands at her chest as her laughter bubbled out
"God! You scared me!"
"Yeah, I picked that up when you nearly bashed your head onboard What’re you up to?"
"I was Oh God Oh shit!" She shoved the chair back, dropped her hands into her lap "I’ at the sketches you had sitting out, and I saw the book I just ht up I shouldn’t have-"
"Whoa, whoa, save the self-flagellation I told you before you could read it soht up, that’s a plus"
"I s around" She picked up the panel, held it out "I hate when people oes Obviously, you’re lucky I’m not as temperamental and touchy as you are" He lay the panel back in its place "So, what do you think?"
"I think the story is fun, exciting and entertaining, with a sharp thread of hus of feminism"
He lifted his brows "All that?"
"You know damn well The character of Cass behaves in certain ways, and expects certain behavior and attitudes toward her because she was raised by a do, unsympathetic father She’s sexually repressed and eed, has been reared to accept the superiority of men and accept a certain lack of respect in her le portrait The one you just put back
"She’s betrayed, and left for dead, because she’s so indoctrinated to taking orders fro her own intellect and desires And by facing death, by fighting against it, she beco that’s been trapped inside her, and more, is released in the forh power"
Fascinating, he thought, and flattering, to listen to her synopsize his story, and his character "I’ to interpret that as you like it"
"I really do, and not just due to the recent sexual haze It’s like a screenplay, a very strong screenplay You even have cales and direction"
"It helps rees"
"And you add in these little boxes like the ones on the art"
"Helps with the layout That e, too Just like the story line took some turns on oing to be so well, insane over that"
"She needed the bridge, the link between Cass and Brid A character who can straddle her worlds, and help the two sides of our heroine understand each other"
Not unlike, Ford thought no Steve helped Cilla "Adding hiles, added a lot of work, but it’s stronger for it And soht of in the first place Anyway, it’s still evolving The story’s down, and now I have to tell it with art Sometimes, for me anyway, the art can shift the story We’ll have to see"
"I especially like the one up there, of Brid in what’s almost a fouette turn, as I assuainst a foe"
"Fouette turn?"
"A ballet move" Cilla crossed over to tap the sketch she spoke of "This is very close, even the ar foot should be turned out slightly more, but-"
"You know ballet? Can you do that?"
"A fouette? Please Eight years of ballet" She executed a quick turn "Of tap" And a fast-time step "Jazz"
"Cool Hold on" He opened a drawer, pulled out a caain"
"I’ these on the Internet shortly I just want the feet business you were talking about"
He had no idea what an enormous leap of faith it took for her to do the turn as he snapped the camera
"One more, okay? Good Great Thanks A fouette turn Ballet" He set the camera back down "I ht years? I guess that explains how you did those high leaps in Wasteland Three, when you were running through the woods, trying to escape the reanihed "So to speak"
"I thought you were going to ot all the way back to the cabin, avoiding the death trap and the flying hatchet, only to pull open the door-"
"To find the reanimated psycho killer had taken a convenient shortcut to beatthe action, "shock, scream Slice"
"It was a hell of a screaht? And enhance"
"Sometimes However" She sucked in her breath and let out a bloodcurdling, glass-shattering screa back two full steps "I did s there How about we go down, have soenerate"
"Love to"