Love Is In The Air?

 

From the diary of Penelope Halwind:

 

Feb 14th

I am actually going out on a date for Valentine's Day...

 

I was, as usual, sitting alone at my desk. I was absorbed in my books; Nightshade was eating away my profits like a poison from that plant would eat away at my insides.

 

"Hello, little birdie!"

 

I jumped out of my chair before realizing whom it was.

 

"MADAM CAT, don't you ever knock?"

 

"Sorry," she replied, absentmindedly looking at where my Monet print used to be. I was shocked! The Lady Panther NEVER apologized for barging in on me...she did know how to pick locks. As I was still staring she hopped up on my desk and stretched herself out, like a cat, all over my paperwork. I frowned. She just propped herself up on her elbow and looked at me for a moment as if debating something. Then she smiled.

 

"I have something I want to share with you birdie; about Nightshade."

 

This got my attention. "What about him?"

 

"I ran into him again on my latest hunt. I think he is attracted to me."

 

'Yeah, well, YOU'VE got the body of a model' I wanted to shout. Since she IS my most lucrative customer and the closest thing I have to a friend, I only said, "I see."

 

"I think he even LET me get away. Purrrrrr." She stretched again; I wanted to gag. "It was...interesting."

 

"So...." I said with a forced smile, "what did you 'catch?'" She dropped a beautiful silver locket on my desk. Inside was a good-sized uncut diamond.

 

"Make yourself at home."

 

The next night I got an interesting visit from a 'new guy.' He was dressed in green with a large question mark on the back of his suit jacket. He was only a little taller than me, dark hair and eyes, nice track runner's body. He had a large emerald for me to fence. After we finished talking business he surprised me by asking to meet "outside the office." I surprised myself by saying ok.

 

We had a good time. Just the two of us at a trendy restaurant, talking. I found out his name was Stanley Marx. He shared my taste in a lot of the finer things in life. He even decided to call himself The Question; a play on his name and a Shakespeare line. He invited me to his favorite club for Valentine's Day. I found myself looking forward to it.

 

So there I was at the club, looking for him, and found him at a table with a group of people. Since he hadn't seen me yet I decided to just watch him. He seemed very popular and "in his element." After a while the group became more female than male and he was kissing some of them in greeting. They were mostly built like Lady Panther too. How did he expect me to fit in with that? What was I thinking even showing up? I turned and left.

 

The next night he showed up at my office: "What happened last night? Why didn't you come?"

 

"You had plenty of...company...without me."

 

He half smiled. "Ah, ha." He walked up to me and held my chin in his hand, looking right into my eyes for a long moment. "I've never seen a green eyed bird before."

 

I can only try to explain what I felt. Part of me was screaming "you mean NOTHING to him, and never will. You're not his type." Another was saying, "You're jumping to conclusions. You don't really want to be one of those nagging women, do you?" I found myself sighing heavily.

 

"I'm...sorry I stood you up. Maybe I could make it up to you by treating the next time we go to dinner."