Lines

He opened the door to the penthouse. She smiled when she saw all the roses. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t know if you liked roses or not.”
“I love red roses, thank you. Why?”
“To give you something that would make you smile. I know today must’ve taken a toll on you.”
“I just wanted to kill him right there. Howdarehe tell me to kill you!” she said, as she dropped on the sofa.
“My guess it was to see if you had loyalty,” he said, as he sat down.
“I do. I am loyal to you. I hope you know that you can trust me.”
“You proved that today. I knew it, though. Hungry?”
“A little.”
“I’ll fix something to eat. Why don’t you check out our new workout room?”
“What’d you do?”
“The room that used to be empty, go check it out and see if it’s up to your standards.”
She headed down the hallway and stood in the doorway of their new work out room. “Wow,” she said, as he came up behind her.
“What do you think?” he whispered.
“It’s very cool. Weights? Mats? A body bag? I love it. It’s great,” she said.
“Well, there’s also a dart gun set. You can practice shots without using bullets.”
She turned around and hugged him. “You know you are spoiling me,” she said.
“I like doing it,” he kissed her cheek. “I’ll go get dinner. You like steak, right?”
“Yeah, sounds great. I can help.”
“Oh, um, no, youdon’thave to.”
“I can make a salad. I do know how to do that,” she said.
“Oh, that’s fine. I’ve never seen you use a knife before,” he laughed.
“Very funny,” she laughed, as they headed into the kitchen. “I’m very adept with a knife,” she smiled.
“I like it,” he smiled.
“What do youlike?” she asked, as she pulled some vegetables out of the refrigerator.
“Your laugh. It’s great,” he said, as he turned on the stove.
“Thanks. I guess I don’t laugh very often. I think this is the most I’ve laughed in a long time.”
“Well, keep it up.”
“It’ll be hard, you know, this job is so serious.”
“I know, but, babe, when we’re together, the whole other world will disappear,” he said, as she chopped the vegetables. He pulled out a bottle of wine and poured the glasses. “So, you never said anything. Why did Morrison want to talk to you alone?”
“I swear I thought he knew I was Kyle’s sister, but he acts like he knew me as someone else. I don’t know. I don’t even care. I’m not hiding who I am.”
“That’s good. He didn’t say anything about us being together, did he?”
“No, whywouldhe?”
“I don’t know. Never know what kind of crap he’ll try to pull. Wecan’ttrust Morrison.”
“I know that,” she gathered all the vegetables, threw them in a bowl, and then tossed them around. “There, salad is done.”
“Great, the steaks need a few more minutes,” he said, as he flipped them. He handed her a glass of wine and lifted his glass. “To you,” he smiled.
“Tome?” she asked.
“The most beautiful woman in the world,” he said.
“Do you use thatlineall the time?” she asked.
“It’snota line … if I were going to use a line … I would’ve said … your legs must be tired because you’ve been running through my mind all day,” he laughed.
“Oh, wow, that is prettybad. So, you’re aliner, huh?”
“Liner?”
She walked over to him as she sipped her wine. “Someone who useslame linesto pick upchicks,” she laughed.
“Chicks?”
“Yeah, I know, so fifties or whatever. So, do you have any more lines?”
“I don’t use lines.”
“So,that’swhy you don’t date?”
“No,” he laughed. “Well, I guess I have been known to use a few lines. They’re pretty lame, but at least they get a laugh,” he smiled, as he sat down.
“So, what was your worse line?” she asked, as she sat down and leaned in for his answer.
“Um, you first, what was the worse line you ever heard?”
“Oh, that’s easy, it waswhat’s your sign?” she said.
“What did you say?” he smiled, as he lightly ran his fingertips over her hand.
“Stop,” she laughed. “So, come on, tell me. If you saw me in a bar and you didn’t know me, what would you say to me?”
“Oh, well, I don’t know,” he blushed.
“Oh, come on. You’ve had to had a line you used all the time,” she kissed him softly.
“Oh, well, I’ve never used this, but I think it fits the way I feel about you,” he smiled.
“What?”
“I think I can die happy now, cause I've just seen a piece of heaven.”
“Oh, that issobad,” she laughed.
“Well, I could walk up to you and say, if I told you that you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?” he said, as he stood up and took the steaks off the stove.
“Hmm, thatcouldwork,” she laughed, as she dished out the salad.
They sat down at the table and started to eat. As she was eating, she watched him intently. He looked up and noticed her staring at him. “What?”
