Not how Adam expected...

Adam winced in disappointment as he looked over the set. "Isn't this supposed to be an outside cafe?"

"We'll CGI in the background later."

"The times we live in."

Nylands reduced his voice to a confidential murmur. "Actually, it's easier this way, not attracting attention out on some street to our actresses."

"Ah! Excellent point." Adam set himself down on the roomiest chair available and casually opened up his menu.

"All right, Adam," Helmut called as he got behind his camera, "I have faith in you, let's make this." He gave a countdown with the splayed fingers of his hand.

"Hi!" Adam warmly greeted some imaginary newcomer to the cafe. "I work for Ubiquitron, and we have enjoyed a long, reliable and prosperous relationship with Carl Wolper and all the excellent advisers at Maximus Advisers who always make sure we get the absolute most that we can."

The waitress played by Busty Breakstone, her costume cut to advertise an entire canyon of cleavage, cheerfully stopped by and pointedly leaned towards Adam. "Can I interest you in anything, sir?"Busty cheerfully walked away, and Adam wanted to sigh so as to relax himself, but he noticed Helmut making a rolling gesture with his hand. This is going great! he realized, and plunged ahead. "Some investment firms think it's all about offering the most glamorous stocks, that it's really all about nothing but the presentation." He felt good and cool as the next waitress asked him "Can I interest you in anything, sir?" and he turned to her.

That was when Adam found himself locking eyes with no less than Pandora Perqs.

"Kane ... !" she whispered in round-eyed amazement.

"Not right this minute ... " He suddenly realized he had forgotten the rest of the line. It was something easy and silly, something perfunctory, but all he could think was "Please have a seat," because that was exactly what he wanted.

"CUT!" called Helmut. He approached the set, regarding Adam a little strangely. "Adam? You've forgotten to say Thank you to a waitress?" he turned to Pandora. "And why are you saying anything at all after your line?"

"Helmut," Adam reasoned, "if you could just indulge Miss Perqs and myself for a few minutes, I'm sure we'll be able to give you what you want."

Helmut frowned but conceded, wagging a finger at Adam. "Like I said earlier: I have faith." He walked off.

"Please have a seat," Adam got to say at last.

Pandora had to pull up a chair for herself. "Kane!" she sighed dreamily. "I had given up all hope of ever seeing you again!"

"As you may have overheard from our director, the name is Adam. In fact, it's always been Adam. Kane was just an alias."

"I always figured that. So what happened to you?"

"I've carved out a new life for myself." It felt downright therapeutic, telling her his recent history to her face. "A little different from the one you were offering. A little different from most too-males. I'm a successful businessman. I told you I got a woman pregnant, and I married her, and we have a beautiful daughter together, and she's grown up so wonderfully, she's very bright and sweet and goodhearted."

"I hate to admit it, but in that case, you were right to go. It's just that ... Adam, I've thought about you so much. I mean a lot."

"That goes both ways, Pandora."

"Adam ... I really don't want to cut in on the wife and daughter and everything -- "

"Thee wives. And a daughter."

Pandora sighed in admiration. "Three wives. Well, that only stands to reason! But ... can we meet again sometime? I'm not doing anything really urgent these days."

It was interesting, how completely Adam had already forgotten Dr. Dietz's advice. "You've got it."

Helmut came back over. "Are you two okay?"

"Oh, we're very okay!" Pandora assured him.

"Great. Listen, I've been thinking -- this could actually fit the script. The whole idea of using Pandora, here, was to play up the idea of glamor, which is exactly what Adam was just talking about. So maybe, in honor of Pandora looking so great for us today, we can cut and insert a special closeup of her, and then resume the rest of the scene."

In my humble opinion that is a brilliant idea," Adam voted.

So that was what they did. Adam watched Pandora as she left, and it occurred to him that he really needed to nail her down -- no, actually, to nail down the particulars of their ever meeting again. There would be some time yet before the next girl, so Adam idly looked over his menu, and was surprised to see that it was perfectly real. He took down notes on what possibly to have on future dates ...

(Originally posted to the BE Addventure by DruulEmpire)