Love Bytes by Dahlia DeWinters

herself up to a sitting position. “They’re graceful, wonderfully condescending, always with the right ‘look’ and witty. Very witty.”
    Francis watched her expression grow wistful as she remembered. It was so rare that she let him into the personal facets of her life, preferring to stick to business or lighter anecdotes.
    “You have witty things to say.” He sounded silly to his own ears, but he couldn’t let her put herself down.
    “Your vision is clouded by my brilliance, Francis. I have witty things to say to you . Them,” she sighed. “I was out of my league. Awkward. Not graceful, not swanlike. So,” she shrugged. “Over time, I realized that I was a mouse. And that was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
    “Though I don’t think you’re a mouse, I’d like you to elaborate.”
    “I am a mouse. I’ve accepted my mousiness.” Her shoulders went up and down and she laced her fingers together in front of her. “There was no place for me among the swans. So I left. Rejoined the mouse brigades. Put a little green bow on my little mousie tail and took my place behind my keyboard. I’ve been happy ever since.”
    He recalled rumors that she had dated an actor or a model or one of the Beautiful People for a time, then went underground.
    “I’m glad you did,” he said, his voice quiet. “Or I would have never met you. But you’re nobody’s mouse.”
    Violet waved her hand, dismissing his protests. “I’m not putting myself down. I know my limitations. Mice run with their own.” She shook her finger at him. “And before you ask, it’s different for guys with money, Francis, and soon you’ll know that for a fact.”
    “Soon we’ll know it for a fact,” he corrected her. “Both of us.”
    Ignoring his protests, she went on. “Not quite. You, my friend, will be a swan, by virtue of your maleness. I, on the other hand, will simply be a mouse with money.”
    “Don’t say that.”
    “It’s true.” Her brilliant smile made her eyes crinkle and his heart melt. “And it’s okay, you know why?  Because I know where I fit in.”
    He nodded, the explanation coming clear to him. “It’s always good to know where one fits in.” He moved over to where she sat on the sofa, put his arm around her. The tension hummed through her body like electricity. “I think you need to relax. You’re exhausted.”
    “I’m okay. It’s just…I’ve never told anyone that before. It took me a long time to come to that realization…I don’t know.”  She yawned. “I’m probably talking nonsense.”
    “How have you been sleeping?”
    “Fine.”
    “Liar. I can feel the tension in your shoulders. You’ve been up at night?”
    “No.” Her shoulders twitched under his hands.
    He rubbed the space between her shoulder blades, doing his best to press the tension out of her stiff muscles. She was a mass of knots. “I know you get twitchy before software releases and these past couple of days have been rough.”
    “You’re right,” she said in a soft voice. “I haven’t been sleeping. I’m nervous and upset. Aren’t you?”
    The motion of his hands changed as he shrugged. “It upsets me that you’re upset.” His voice was thoughtful. “Your health is not worth this, Vee. We can get jobs somewhere else.”
    “But that’s the point,” she exclaimed. “Failure is not an option.”
    “Sometimes it is, Violet. Sometimes it’s the best option.”
    Violet sighed. “I don’t know. The whole thing…” She trailed off. “I can’t. I’m done for the day.”
    She hummed a little in response to his massage and he felt some of the tension leave her shoulder.
    “Since there’s nothing we can do about it at this very second,” he slipped his hand around and palmed her breast, stroking her nipple through the flimsy fabric of her shirt. “How about you and me get a little friendly?”
    “You sure know how to woo a girl,” she said, pressing his hand more firmly against her breast with