Dave and Michelle finally got a chance to have a fairly peaceful meeting over lunch after the meeting with Larissa. They managed to iron out the rest of their issues. Dave had two fantasy projects to work on -- both of which were ones he had recommended from the slush pile. With the removal of Swordsman of Atlantis from the March list there was the hole it left. Both Dave and Michelle were of the opinion that Castle Wyrthingham was more than capable of filling the hole -- it was the one Dave had recommended with the warning he'd fight for it if he had to. It had already been put on the June list, but it could be moved up to fill the hole. The other slush pile survivor, Maiden of Hvalfjordjur, needed more work, but there was time to finish it so it could take Castle's June slot.

The staff meeting after lunch was held in the insurance company's conference room, which was fairly large. This was presided over by Dick, and consisted of most of the editors from the fiction side of Dunlap and Fyre -- people Dave had worked with, sometimes for years, but hadn't seen since before September 11. There were a few absentees, including one editor who was working from an apartment he'd rented in Bermuda -- some people were really putting this "working at home" methodology to use. The meeting was mostly intended as a bitch-and-gripe session about how the working-at-home system was going, and what could be done better. In general, the comments were pretty useful, and some good ideas came out of them, but most of the negative comments came from the feeling that people missed working with their co-workers so they could exchange ideas; a few people admitted to problems in getting motivated or staying on task. An internet forum set up on the company's server was suggested as a way to improve the communication, and Dave looked forward to trying it out. Another suggestion made was to have some sort of a social event, maybe around Christmas, when they could get together with spouses and significant others and be a little informal.

The big staff meeting was followed by a smaller one for the SF section. "I have good news and bad news for you," Michelle started out addressing the group. "The good news is that Dave has cleared up much of the backlog in the slush pile. He really did a bang-up job, and we all need to thank him for it."

"What's the bad news?" one of the other editors asked.

"Well, the bad news for the rest of you is Dave has done more than his fair share, so I'm splitting up what remains, and everyone is going to work on it, even Dave and me. If we all chip away at it we should be current before the end of the month. After that we're going to split it up evenly as it comes in."

This was good news as far as Dave was concerned. With that said, the largest part of his concerns about his visit to the office were taken care of -- and made the trip worthwhile. Michelle made a plea for everyone to show more independent decision making, since she needed to have less of a load of minor issues in order to deal with major ones. The meeting eventually deteriorated into another bitch-and-gripe session, and then just a plain old bull session, but when it was finally over with Dave felt better about working out of the office.

All in all, Dave felt pretty good as he walked out of the Ford building late in the afternoon. He was out from under the slush pile for a while, and he had three new projects that should keep him busy for a while -- Castle and Maiden, along with helping mold Larissa's new book, which might prove interesting. The day had put him in such a good mood he decided he didn't want to risk losing it by getting into some of the details concerning Julie, which were certain to be a downer.

So, with a lack of anything better to do, and with some thought in mind of beating the rush hour, he rode the subway back to Shae's studio, got in the Malibu, and drove back to her apartment. He gave some thought to fixing dinner, and had a couple good ideas before he remembered they'd planned to go out for dinner that evening -- nothing terribly special, just a little neighborhood Italian place she said she ate at occasionally and liked.

He felt at a loss with nothing to do. It really was too late to do any of the things he had on his list for tomorrow. While he had two of his three current projects on his laptop, he knew he'd just be getting started when he had to quit. Probably the best thing to do was just lay back in the big easy chair, try to sort out a few of the things that had happened, and take a nap.

His rant to Rob about needing to find a better way to connect with unpublished authors still set well with him. The only thing he'd really thought about in that direction was possibly putting some of those books up online as e-books, probably with some weeding to remove the real trash but with no serious editing -- then just see what people read, with hit counters or something. That was just a first cut on the idea, and it wouldn't develop enough funds to be self-supporting, so it obviously needed some work. But, he had a month to think about it before he had to take the idea to Rob again, so he had a little time.

He was still thinking about it when he fell asleep, only to be awakened by Shae coming in. "I take this to mean your day must have been either pretty bad or pretty good," she said.

"Pretty good," he replied sleepily. "We got the major issues solved pretty well. I can give you the play by play if you like."

"Not really, unless you want to hear the play by play from the studio today. Let's just say it was a stinker of a long day, everybody was snappy, and if they decided to cancel the damn show right now I'm not so sure I'd mind too much."

