chapter:4

Kate stepped inside and looked around. Her place was nicer than Angela's was. She saw a sofa with a bed next to it, a very neatly made bed. The kitchen was tiny like hers, but she had something Kate envied: a dishwasher. She also had a little 2-person table with two chairs and a TV.

"This is nice, Angela."

"It's just a studio apartment, but I like it. Come sit down while I get you something to drink."

"Thanks, but no. I came to ask you out to lunch. Dutch." Meaning that she paid for her meal, and Angela paid for hers.

"I accept. Let me get my purse, and we can go." Angela looked around for her purse, and after finding it, she was ready to leave. "I know just the place. It serves pizza if that's okay, and we'll need to take a taxi to get to it."

"Pizza will work," Kate agreed. "And I'll split the taxi with you." With that, they went downstairs and flagged down a taxi.

"No Fork, please," Angela told the driver, and he took them there.

They served oven-baked New York-style pizza. It looked like a pizza place.

"Do you trust me?" Angela asked.

"Sure." What could she order that she didn't like?

"We'll have a large Fork-Et About It," Angela told their server. "And two Cokes." She had just placed an order without even looking at the menu.

"So tell me what you're writing about," Angela asked her.

"It's about this guy named Derrick Storm. He's an independent Investigator, and his present client is the CIA. I've only gotten two chapters into it, so I haven't fleshed him out much yet. I think of him as being a big, handsome, square-jawed guy."

"Interesting. That sounds more exciting than what I do all day," Angela told her.

"Oh, I don't know about that. You get to hack cell phones and computers, you know. Do you have a current case?" Kate inquired.

"Not right now, no. I just finished working on a case, but I can't tell you about it. It's classified."

Kate shook her head. "Pity."

"Sorry, much of what I do is classified, Kate."

Their server brought the pizza to their table with a flourish. "It's beef sausage and mushrooms," Angela told her, hoping that it really was all right.

"It looks good." Then Kate sighed. "But it may be more than I can handle."

"That's not a problem. You can get a doggie bag."

~~~~~~

They parted ways after lunch and agreed to meet tomorrow for dinner. Kate would come to her place, and then they would go together. Angela worried she wouldn't get another day off for a week

Kate went home and didn't give another thought about their meet-up. It wasn't a date, it was a meet-up. She got back to work and began typing. She wanted to get another chapter to Gina by the time she left to meet Angela for dinner.

She finished a chapter just after lunch and sent it to Gina, hoping she would like it. Then Kate did laundry, which meant going out to a laundromat. It was tedious, and she hated it. That was another reason to get a better apartment, but she decided to wait even though the list of things she wanted was piling up. A dishwasher and in-house laundry were at the top of her list.

She used her laptop to look for a new apartment. She was only going to look. There was no harm in looking. Right?

Kate found a few that looked promising, but right about then, she noticed it was time to get ready to go to Angela's place and meet her for dinner. She applied a little makeup since it was dinner, and she wanted to look nice. She put her hair up and put on the same dress she wore to Black Pawn's office.

She took a taxi to Angela's, went up the elevator, walked to her door, and knocked. "COMING," she heard her say through the door. Then Angela opened it, and Kate's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

Angela was gorgeous, absolutely drop dead gorgeous, and way better than she looked. "This place must be pretty fancy," Kate commented.

Angela shrugged. "It's just Roberto's. It's Italian. I hope that's okay."

"That's fine. I like Italian."

"My clutch! I'll be right with you. Come in if you want." Angela left the door open and went to get her clutch.

Kate stepped inside and closed the door. The place looked the same as ever. Neat and tidy and just one big room.

"All set," Angela called out. "You look nice, Kate."

"And you look nicer. It makes me want to go out and buy a new dress."

Angela blushed. "Thank you. We can go now." Together, they rode the elevator to the ground floor, flagged down a taxi, and went to Roberto's for dinner.

~~~~~~

"This is very nice," Kate noted as she looked around. She saw most, if not all, of the servers were men wearing black pants, black shoes, white shirts, and black ties. "Do you come here often?"

"Once in a while," Angela replied. "It's the nicest restaurant close to me."

They were interrupted by a server asking if they wanted any drinks. Angela looked up at him. "We'll take a bottle of your La Merlina Gavi Di Gavi, please."

"Very good." And he left them.

"So, tell me more about what you're writing."

"Derrick Storm is an adventurer, a risk-taker, an excellent fighter. He's also somewhat old-fashioned, none of this Kung Fu stuff. He's ruggedly handsome and will wear just about anything to get the job done.

"Presently, he just accepted an assignment for the CIA. I haven't gotten much further than that. I did finish a chapter earlier today and sent it to Gina, though. She's my editor."

"Sounds exciting. I guess I better decide what I'm going to eat." She picked up her menu as did Kate. There was a lot to choose from. Maybe too much.

Their server returned. "Are you ready to order, or do you need another minute?"

Angela closed her menu. "I'll take the Orecchiette con Salsiccia e Broccoli Di Rapa, please."