LITMIR.BIZ

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days off. Much as she loved seeing him, she wanted him to spend his days off with a woman worthy of him, nurturing a relationship.

      “At least we would have tried,” Paulette insisted. She attempted another tactic. Putting her hand on top of her friend’s, she peered up at her, a silent plea in her eyes. “Don’t you remember how we used to all go on family vacations together when our husbands were alive, just the six of us? And you and I used to watch the kids play and dream about Dave and Kara getting married?”

      “We used to watch them fight,” Lisa corrected. “And anyway, that was a long time ago. It hasn’t been the six of us for a while now,” she reminded Paulette. “Thomas and Neil aren’t around any longer.” The words weighed heavily on her tongue. All these years later, she still missed Thomas as if he’d died yesterday. She doubted that the ache would ever really go away.

      “All the more reason to get our kids together,” Paulette pressed. “Neither one of them is getting any younger, you know.”

      Lisa pointed out one glaring fact. “It’s not like we haven’t tried before.”

      More than once they had attempted to get their grown offspring together, but something always came up at the last minute, preventing it. It had been years since Kara and Dave were even close to being in the same room at the same time.

      Paulette waved her hand, dismissing the argument as not worth her time or effort to get into.

      “That was for occasions—Christmas, Thanksgiving,” she specified. “One or the other always begged off, saying they had to work. I swear Kara logs in more overtime than any other human being on the face of the earth, with the possible exception of Dave. You ask me, they’re perfect for each other. All we need to do is get them to see that.”

      Paulette beamed at her friend. “There was no pressure before. We kept it light. But this time, I mean business,” she announced. “This is going to be more like a sneak attack.” Her eyes glowed with anticipation. “They’ll never know what hit them.”

      Lisa still didn’t like it. She enjoyed the relationship she had with her son. They didn’t speak as much as she’d like, but he did call her and he appeared on her doorstep on many of his days off, which were rare. She treasured that and didn’t want anything to jeopardize their relationship.

      “But we’ll definitely know what hit us,” she countered.

      Paulette stared at the friend she’d had for more than five decades. “Since when have you gotten so negative?”

      Lisa shrugged. Then, because once again Paulette was waiting for an answer, she tried to explain.

      “If we don’t try to get Dave and Kara together, I can always hope that someday it’ll happen. If we do get them together and it blows up in our faces, then it’s all over. The dream is gone. For good. I’d rather have a piece of a warm, fuzzy dream than a chunk of stone-cold negative reality.”

      Paulette summoned a look of complete disappointment. “The Lisa I knew and went to school with was absolutely fearless. Where did she go? What happened to her?”

      “The Lisa you knew was a lot younger. I like peace and quiet these days. And a son who calls his mother once in a while.”

      The sigh that escaped Paulette’s lips could have rivaled a Louisiana hurricane. “So you’re not going to ask Kara if she can get that game from her company for Dave so that he can give it to Ryan?”

      Lisa’s frown deepened several degrees. She knew when she was outmatched. Paulette could wield guilt like a finely honed weapon. “I hate it when you put on that long face.”

      The long face was instantly gone, replaced by a wide smile of satisfaction. “I know.”

      It was Lisa’s turn to sigh. “I think if anyone should do the asking, it should be you. Otherwise, Kara’s going to be suspicious. I don’t call her,” she pointed out. “So getting a call from me might alert her that we’re up to something. In any event, this’ll make it your fault when Dave and Kara decide to put us out to sea on a tiny ice floe.”

      “They’ll have to interact with each other in order to do that,” Paulette concluded, grinning. “So, either way, it’s a win-win scenario. Okay, that’s settled,” she declared happily, adding, “Suddenly, I feel very hungry.” She picked up the menu.

      Lisa’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her best friend. She’d walked right into that one, she thought. “Suddenly,” she countered, “I’m not.”

      Paulette raised her blue eyes to Lisa’s face. “Eat. You’re going to need your strength.”

      Which was exactly what Lisa was afraid of.

      Something was off in the universe. She could just feel it.

      Closing her eyes and taking a five-second break, Kara Calhoun, senior quality assurance engineer for Dynamic Video Games, tried to tell herself that she was allowing the game she’d been assigned to crack to get to her.

      After working on this particular version, with its wizards, warriors and spell-casting witches, for close to twenty days straight—not counting the overtime she’d been forced to amass—Kara was beginning to feel as if she had become one with the game. Not exactly something she’d recommend to anyone wanting to maintain their hold on reality.

      Luckily, her hold on reality was stronger than most. She’d loved video games ever since she’d wandered into her very first arcade at the age of four, when she’d become hooked on the whirling lights and noises. But most of all, she loved the challenge of defeating whatever adversary she found herself pitted against.

      Even so, she was careful to keep it all in perspective. These were games she was working with and playing with, nothing more. In no manner, shape or form did they remotely represent real life.

      Definitely not hers.

      There was no way she was going to allow what happened to her coworker Jeffrey Allen to happen to her. He began believing that the people within his game were communicating with him, warning him of some imminent disaster. He’d clearly lost his grip on reality.

      That being said, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there really was something off. That some sort of pending doom was shimmering on the horizon and it had her name written all over it.

      Maybe she needed a vacation, Kara thought.

      She began to play again and immediately discovered another glitch in the program. The Black Knight was not supposed to be able to ride his equally dark steed into the ocean, much less have the horse gallop across the waves.

      Kara shook her head. It seemed that every time she pointed out one error and the programmers fixed it, two more errors would pop up, tossing another wrench into the works. To make matters worse, the company’s deadline was swiftly approaching, and she was beginning to have serious doubts that the game would be ready to hit the stores as had been promised.

      But, ready or not, here it came, Kara thought, knowing how the market operated. Games were often sent out without having all their programming problems and bugs addressed with the fervent hope that the buyers wouldn’t find the glitches. Right. And maybe pigs would fly.

      When the phone rang on her desk, Kara debated simply ignoring it. After all, she was deeply involved in trying to figure out exactly why the knight’s horse was veering off its path. Preferably before six o’clock tonight. The idea of actually getting home by something resembling normal time for a change seemed like a borderline miracle to her.

      The phone continued to ring. Kara shot it a dirty look and sighed. With her luck, it was probably someone from Corporate calling, and she knew they would only go on calling until she finally picked up.

      Might as well stop putting off the inevitable, she thought. Muttering an oath, she yanked the receiver from its cradle. “This is Kara. Speak.”

      “My God, is that the way you answer the phone at work?”

      “Hello,

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