Training Days by Jane Frances

waiting.”
    Just as in her schooldays after receiving a scolding, Ally gave a defiant “yes, sir!” salute, but Kitty missed it, not looking back as she headed in the direction of the rear of the train.
    Ally slid to the window side of the booth seat and again gazed out to the dawning landscape. So . . . now she was scheduled to have lunch with a sexed-up superstar and a frightening flashback from school. Oh, well , she thought. If nothing else, at least I’ll get to see how the Gold class lives .

    Wanting to see as little as possible of Kitty, Morgan purposely arrived late to breakfast. Late enough for Kitty to have already filled Mark and Nick in on the previous night’s activities, it seemed. Morgan had hardly sat down when Mark elbowed her in the ribs. “Busted!” he mouthed, grinning.
    It was while Morgan was buttering a piece of toast that she learned Kitty had been up and about for hours. She’d been working her way through the carriages, looking for a staff member who could tell her where Mystery Woman was, when she stumbled across her in the diner car. Morgan was reaching for a pot of thick-cut marmalade when Kitty announced she had invited the woman—Alison—to lunch. “Why?” she asked, popping the lid on the jar of conserve.
    “Because she was just too offhand about the whole episode— especially with her comment that you could do what you want with whomever you want,” Kitty replied. “I get the feeling she was letting me know she knows something she shouldn’t.”
    “I don’t see how inviting her to lunch will change anything,” Morgan argued.
    “Yeah, Kitty,” Mark chimed in. “What are you going to do?
    Get out your thumbscrews and torture it out of her?”
    Morgan snickered behind her toast.
    Kitty shook her head and smiled at Mark. “No. No thumbscrews today. Because, as of lunchtime today, you are officially Morgan’s boyfriend.”
    Mark dropped his Vegemite-smothered English muffin. It made his knife clatter loudly against his plate. “No way.”
    “Yes way.” Kitty adjusted her spectacles and gave her “don’t argue with me” look. “It’s the perfect solution. That way, if Alison goes mouthing off to anyone and this gets into the press, it’ll just look like an office love affair. It happens all the time and no one will think twice about it.”
    Normally laid-back Mark set his lips in a thin line. “I’m sure Rebecca will think twice about it.” He half-turned in his seat and said apologetically, “Sorry, Mogs. But I’m not wrecking my chance to get some ass just to save yours.”
    Morgan nodded, needing no convincing. Mark had been chasing Rebecca—the supposedly natural blonde and supposedly naturally well-endowed studio sound engineer—for at least two months now. And she was getting very close to saying yes to a date. Apart from not wanting to interfere in Mark’s love life, Morgan thought Kitty’s plan ill-conceived and rather adolescent. “I don’t expect you to, Mark.” She folded her arms, signaling that that was the end of it.
    But Kitty wasn’t done. “Fine.” She turned to Nick, who had been staring into his juice for the duration of the conversation, apparently trying to pretend this wasn’t happening. “Nick?”
    “Oh, no.” Nick’s head jerked up and he waved his hands in front of him. “Don’t look at me.”
    “You’re not married, are you?” Kitty asked, knowing full well that he wasn’t.
    Nick adjusted his long legs under the table. “No.”
    “No girlfriend or significant other? No one special you have your eye on?”
    Again Nick shifted his lanky frame. “Well . . . no.”
    “It’s settled then.” Kitty downed the last of her coffee, then folded and placed her napkin on the table. “Nick, you’re it. Now come on, everyone.” She motioned for Nick to stand so she could edge out of the booth. “We’ve got work to do.”
    Kitty led a very disgruntled crew out of the restaurant car. Nick followed close at her heels,