Tomorrow?

(me) :> You free tomorrow? I could make us dinner and we could wrap up any issues about getting Rae out of this mess.

(Sandra) :> Really, I didn't want to ask, but it would really help.

(me) :> I'll make the time. You hit the send button before you decide that it is a little much, but you get a smiley face emoji in response.

(me) :> Talk to Viv before you turn in for the night, you kinda freaked her out. There is a pause of a couple minutes and you are starting to wonder if she even gets the text until you phone 'dings' one last time.

(Sandra} :> K, will do

The next day you spend a good couple hours cleaning your apartment; scrubbing the bathroom, picking up in the living room, dishes emptied from the dishwasher and in your bedroom you change the sheets and pillowcases. (Not that you think you are likely to end up in bed with Sandra, but if things do get that far you don't want it on be on dirty sheets.)

You spent almost an hour reading up about Jewish dietary rules last night and you think you have a solid plan. At the supermarket you look carefully for the Kosher symbol on the three-cheese brand the internet recommended and buy a bunch of salad vegies and finally add a package of fancy paper plates to serve everything on.

You actually get some studying done in the afternoon, and the Fluid Mechanics that had made no sense two days ago suddenly doesn't seem so impossible. It is a good thing you set an alarm, because you are deep into the last problem when it goes off. The salad is made and the oven is pre-heated when you hear the knock at the door.

Sandra looks impressed when you show her the pizza and salad and ask if it is OK for her to eat. She looks as beautiful as ever in her white knit top and long flowing skirt.

"You didn't have to do all this, Stephen." Sandra licks her lips shyly as she sets her over-sized dice bag on the table and pulls out the leather-bound notebook that she uses as a character sheet as you put the pie in the hot oven.

"Oh, it's nothing," you stretch the truth a little, "I like to do something nice for all my solo runs." Sandra doesn't seem to buy it though.

"Really," she lifts her eyebrow in inquiry, "so, if David came over you'd make him a nice dinner like this?"

"Well, I might have just gotten Tai food again." You concede as you wander into the living room where Sandra is looking at her notes. She closes the book with a 'snap' at your sudden appearance and suddenly looks nervous as she tucks the book under her thigh. "You OK?"

"Yeah, just thinking about what might happen to Rae when she's in the Overlord's dungeon." That explains a little of her fidgeting, but you sure would like to know what is in her notebook that she is guarding so possessively.