you 'milady', you'll never realize..." Rolling her eyes and swatting his shoulder, Mandi said, "Yeah, right. Seriously, Ed. Why?" "I like it. If you don't, just say so. I'll stop." Sipping her Coke again without taking her eyes off him, Mandi seemed to give the matter some thought. After a moment she set the can on the desk and went to the door. "Ready?" she asked. Cade nodded and went to the door, opening it to check the hallway. Seeing nobody in the corridor, he nodded again and waved her past him. Mandi swept past him in a flash. Her blur of motion turned hard right just outside the doorway and disappeared. Cade peeked out in time to see her slash her keycard through her room's door lock, then disappear again. 'Yeah, she's definitely quick,' he thought, opening the door to his room fully and standing well clear of it as he mentally counted 'One... two... three...' A rush of air passed him with the blur that was Mandi. She set three suitcases and a cloth bag on the floor by the bed and disappeared. Cade held his position and counted again. "...Four," said Cade as Mandi again blasted into the room. "Four what?" she asked. "Seconds. There and back, that is. The lock must have slowed you down on the first trip." Grinning at him, Mandi opened one of her suitcases on the bed and took out a terrycloth bathrobe, which she laid to one side as she continued rooting through the bag. Cade closed the door and came to stand near her as she produced a container of shampoo made to look like a miniature champagne bottle and handed it to Cade. After studying the faux-vineyard label, Cade handed it back with a shrug and, "Yes'm. That's very nice." "Not what you were expecting, was it?" asked Mandi. "I wasn't expecting anything. I just came over here to see if you'd pull anything interesting out of that bag." "Interesting? In what way?" Shrugging again, Cade said, "Just interesting. No way in particular," and headed for the bathroom to make a coffee. As he primed his travel mug with instant coffee and waited for the sink water to run hot enough, Mandi said, "You don't exactly seem absolutely thrilled about me being here." With a short laugh, Cade looked at her in the wall mirror and shook his head unbelievingly. "What?" asked Mandi. "You don't." Giving her another long look as he stirred his coffee, Cade grinningly said, "I'm minding my manners, that's all. There's a beautiful woman in my hotel room and I don't want to say or do anything that will make her leave in a huff." Mandi gave him a skeptical look, then zipped her suitcase shut and set it on the floor. Picking up the shampoo and the folded robe, she took them to the bathroom alcove and set them on the counter, then turned to Cade. "Say or do what, exactly, Ed? We talked about certain things in the bar, didn't we?" Nodding, he said, "We talked, but that's all.