"That's a shame," he said. "I thought you really liked it."

"Oh, I like it all right, but sometimes some of the politically correct assholes and self-centered do-gooders we have running around make it a little less than totally enjoyable," she grumbled. "But enough of that. I'm going to go get out of these clothes, take a shower, and then get into something a little nicer."

"From what you made this place sound like I don't know that there's a great need to dress up," he commented.

"Oh, there really isn't, but I don't often get the chance to dress up," she snickered. "I especially don't get the chance very often to dress up for my boyfriend."

"I thought you were quite the socialite about town," he teased.

"I wish," she snorted. "At least when I worked for WSN I got out once in a while, and I got to dress up nice for the camera. I don't get that now, and I'm just about sick of that little green shorts outfit Shaella Sunrise wears. But I just had a bad day and don't want to take it out on you."

"Would a massage help?"

"It would, but then I'd either want to make love to you or take a nap, and preferably both in that order. So maybe I'd better just settle for the shower for now. You wouldn't believe how hot and sweaty and stinky you can get under the set lighting."

As she walked away heading for the bathroom, Dave realized Shae was a bit on the grumpy side today -- but it was when she was talking about the studio -- maybe things weren't going as well there as she let on. There was something else there, and it took Dave a moment to realize what it was: she was much more upbeat when she was talking about him. Hell, she'd called him her boyfriend, and that had never happened before, not even when they were sort of dating back in high school. And to top it off, this was about the most direct she'd ever been about saying she wanted to have sex with him. Oh, she'd hinted at it before, but this one had been more than a hint.

And maybe there was nothing wrong with that. After all, he liked Shae -- liked her a lot. They were clearly on the way to greater things, and he was the one holding back -- admittedly with good reason, and she knew it and appeared to respect it although seemed to chafe under it. He wished he had a little more time, that things weren't quite as awkward, considering Julie. Or maybe it was New York talking, or something.

In the short term, it didn't really matter. Shae was going to some trouble to fix herself up for their dinner out, so he thought he might as well reciprocate, if for no more reason than to show respect. A shower himself and a change of clothes wouldn't hurt and probably wouldn't slow them up a second. With that he got up and headed for Shae's bedroom, where his suitcase was located, and laid out some clothes and stripped partway.

In a few minutes, Shae came in from the bathroom nude, no surprise to him. It seemed she had gotten pretty comfortable with being nude around him for their not having sex, but it was apparently how Shae operated, and he didn't mind the view one bit. "I might as well get a shower before we leave," he said and headed for the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, they were headed down the elevator. He had on slacks and a sport jacket and tie; she had on a tan skirt and jacket with a colorful blouse underneath. The skirt might have been a little short for the season but not out of place on her long legs -- she could have as easily been a real estate saleswoman during the day instead of Shaella Sunrise. She drove her car -- she knew where she was going and was more comfortable in the modified Taurus, anyway.

He and Shae had not been out together much over the past couple months -- excepting their road trip, this was their first time to a restaurant -- but Dave had already learned when Shae walked into a room, she drew a lot of attention. She was, after all, a very good looking woman to begin with, and her size made her stick out even to those who'd missed her appearance. This was a small, rather family-oriented Italian restaurant, and there was no doubt when they walked in she turned heads.

They were shown to seats at a table -- she also didn't like to do booths, for the obvious reason. They ordered glasses of the house wine and glanced over the menu. "Come here often?" Dave asked conversationally.

"No," Shae replied. "Not since Raylene left last spring. We used to go places together occasionally. She was almost as tall as I am, and we'd really draw attention when we went anywhere."

"I can imagine," Dave grinned, the thought of two girls as big as Shae dressed even halfway provocatively walking into a place like this. "You're telling me you don't get out much now?"

"No, not really," she sighed. "It's hard for a woman to go places alone; you know that. When you're as big as I am, it's even harder since you draw so much attention, and you know what kind of attention I get. So, it's just easier to not go out."

"Don't you get out with friends, people from work, or something like that?"

"No," Shae sighed again. "Not much. It's really been nice the past few weeks, being able to tell stories to the boys and then talk with you in the evenings. It gives me something to look forward to. Other than that, well, I go down to visit Eve and John some weekends, and she comes up here somewhat regularly for consultations. We go out sometimes, and it helps. Other than that, it can get a little lonely."

