CHAPTER 1


   The buzzing phone made Jessica moan in frustration as she reached out of the bed and slapped around on the night stand. She could have opened her eyes and actually looked for her target but, the slapping did the trick and once her palm made contact, the annoying sound stopped. She had barely used any muscles in that little exercise and, yet, it had completely wiped her out. She sighed and then mumbled, “didn’t wake you up did it?”
Jessie heard nothing so she said it louder this time and, when that got no response, her other hand went searching around the sheets. She was finally forced to open her eyes and look at the empty spot on the bed. She did not have to look around long to find Jake. He was casually walking out of the bathroom drying his head with a towel. He sounded very disinterested when he asked her, “did you say something?”
“Never mind now,” Jessie replied with a certain amount of disappointment. She fell back and tried to get comfortable before realizing something. Her eyes opened once more and she looked over at the clock. It was late in the evening but, it was only evening. She sat back up and said, “talk about hit and run. Why are you leaving so soon?”
Jake wandered over to the sliding glass doors that led out on the balcony of the hotel. He did not bother to open them however. He just stood on the inside and looked out at the ocean. The waters were a little churned up but, as far as Jake could tell, they always were on this planet. Still, with those glowing green caps, the lightening way off in the distance, and flowing trees down by the South Pier Arcade, it was kind of picturesque in it’s own way. He looked back at Jessie, very picturesque in her own way, and told her, “you know, this could be a really nice place if it had half a chance. I don’t get what the problem is here.”
That drew a snicker from Jessie who asked her own question in return, “you mean if everybody wasn’t always trying to kill everybody else?”
Jake just shrugged and looked back out at the sea. He then mumbled, “well it’s a nice hotel at least.”
Jessie slipped out of bed and walked over to him. She stopped right behind him and put her arms around his waist as she said, “I like to come down here and stay sometimes, to recharge my batteries. Being way up here on the twenty-second floor kind of takes me away from everything.”
There was an unasked question that should have followed that. Jake sensed it and her general reluctance to ask. That was why he just went ahead and told her, “I’m not going back to the station. I got a meeting I have to make. I’ll be back, right after it’s over with.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Jessie protested lightly as she got a better grip. Then she blew it off with, “why would I care anyway?” Jake was not about to touch that one with a ten foot pole. He said nothing and after a few more minutes she said, “I was just kind of hoping I could convince you to stay.”
“Not too hard to do,” Jake replied. Then he asked her something else, “what I don’t get is, you got a nice place. Why is it we come down here, anyways?”
“Oh come on Jake,” Jessica told him, “I’m a public figure. I’m a news anchor. It wouldn’t look right if people knew about us. People would be afraid to talk to me. That’s how I make my living, you know?”
He turned away from the ocean and looked her in the eye. Jake held his pleasant smile and, strangely enough, it was quite genuine. He then told her quite seriously, “and it’s ok if the people that I work with know all about it?”
Jessie dropped out of the mood she was in and pulled away. She stomped back over to the bed and plopped down on it’s corner, “is this going to turn in to another Barbra discussion? Again?”
Jake tossed his towel over his shoulder and began walking back towards the bathroom. He sounded quite happy as he said, “hell no, I was just making a point Jessie.” As he went back to work in the bathroom he talked when he could, “we both have jobs to do. We’re both in the same line of work.”
The last comment surprised Jessie. She yelled at the bathroom, “I beg to differ, dear. Our jobs couldn’t be further apart.”
The comment did not seem to phase Jake in the least, or, he did not hear her. Jessie chose to believe the latter until he came out of the bathroom again. This time he was buttoning up his shirt as he told her, “we’re both in the information business. What we do with it might be different but, it still boils down to the same thing.”
Jessie gave him a perky little smile and nodded yes when she told him, “again, I beg to differ.”
“Whatever,” Jake replied.
That got a strange look from Jessie who told him, “why is it that men always say ‘whatever’ when they think they’ve lost an argument?”
Jake struck back with, “why is it women always say, ‘nothing’?”
That caused Jessie to retreat and bite her bottom lip before saying, “nothing.”
“Look Jessie,” Jake told her as he grabbed his jacket, “it’s a work thing. I can’t reschedule it.”
“I see,” Jessie stated before she translated that for him, “which means I am not sure I buy it.” She smiled at him as he walked to the door. Then in a perky news voice she asked, “meeting some deep cover informant in a parking lot? He has to be there at a certain time or some gangsters are going to kill him?”
Jake actually thought about that for a second and then he replied, “sort of. Only it’s not some gangsters that might kill him. It’s his wife.” Jake left the hotel room.
Jessie yelled at the door as it closed, “if you’re going to lie to me, at least tell a believable one!”