This was wrapping itself up more neatly than she could have hoped. David peeked up at her through his lashes. ‘Would you…um. Would you come with m...e?’ He looked so sweet and hopeful. Vera squeezed his hand and smiled at him. ‘I can’t, David. Actually it think it’s time I was moving on anyway. This was only supposed to be two days, remember?’ ‘Yeah,’ he smiled sadly, not meeting her eyes. ‘Where will you go?’ Vera shrugged. Now that she had said it out loud she felt the need to move on gnawing at. It’s true, I’m young. But my basic nature is to rule and command. I tried to set this event up so the US can get a lot of good public relations out of it. Yet your department wouldn’t play ball with our common associate who set this up on my orders, note - orders and not a request. You refused to help our mutual friend. So I exercised my command power to shift it to here where we have more control, which is where I’d preferred to have this ceremony in the first place. You forgot that principle. They love their TV personalities.’ The surprised Brazilian woman instantly took the proffered hand. ‘It’s a deal,’ Becky said, meeting broad smile with broad smile. ‘Okay, tell me again where everything is going,’ Deborah murmured, grinning in satisfaction with their arrangement. She glanced around. ‘It certainly looks fantastic.’ It did, too! Rebecca’s eyes took in the pristine looking polished wood aerobics floor, not yet scuffed by the soon-to-be assault of hundreds of pounding trainers. . They gave the phone back to Ryan and he put it in his jeans pocket, andthen started blowing me these kisses, oh my God, he was disgusting. I wasabout to lose it with him totally, and you know I can fight, even if I amlittle, remember when I pushed Stacey over at school that time? But Tonipulled me back. She had this really weird look on her face, I mean itdoesn't take much for her to get angry as we all know, but this wassomething else. It was like, Super Toni, or something.So anyway, I wanted.