Dave had developed the impression that Shae's social life was on the limited side, but he'd never heard her put it quite so bleakly. "So what do you do in the evenings? I mean, besides dream up stories for the boys?"

"The usual stuff," she shrugged. "Read. Mess around on the computer some. Watch TV. I rent a lot of movies, since I don't fit in theater seats. New York can be a lonely place if you don't know anybody. Since I left WSN, I really don't meet many new people. I guess I've become kind of a stick-in-the-mud."

Somehow the topic thankfully drifted away from the morose. Dave didn't think about it until much later, after he'd given a nearly-nude Shae the promised massage, and she'd fallen asleep in his arms once again. However, sleep didn't come easily to him, and he was a little worried about the warm woman cuddled up next to him. He had thought of Shae as a warm, loving, gregarious, upbeat person, and apparently that's what she was when she was with him and the boys. However, her real life didn't seem to be that way -- reading between the lines, she appeared shy and standoffish with most people, leading a dull and limited life, with no good friends except for Eve and John and himself. It couldn't help but make him wonder if perhaps she wasn't pinning too much of her happiness on her hopes for getting something going with him once he had managed to adjust to the loss of Julie. She had been a big help with the issue the past few weeks, if for no more reason than to remind him he had a future as well as a past -- but was she making too big a deal of it? Could her attention to him and the boys be a little more obsessive than was healthy? Boy, there was a question he'd like to ask Eve!

And as far as that was concerned, was his getting involved with Shae at all disrespecting Julie's memory? As much as he enjoyed sleeping with Shae in his arms, and his budding anticipation of what was likely to come sooner or later, he couldn't rid himself of the feeling he was cheating on Julie in the process, and it just added to the guilt. Was he right in continuing to get closer to her at this stage, or what?

For that matter, there were several questions he'd like to ask Eve, and not all of them concerned Shae. The exchange with Rob this morning, about taking care of his finances, worried him more than the money did. Was he failing to face up to reality? Was running away to Bradford really the right thing to do, turn his back on things that needed to be done? Good question, and he'd thought about it ever since the idea had first been broached.

Questions, lots of questions, and some of them he would have to confront on his own. He'd talked to Eve a couple times since he'd moved back to Bradford, but they hadn't managed to have a substantive discussion on the phone. It wasn't very far out of the way to go by way of Philadelphia on his way back to Bradford. Could he work out a chance to see Eve face to face? More and more it seemed like a good idea.

Friday just wasn't as much fun, but somehow he managed to get through it.

Rob's accountant, Aaron Tietelbaum, turned out to be about as short as Shae was tall -- Dave doubted Aaron stood much over four feet, and Dave thought wryly for a moment that it would be neat to see the two of them side by side. Dave could only lay out his concerns in general terms, since he hadn't brought his financial records to New York, not anticipating this stop. Even with the limited information, Aaron was concerned for Dave's financial state of affairs. "Boy, are you going to be glad Rob thought of this," Aaron told him. "You're heading for a serious tax mess, and it'd be worse if you waited until after the first of the year to come to me. But there's still time to fix a lot of it."

The initial appointment at Tietelbaum's office went fairly quickly, although Dave spent the rest of the day doing what follow-up he could. Aaron gave him a laundry list of information he would need. Amazingly enough, a fair amount of it could be worked out that day, including another visit to the brokerage, to get an update on his brokerage account -- he thought of it as Julie's -- and some of the other things needed from Bellinger Gates. Much to his surprise, he discovered Martin Clemens hadn't found all of Julie's old accounts, not surprising in the brief time he'd worked at it. One of the accounts Clemens had missed had been one in Dave's name, and that one had half a million dollars in it! It had been in some high-risk places, but amazingly enough they'd mostly had a heck of a good ride in the two months no one had been watching over them, something around a hundred thousand worth of good ride! He moved it over into a conservative mutual fund as well, and resolved to get a little more proactive about looking after his investments.

Then, on Tietelbaum's advice, he visited the safe deposit box Julie and he had rented for years. He'd never been there; Julie had always been the one to deal with those kinds of things since he was nowhere near as financially wise as she had been. Among the things he found there was a personal note from her father's business, for half a million dollars and now past due. Dave had never heard about it! No wonder Stan wanted to get him involved in his business -- if that note came out, he already owned a pretty good chunk of the company! There was something to hold over Stan and Deborah's heads if they got too pissy about the boys, Dave thought wryly.

