“Stephen Sondheim?”

“Yes. He’s a friend. I could introduce you.”

She’d been dizzy with the joy of it. To meet Stephen Sondheim would thrill her to her toes, but to have Shawn introduce him! It was simply over the top.

She finished shaving the one leg and picked up the canister to get the other one creamy, when the phone rang. Marla climbed down from the counter and hurried to the other room, a combination living room, kitchen and bedroom, to get the phone, fully expecting the call to be from Jessica.

It was Shawn. His sweet low voice took her breath away, and she didn’t say anything for a minute after his hello. He repeated the word, and she remembered how to talk. “Hi.”

“Am I bothering you?”

“Oh, no. No bothering here. In fact, the opposite of bothering which would be, uh…I don’t know what the opposite would be but you’re doing it. Nope. No bothering.”

He laughed, which made her all smiley and giddy. She sat down on the edge of the couch, crossed her clean-shaven leg over the hairy one.

“What are you up to tomorrow?” he asked.

“We have the dessert-and-jazz party at the Rainbow Room.”

“That’s tomorrow night.”

“I know, but I’ll have to go there in the afternoon to make sure all the decorations are up and stuff like that.”

“Ah, what time would that happen?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure, but probably around two.”

“Which would mean you would be available if, say, someone wanted to take you to brunch?”

That feeling swamped her tummy again, the one where the butterflies all took off at once and did the waltz. “Brunch?”

“You know, the meal that’s not quite breakfast and not quite lunch.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve had brunch before. Once when I was eleven, we stayed in Las Vegas and we had brunch every day for a week. I ended up overdosing on pancakes and cheesecake.”

“So, is that a yes?”

“Yes!”

“Good. How about I pick you up at ten?”

“Pick me up? You don’t have to do that. I’m not at the hotel. I’m at home because I had things to do, and I’m sharing the room there with this other girl, you met her, Vicky, she’s got brown hair and wears tights all the time, and anyway, she has all this stuff in the bathroom, which is fine, really, but hard to get around, so I decided to come home tonight to do all my girlie stuff…” She sighed. “Too much information, huh?”

“No, not at all. However, I did know you went home.”

“You did?”

“I called you, remember?”

“Oh. Yeah. How?”

“On the contact sheet from the agency.”

“Oh.”

“So I’ll pick you up, if, that is, you tell me where.”

“Oh, okay.” She gave him her address, and midway between her explaining where it was, he interrupted to tell her he already knew.

She closed her mouth, afraid it would start babbling on its own if she opened it even a bit. But then, he said, “See you at ten,” and she said, “Okay,” and then he hung up. She leaned her head on the phone for a second, wondering what she’d done in a previous life that could give her this in the present one. Whatever it was, she was grateful for it.

When she replaced the phone on the hook, it was mushed with lots of green gook from her face. After cleaning the receiver, she rushed back to the bathroom to finish shaving so she could take a shower. It was well past the time she should have washed off, so her face would be extra glowy. Which was nice, because then it would match how she felt.

JESSICA DIDN’T SAY anything for a long time after the waitress made her getaway. She was embarrassed, sure, but not terminally. She just wasn’t certain what to say next. How does one follow that?

Finally, she looked over to see Dan, who was laughing. His face was kind of scrunched up, but on him it looked good. She smiled, appreciating the joke, but also a little concerned. The telling had taken a toll. The erotic frisson had dissipated somewhat, but there was a lingering sensation in her lower parts that made her shift on her seat. He stirred her up, this man. Something fierce.

Yes, she’d decided to go with the flow, so to speak, and scratch her proverbial itch. But something else nagged at her, and it was a little voice in the back of her head that said this wasn’t all about sex. And if it wasn’t just about sex, then having sex might not be the right way to go. Having sex might lead to wanting more, and more was what she shouldn’t have.

All she had to do was think about the end of the campaign and the potential jobs that waited for her. On the other hand, the distraction of the attraction was quickly becoming too much to ignore, and that could easily lead to disaster.

“Now, that was a moment I won’t soon forget,” Dan said, wiping the corner of his eyes with his napkin. “The look on her face. Five’ll get you ten, we have another waitress serving us the rest of our meal.”

“I won’t take that bet.” She sipped her new drink, careful not to down too much, as she was hungry as a hound and the liquor would hit too hard. “I think they’re probably all pulling lots to see who has to serve us.”

“You certainly took it all with a grain of salt.”

She shrugged. “Not much I could do about it once it was done. Why fret?”

“Why, indeed?” He held up his glass. “To stoicism.”

She clicked her glass to his and took another sip. “I hope they don’t haggle too much. I’m starved.”

“Me, too.”

They both turned toward the kitchen, but no waitress appeared, so they settled back to wait.

“That was great, by the way,” he said. “Just the kind of thing I was looking for.”

“But aren’t there a whole bunch of books that detail women’s sexual fantasies? Couldn’t you just read them?”

“I did, and they didn’t work. Anecdotal evidence from a cross section of anonymous women is fine, but it doesn’t get to the heart of what I’m looking for. I’m thinking that if I can understand one particular woman, you, then I’ll see all women in a new light.”

She shook her head. “Hasn’t every man since Adam tried to figure us out, and failed?”

“Exactly what makes the research so interesting.”

“You know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think you’re a closet voyeur, and you’re getting your jollies asking me all this embarrassing stuff.”

Instead of the laugh she expected, his eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. “It’s possible that’s true, although I haven’t sought out voyeuristic situations in the past.”

“I was kidding.”

“I know. But I don’t think it’s something I can simply dismiss out of hand.”

“What?”

“I have to be honest with you, Jessica. I’m not the model of stoicism you are. When you were recounting your fantasy, it wasn’t all science and note-taking here.”

“It wasn’t?”

He shook his head. “No. There was a decided uprising, if you get my drift.”

She hid her smile behind her whiskey sour. “Oh, dear.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, maybe we should call it off? The research, I mean.”

He hesitated, but not for long. “No, I don’t think so. I think we should press on.”

“But what if there’s another ‘uprising’?”

He scooted a little closer to her. “It’s a very real possibility.”

“Oh?”

He nodded, moved closer still. “However,” he said, keeping his voice low, unreachable to any nearby waitress, “I believe that my reaction is an important factor in the project.”

“How so?”

“If I wasn’t turned on, then you wouldn’t be the right subject.”

“Hmm. So it’s not any particular woman. It’s a particular woman you’re attracted to.”

“Exactly. And it’s equally important that the woman-you-be attracted to me.”

She frowned. “Oh, dear.”

The look on his face was priceless. Total shock. She hadn’t thought of him as egocentric, and he certainly hadn’t behaved like one of those guys who think they’re God’s gift, but it was clear he’d sensed the heat between them. She decided to be kind, and let him off the hook. “Kidding,” she said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t so.”