looking for someone who'll sacrifice a kingdom for her."
"If any sacrificing is done, she'll be the one to do it," Leah said regretfully.
"Are you going to lecture her again?" Bitty asked with a grin. "Tell her all about how women degrade themselves by giving up too much for LOVE in capital letters?"
Sacrificing for love? Leah thought with an inward groan as she avoided her friend's eyes. They would laugh themselves silly if she told them about her dream of the night before.
Why on earth had she dreamed something like that? she wondered. She couldn't blame it all on sexual frustration. The tone had been too sickly sentimental. No one in his right mind would ever call her sentimental.
She frowned. She remembered reading somewhere that a cynic was nothing more than a disillusioned romantic. Was that it? Was it possible that the discarding of her adolescent fantasies had not been the natural product of maturing? Could it be that they had been discarded in self-defense after what had happened to her in college?
Leah hadn't thought of Grady in years, and it surprised her that he should enter her mind now. She didn't like the idea that her experience of a young love gone bad could still be affecting her after all this time.
As the talk flowed between the other two women, Leah contributed a word now and then, but her mind was taken over by her thoughts of the past.
She had been so young and innocent back then. Young and innocent and incredibly stupid.
It had been her first time away from home, and she'd found herself caught up in the excitement and scariness of moving into a sorority house and finally being her own person. She had met Grady on campus the second week of the term, and she had fallen in love with him the very same day. Gloriously, overwhelmingly, wholeheartedly in love, as only an eighteen-year-old can be.
Without hesitation, Leah had given one hundred and fifty percent to the budding relationship. She did
Grady's history research; she did Grady's laundry; she had even tried to change her personality so that she would be more like the person Grady wanted her to be.
Then, six months after she had met him, she had discovered that her True Love was sleeping with her roommate. And her best friend. And her English professor. The only person Grady wasn't sleeping with was Mrs. Ostley, her housemother, and at the time Leah had even wondered if the sweet, gray-haired lady hadn't spent an inordinate amount of time staring at Grady's tight jeans.
Leah shook her head. No, she refused to believe that an immature jerk like Grady had had a lasting affect on her life. But she wasn't a cynic. Not really. She was merely more objective than most women. There was nothing wrong with that, she told herself defensively.
And she kept telling herself that. In a few days she had the argument down pat. Working around Mr. Gregory helped enormously. He would have annihilated anyone without a tough shell.
As though to prove that the glimpse of the softer man Leah had seen at DFW had indeed been the figment of an overstimulated brain, her superior had been even more difficult to please. People had taken to ducking into rest rooms and janitors' closets when they saw him coming.
On an evening three days after her lunch with Bitty and Shelley, Leah sat in Mr. Gregory's office, her expression harried as she riffled through the papers in her lap.
"I'll get Leonard to check this out," she said.
"Make damned sure he goes to the right people. I won't have Posner messing it up at this stage of the game." He raised his gaze to hers, his lips tightening into the Frown. "He's your responsibility." Without giving her a chance to respond, he glanced at his watch. "It's seven-thirty. Get your things together and we'll go eat."
And then I can hear for another hour about all the things I've done wrong, she thought with silent sarcasm. She opened her mouth to make an excuse, but again she didn't get a chance to speak.
"If we can figure out what's
"If any sacrificing is done, she'll be the one to do it," Leah said regretfully.
"Are you going to lecture her again?" Bitty asked with a grin. "Tell her all about how women degrade themselves by giving up too much for LOVE in capital letters?"
Sacrificing for love? Leah thought with an inward groan as she avoided her friend's eyes. They would laugh themselves silly if she told them about her dream of the night before.
Why on earth had she dreamed something like that? she wondered. She couldn't blame it all on sexual frustration. The tone had been too sickly sentimental. No one in his right mind would ever call her sentimental.
She frowned. She remembered reading somewhere that a cynic was nothing more than a disillusioned romantic. Was that it? Was it possible that the discarding of her adolescent fantasies had not been the natural product of maturing? Could it be that they had been discarded in self-defense after what had happened to her in college?
Leah hadn't thought of Grady in years, and it surprised her that he should enter her mind now. She didn't like the idea that her experience of a young love gone bad could still be affecting her after all this time.
As the talk flowed between the other two women, Leah contributed a word now and then, but her mind was taken over by her thoughts of the past.
She had been so young and innocent back then. Young and innocent and incredibly stupid.
It had been her first time away from home, and she'd found herself caught up in the excitement and scariness of moving into a sorority house and finally being her own person. She had met Grady on campus the second week of the term, and she had fallen in love with him the very same day. Gloriously, overwhelmingly, wholeheartedly in love, as only an eighteen-year-old can be.
Without hesitation, Leah had given one hundred and fifty percent to the budding relationship. She did
Grady's history research; she did Grady's laundry; she had even tried to change her personality so that she would be more like the person Grady wanted her to be.
Then, six months after she had met him, she had discovered that her True Love was sleeping with her roommate. And her best friend. And her English professor. The only person Grady wasn't sleeping with was Mrs. Ostley, her housemother, and at the time Leah had even wondered if the sweet, gray-haired lady hadn't spent an inordinate amount of time staring at Grady's tight jeans.
Leah shook her head. No, she refused to believe that an immature jerk like Grady had had a lasting affect on her life. But she wasn't a cynic. Not really. She was merely more objective than most women. There was nothing wrong with that, she told herself defensively.
And she kept telling herself that. In a few days she had the argument down pat. Working around Mr. Gregory helped enormously. He would have annihilated anyone without a tough shell.
As though to prove that the glimpse of the softer man Leah had seen at DFW had indeed been the figment of an overstimulated brain, her superior had been even more difficult to please. People had taken to ducking into rest rooms and janitors' closets when they saw him coming.
On an evening three days after her lunch with Bitty and Shelley, Leah sat in Mr. Gregory's office, her expression harried as she riffled through the papers in her lap.
"I'll get Leonard to check this out," she said.
"Make damned sure he goes to the right people. I won't have Posner messing it up at this stage of the game." He raised his gaze to hers, his lips tightening into the Frown. "He's your responsibility." Without giving her a chance to respond, he glanced at his watch. "It's seven-thirty. Get your things together and we'll go eat."
And then I can hear for another hour about all the things I've done wrong, she thought with silent sarcasm. She opened her mouth to make an excuse, but again she didn't get a chance to speak.
"If we can figure out what's
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