“I was just thinking…”
“What is it?”
“I think that since we’re partners here, we should have some kind of signals or something. You know?”
“Oh, right, like a shorthand that only we understand.”
“Yeah, you know, body signals or phrases to tell each other things.”
“What would we have to tell each other?”
“If we’re being watched out in public…”
“Hmm,” he looked into her eyes. “I can see heaven in your eyes, babe. How’s that?”
“I like that,” she smiled.
“I think as we go, we’ll figure it out. I think we’re slowly figuring things out about each other.”
“I agree,” she said, as she took a bite of her food.

They continued their dinner in silence. When they were finished, Sam cleared the plates and put them in the dishwasher. “So, what now?”
“Well, tomorrow we get the first job. Tonight we could just relax in front of the fire and talk.”
“Sounds good,” she said, as she grabbed another bottle of wine. “Why don’t you get the glasses?”
Together, they walked in the living room and sat down. He poured them each another glass of wine. “Are you all right?” he said, as his watch started to beep. “Hold on, and come with me,” he said, as he took her hand. He led her down to the bathroom and turned on the water.
“What is it?”
“They’ve bugged the apartment,” he whispered in her ear.
“All the rooms?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think they did in the kitchen. My watch would’ve beeped. It’s set to detect frequencies of bugs and transmitters. As soon as we started talking, the bug started recording and the watch beeped.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“We’d just have to be careful. I don’t think we should get rid of them. We should check the rest of the rooms so we know which is safe. The kitchen is safe.”
“OK. Well, from now on, we make calls from the balcony, unless they’re not important. We talk about the job or our relationship in the open.”
“We can do this. We can. Let’s just be careful about talking about our relationship. I don’t want them to try to use that as a weakness against us.”
“I hope they didn’t bug the bedroom,” she said.
“Well, tomorrow, I’ll have the room painted.”
“What will that do?”
“I can have it painted with specialized nano technology paint that will prohibit any electronic devices from recording. If there’s a bug in our room, it won’t transmit, but neither will cell phones.”
“Oh, that’s all right. That sounds good. Have it painted light blue.”
“You don’t like the white?”
“No, it’s too … well, blue is more calming andsexy,” she kissed him and held him close to her. “Um, what if we got a … I forgot what they call it. That thing where we can shut off electronic devices at will.”
“Oh, right, we could get one of those, but we’d have to hide it. It’s obvious they were in the apartment.”
“Let’s check out the rest of the place. We could have it hidden as a light switch or something. They’d never know as long as we turned it back on,” she said, as she opened the bathroom door and he turned off the water. They headed into each room and waited for his watch to beep.
He took her hand and led her into the kitchen. “Sam, I’m sorry that I’ve interrupted your life. This is not what I wanted to do, but it’s so important.”
“All I want is to bring this bastard and his men down. I swear, I will do my job. I’m sorry how I reacted yesterday.”
“I’m glad you did. You have real feelings. You’re a wonderful person and I know that you cherish life,” he lightly touched her cheek.
“Yeah, I do. OK, let’s go sit and watch TV. Maybe there’s an old movie on or something,” she said.
“We have a collection of DVDs. Pick one.”
They walked out to the living room and she walked over to the armoire and stared at all the movies. “Oh, wow, there is a lot,” she laughed.
“What’s your favorite?” he asked.
“Um, what’syours?” she grinned.
“I asked you first.”
“Oh, all right. I really,reallyloveSteven Seagal.I can’t help it. Anything with him in it, but I likeUnder Siege.”
“You’re kidding, right?” he laughed slightly.
“No, I like hisbad boy physique. Why? What do you like?”
“I like his movies, too.”
“Oh, I was expecting something like … I don’t know …Star Wars,” she laughed.
“Veryfunny. I likeClint EastwoodorHarrison Ford.I really likeAir Force One,”he smiled.
“Well, looks like we have every movie they ever made,” she laughed.
“How about we watchUnder Siegeand thenAir Force One?”
“Good. I’ll put the movie in and then I want to get comfortable,” she put the DVD in the player. “Play it until it starts. I’ll be right back,” she said, as she hurried down the hall. She came back out, wearing just a T-shirt and underwear. She sat on the sofa and draped her legs over his lap. “Is this all right?”
“Oh, definitely,” he picked up the remote and pressed play. Then he handed her the glass of wine. “Enjoy, babe,” he whispered.