Luck of the Draw

Chapter 9 - If At First . . .

"So Reggie sold you the ravine view room did he?" Sally set her purse on the chest of drawers and ducked to see in the cracked mirror. "Jeez I hafta speak to him about this mirror."

"You've been here before?" Teddy watched her from his seat on the bed.

"Oh yes." She smiled and leaned her hands behind her on the chest of drawers. "I like the garden room better. More light." He began to see what he suspected from the get go; Sally hooked for a living—and it wasn't rugs. He glimpsed a sorry conclusion to his intended goal and fell back on his old ways of letting someone else make all the decisions.

"So, Teddy Bear, what do you like?"

"Hnng?" He blinked back to the present.

"You know." She pushed off the dresser and stood loosely in front of him, wide hips at his eye level. "How can Sally make your stay in Glen Springs memorable?"

"Get me an order for thousands of dollars worth of NaturGro products." He made a pained face and an apologetic shrug.

"NaturGro you say? You let me think about that while I give you thousands of dollars worth of something else, Teddy Bear." He groaned as the skirt dropped, exposing a red see-through thong trimmed in gold.

!!!!!

"It doesn't have to be tonight, Mickey. If you aren't feeling well we can put it off." Carly listened to Mickey's rendition of the recent his clinic visit and the unpleasant result.

"I can't. I won't. If I don't keep moving I'll be so stiff Monday I won't be able to get to work and my job will be a memory."

"They wouldn't."

"My boss would, in a heartbeat." He shifted his arm on the pillow. "Listen, if you could come up and just help me get my stuff on we can still go. It's a great place and I've made the reservation for seven-thirty and I've ordered a cab for seven. I've stuffed myself with painkillers already."

"This better not be some perverse trick, Mickey; I studied martial arts."

"C'mon, Carly. Even if it was I couldn't do anything like this."

"Even- if- it- was..."

"You know what I mean. C'mon. We can still have a great time, but I can't go dressed like this."

They were twenty minutes late by the time she stuffed the half drugged Mickey into his clothes but Carly managed to impress the owner with a tale of having to get her charge out for therapy and in his condition it was difficult to stick to rigid schedules.

"Your charge?" he said, as they were seated and alone.

"I did dress you and get you here didn't I?"

He gave an acquiescent shrug, reflecting on how she managed his trousers without as much as a nod toward his barely disguised pleasure from the task.

"I promise to behave while out in public and away from the ward." She laughed, and he drank in the crinkles about her bright eyes and the delicious lines that formed either side of her mouth.

"I'll keep my stun gun holstered then."

"Please do." He handed her one of the menus and asked if she wanted some wine with her meal or before.

"Should you be drinking with all those pills?"

"I asked if you wanted wine."

"Yes, thanks."

Her face disappeared behind the menu cover, and he mentally audited his cheque book.

"So uhm- how's business at, White Hot and Wonderful?"