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He twisted back to the counter, looked at the menu "So you said no, not because you weren’t interested, but because we’re dating?"

Mary rested both hands on the counter "Could you bewhen Carla walked back around

"And who do we have here?" Carla asked, winking at Mary

Mary stopped giggling long enough for introductions "Carla, best waitress in this place and overall wonderful woman, this is Glen"

Glen set the menu doith a s

"Is that right?" Carla asked

"Mary’s exclusive boyfriend," Glen said as if his first proclah "Well, Mary’s exclusive boyfriend, what are you having?"

"What’s good here?"

"The Reuben," Mary and Carla said in unison

By Thursday the plumbers had finally fixed the pipe in her floor and hadn’t found anything past the point where the roots had interrupted the flow of sewage Mary tried not to enjoy the fact that Glen had taken the task of directing the work on her home, but she had to push all her clients into three days and couldn’t dwell over drywall and paint She spent ents andif he was flying home the next day

Each ti the security systen, she’d beenfor long weekends

The technician stood beside a control panel pressing buttons and explaining the systeht, I set it with this button?"

"Right, and when you leave for the day, or nightyou set this Giving you more time to turn it off when you come hoh"

"Then we have a distress mode"

"What’s that?"

"Let’s say you’re on the way in the house and someone comes up behind youtells you to turn off the alarht hadn’t occurred to her

"The code you put in turns the alarm off and notifies the alarm company that you’re in need of the police"

"So the alarm turns off and whoever is with Mary has no idea the alarered the authorities?"

"Exactly!"

Mary wrapped her arned to keep you safe when you’re here and when you’re not"

Mary stood by the control panel, prepared to program her codes, while Glen showed the technician out

When he returned, he placed an ar on the other side

"Thinking of a code?"

She nodded "So I’ll remember"

"Not a birthday"

She rolled her eyes "Of course not"

"Not your address"