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"You’d better look out for your friend," Owen said, gesturing toward the dance floor I followed his gesture until I saw Marcia dancing rather closely with Rod

"She just broke up with someone, so he wouldn’t even need to turn on the juice to lure her in Hefor"

"And she may be more than he can handle, fro"

I thought for a second that I saw Ethelinda on the dance floor, but it turned out to be Isabel, Rod’s secretary, dressed as a fairy godmother She looked o in her pri only one outfit and about four tiiant

She danced up to us, waving what I hoped was a toy wand "Hey, you two," she booentleman with you is one Mr Palhtly to verify his identity and gave her a smile

"Why aren’t you two on the dance floor?"

We looked at each other, then Owen said, "Watching everyone else is ives us better office blackmail material for after the holidays," I added

She fluttered her fake wings at us as she returned to the dance floor Others ood tiuess the identities of the various party guests in their costuether, and still quite close From what I’d heard about Rod’s social life, that est he’d spent with any one wo to ballroo to follow Gemma’s more contemporary dance style, even as he seemed to be a bit distracted by that catsuit At least one fairy was floating and spinning above the crowd, and if I saw it, that meantto notice

"I’d say it’s a successful party," I remarked to Owen

"Rod does kno to throw a party," he said He checked his watch "It’s not long until rab soone, I slipped my feet out of my shoes and pointed and flexed ain As I bent to put my shoes back on, a sudden wave of dizziness struck rab soht

Owen returned ne all lined up on a table," he explained After he handed lass, he reached into an inner pocket of his jacket and withdreo of those party things you blow into andto help us usher in the New Year," he said, handing me one of those "I wasn’t sure if you’d want one of these or one of the noiseh noise in here"

"Very good choice," I said, then blew it at hi and Rod took the microphone "Are we ready for the countdown?" he asked

Owen and I stood up and moved to join the rest of the crowd Everyone counted down froether, then balloons and strea--where I hadn’t noticed anything hanging previously--and everyone cheered Owen and I clinked our glasses together, then he leaned forward to kiss me "Happy New Year," he said

"And happy New Year to you, too"

I drank et a little fuzzy And then things went kind of blank

The next thing I kneaking up in my bed with a killer headache, inthe red satin dress and fishnet tights

Eighteen

It was hard to tell what tiht cah the airshaft no matter what ti sun I had to squint and force my eyes to focus so I could readIt said it was nearly three in the afternoon That was i about fifteen hours, since the last thing I reht

I reached to rubprecariously Reh With a supre position Maybe a shoould help, I thought, if I could make it all the way to the bathroom The wooden floor seemed to have turned to ice, it was so hard to keep htrope walker to maintain my balance