Earth Girls Aren't Easy by Charlene Teglia Page B

drink decaf or skim milk again.
    Danek , the voice in her head said. My name is Danek . Although it pleases me that you admire my body.
    Hearing voices was a very bad sign, Angie knew, but somehow she couldn’t seem to get upset about it. Instead she placed the two cups on the counter, told Mattie she was taking a break and walked around to join Danek , who waited for her with a cup in each hand.
    “It pleases me that you will share your break with me,” he said. His smile was easy and genuine, and Angie found herself smiling back at him.
    He indicated a table in front of a love seat in a corner and Angie started to tell him it was taken, but before she could open her mouth, the couple sitting there got up and left the coffee shop.
    Weird. But sometimes timing was just like that, Angie decided. They must have decided to leave, and they’d done something that Danek had noticed that told him the table he wanted was about to be empty.
    Because the alternative, that he’d sent them away with a mental command, didn’t bear close consideration.
    Since her knees were still weak from the visceral hallucination that had left her inner muscles quaking and her panties damp, Angie folded herself onto the couch without hesitation and held her hand out for her cup. Danek gave it to her, fingers brushing in the process, and the warmth of his touch sparked entirely too strong a response for such an inconsequential social contact.
    Focus, she scolded herself, and started to sip. Caffeine, that was all she needed. Clear the cobwebs.
    “You are Angela,” the big blond hunk said, looking at her as if she was some exotic vision and not a perfectly ordinary, medium-tall, medium-curvy woman with brown eyes and curly brown hair.
    Angie knew the total package was attractive enough, but far too girl-next-door to stand out in a crowd. Still, it was nice to be looked at that way. If he wanted to consider her exotic, he was welcome to his own hallucination. Since she was having them herself, she was in no position to judge. “That’s what the name tag says,” Angie agreed, taking another sip of caramel- flavored heaven on earth.
    “I do not know you from the name tag,” he informed her. “Micki sent me to deliver a package to you.”
    Angie nearly spilled the macchiato. “What?”
    “Micki. Michelle. She has finished her book and she directed me to give the manuscript into your hands. She says you will have the right address to send it to.” He smiled at her as if he hadn’t just dropped a conversational bomb and then detonated it over coffee.
    “You know where Micki is? Where is she? Is she hurt? What have you done with her?”
    “I have done nothing with her.” Danek looked surprised at her outburst. Then his expression turned thoughtful. “Well, that is not true. I did something with her, but I assure you, it was her wish. She says to tell you she is fine, and I will give you my word that she truly is.”
    Angie took another sip and forced herself to think. This man said Micki was fine, and he had the manuscript. That meant the book was done, and Micki couldn’t have finished a book in two weeks unless she really was okay. Maybe there was a note or some kind of explanation with the book?
    “There is a note for you,” Danek volunteered. “Do you wish to read it?”
    “Yes,” Angie said. “I wish to read it. Now would be good.”
    He handed her a flimsy plastic sleeve and she gave him a look of disbelief, then shook it out and saw Micki’s scrawling writing filling the sheet. “You ran out of paper?”
    “The manuscript is printed to specifications,” Danek said, looking insulted. “But this is a personal note. Do you not prefer to see her writing to a printed page?”
    “Never mind.” Angie’s thoughts were racing like hamsters on a wheel. Where was her friend? Why the disappearing act? And did Micki have something going on with this hot blond guy? Because if so, Danek really needed to stop flirting with other women