e this
-- change --happen?"
Chuckling around some potato, Mandi said, "I didn't do anything to you. You
did it to me." Sticking her tongue out at him and waggling it, she pulled it
back in and said, "Like that."
Sitting on the end of the bed, Cade watched her fork up another bit of steak
as he tried to figure out what the hell she was telling him. Like what? Was she
saying she'd given him some kind of disease? All he'd done was lick her silly in
the shower. How could doing that..? He felt like checking his tongue in the
bathroom mirror.
"Are you about ready to go?" asked Mandi.
Looking up, Cade saw the food was gone. Mandi stood up and pushed the cart
toward the door. Cade slipped into his shoulder rig, grabbed his cellphone, and
put on his jacket.
"Yeah, ready," he said. "I'd still like to know..."
Mandi walked back and kissed Cade to silence him.
"Later," she said, "After the show," and she led him by the hand toward the
hallway door as she added, "Just be careful when you handle things tonight.
You'll be a little stronger than you're used to, so avoid handling people in
particular."
"Stronger. Right. Oh, hell, Mandi; on-the-job is the worst possible time to
have to learn new tricks or adjust to anything. How much stronger are we talking
about?"
She opened the door and pushed the cart into the hall without releasing
Cade's hand, which meant that he followed when he might have stopped to ask more
questions.
Cade was thinking in human terms, which didn't prepare him at all to hear,
"If you follow the norm, by ten or so you'll be able to bench press a couple of
tons, give or take."
"Tons?! The norm?! There's a norm?!"
Putting the cart against the wall, Mandi gave him a quick kiss and
grinningly said, "Yeah, there's a norm." With a chuckle she asked, "Gee, mister,
did you think you were my very first?"
Laughing, she hauled him toward the elevators. John came out of the ops room
and waved, said something to someone in the room, then moved to join them.
"John doesn't know," whispered Mandi, releasing Cade's hand, "And he doesn't
need to know. No more questions for now, okay?"
Meeting her intent gaze for a moment, Cade nodded slightly as John caught up
to them. John handed him a 'staff' convention badge and a tiny radio with an
earpiece and a lapel mike, then they began walking again.
"We're all set," said John. "Frank called a friend