UNDERCOVER The Secret of Luck by James Kipling Page A

basement car park in the lift. John kept his gift for Sheila in the glove compartment and turned the car toward her house. The drive lasted about thirty minutes, and soon he was at her home.
    The first thing that John noticed after stepping out of his car was how beautiful the house was. John had occasionally come to see her at her house. Oddly enough, he never bothered to notice the house, or her, for that matter. He was always the kind of guy who would think about work and nothing else. Earlier that afternoon, he found himself in a difficult position, where he had no idea about his co-worker. He was fairly disappointed with himself for not knowing anything about his co-worker of such a long time. From now on, he was not going to make that mistake.
    John noticed that the two story house had a huge lawn in front of it. The path to the front door curved around like a snake. The lawn on both sides of the path was covered with green and purple bushes of about a foot in height. He noticed that the bushes where actually made up of two different plants. One of them was a green bush and the other was a purple plant that had very few leaves that were visible. It looked as if the bushes were trimmed on a regular basis. The house had a big balcony that stretched from one corner of the house to another. The balcony also had a number of potted plants at regular intervals. The house was painted blue, and it appeared to have a fresh coat of paint. The house was built to have natural ventilation and had more than ten windows. John figured that the house looked like it was made of windows, and the walls were there to simply hold the windows together. John actually liked this house. It was almost like a house version of his beautiful, young assistant, Sheila.
    John walked down the path, keeping to its curves, and reached the door. He was just about to knock on the door when it was opened by Sheila.
    “Hello, Boss. I have to admit that this is a pleasant surprise. The last time you came visiting to see me for no reason was, um…. Come right in.” said Sheila.
    Sheila closed the door and walked toward the living room, and John followed her. Sticking to his promise of paying more attention to her, John observed her like he had never done before. He noticed that she was about five feet tall, which was pretty short, even for a woman. Her hair was held in place by a single band that turned her hair style into a pony tail. He also noticed that she was wearing short pants, which showed off her legs nicely. John was surprised that she was so attractive. He could not help but continue staring at her legs, even as he took his seat on the sofa. Sheila caught him checking her out.
    “You checking me out, Boss?” she asked, with a haughty grin on her face. John stopped staring at her legs and looked up at her.
    “I am sorry, Sheila. I did not mean to stare.” said John, going into apology mode. He had been doing that a lot today.
    “No need to apologize, Boss. I know the kind of guy you are.” said Sheila, smiling. “So, what brings you to my house?”
    “I am really sorry about what I did this morning. I think I stepped out of line with the shouting.” said John, getting straight to the point.
    “That’s alright, Boss. I know I must have intruded upon you. Otherwise, you would not have reacted that way.” said Sheila.
    “Whatever may be the case, I was rude, and I was wrong. For that, I apologize and I have something here as a token of apology.” said John, getting up and pulling out the gift he purchased in the afternoon.
    “You went gift shopping? That’s impossible. You don’t even know how to shop, Boss.” said Sheila, taking the gift from him.
    “I don’t know how to shop. That’s true. Then I ran into this really nice guy. He helped with the shopping, and he helped me choose that tablet.” said John.
    Sheila had already unwrapped her gift and was pleasantly surprised, and even shocked, by this. In the eighteen months she had