There were two or three other things that turned up here and there, and the accountant summarized that Julie must really have been playing fast and loose behind his back, although to his benefit. How it was all going to play out, especially with the IRS, remained to be seen, and nothing really could be finalized until after Aaron had the chance to review his and Julie's tax returns for the last few years. Again, David hadn't had much to do with them and had let Julie handle it. He just signed the forms when she put them on the table in front of him.

During the course of all the running around, Dave made his planned stop at the agency handling body recovery and identification. Dave was not surprised that no trace of Julie's body had shown up, and the rather understanding woman he talked to really wasn't surprised either. There hadn't been much recovery work done in what they thought must be the part of the building Julie had been in, but all the debris was mixed so thoroughly that figuring where anything might be was an inexact science at best. Once again Dave had to tell the story of talking to Julie on his cell phone as the building went down, and a little to his surprise it was not as emotional as it had been not long before. Either he'd told the story enough to get used to it or he was getting over it a little, and either one was an improvement.

On the strength of his report of the phone call and some other circumstantial evidence, it was possible to get a death certificate issued for Julie, a detail he knew he was going to have to deal with and was not looking forward to. Considering the situation, the authorities were reportedly pretty lenient about issuing death certificates with limited evidence, and Dave's was pretty solid in comparison to many.

Although a lot about the day was very depressing and got him pretty down, Dave was satisfied he had been able to keep going and not sink into the shock and despair that had dogged him back in September. It wasn't until he got back to Shae's apartment in the late afternoon that the totality of everything began to sink into him. Up until this day, his subconscious could somehow convince him that Julie was somehow just away, and some day he would wake up, the bad dream would be over with and Julie would be back. Now, he somehow reached the point of facing up to the fact that Julie was gone, that she'd never be back, and that he had to deal with it.

For once, this evening Shae was of little help in dealing with his depression, not through any lack of trying on her part. Now, she just seemed to be confirmation of the fact that Julie was gone, for Dave would never have been one to mess around with another woman, even Shae, if he'd even thought there was a chance that Julie was going to return. He wouldn't have cheated on Julie; he was not that kind of person.

The two of them cancelled a planned dinner out and replaced it with a pizza ordered in. Shae tried to get him to talk things out, and he tried, but tonight it just wasn't working for some reason. He mentioned that he had thought about seeing Eve on the way back, and Shae said it sounded like a good idea, and called Eve at home to clear the way for Dave to see her Sunday afternoon.

They wound up in bed together again, this time Shae more comforting Dave as he cried on her shoulder than cuddling with him. They stayed away from the sensual things they had gotten into custom of doing; there was no kissing or caressing this night, and somehow he finally got to sleep.

The next day was better. Dave still had some running around to do, mostly dealing with items surrounding Julie's death. Fortunately, he had been wise enough to realize his list of things to do was longer than he could manage on Friday, especially after Aaron had added so much to the list, and had put off items that could be dealt with on Saturday. It wasn't quite as stressful, and Shae was with him, so things went better. By Saturday night his moodiness was not gone, but it was below the surface, although he could still touch it easily if he didn't watch out. They made up for the previous night by going out Saturday night to dinner and then a club with a fairly good band. Shae was dressed in a "little black dress," which somehow seemed even littler on her, and she drew a lot of attention. Dave didn't mind the eyes on them as the two of them danced on the small dance floor.

They got back late, and were back to kissing and cuddling and caressing before they went to sleep. They slept in on Sunday morning, then Shae cooked breakfast and made coffee. Both of them knew Dave needed to be getting on the road -- it was a long drive, and a stop of what would likely be several hours at John and Eve's would make him get back to Bradford even later yet. But now, a lot of Friday and Saturday's downer had been washed away, and there always seemed to be something else to talk about. It got later, and Shae offered to make soup and sandwiches so he wouldn't have to stop on the road. The next thing he knew it was 1:30 in the afternoon, and he really had to get going. It was pretty clear he was now going to have to get a motel or else drive through the whole night.

It still took a while to get out of there, and included a long, sensuous kiss and promises they'd each miss the other until they got together again. It was only a week and a half off since it had long been agreed that Shae would be in Bradford for Thanksgiving weekend -- JoAnne and Hazel were going to cook a major Thanksgiving dinner, something they hadn't done for years.

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