Ecstatic at Emily’s reaction to the gloves and mug from the previous day, Boris was up bright and early the next morning.  There seemed to be a spring to his step, but who knew why?  Since there was nothing going on at the shop today, no appointments or anything pressing, he was gonna be a homebody the entire morning, or most of it anyway.  They had agreed on 3:30, a good half-hour after her shift ended, to meet at his shop for her choices of swag consumption.<br/><br/>Boris chuckled at the thought of how overwhelmed she would be once she saw for herself the massive amount of product to choose from.  Planning ahead, he already had a few bags to take with him for her usage.  And if those weren’t enough?  He’d gladly volunteer to drop off the rest to her at<i>Blue’s Café.  </i>Any excuse for a visit.  Well, in addition to the coffee, of course.<br/><br/>Coffee from the café already in the middle of brewing, his laptop decided that now would be a good time for updates.  This always annoyed him, as he couldn’t fathom why the electronic device couldn’t perform these tasks when he was either asleep or not wanting to use it.  While that circle kept spinning (65% it said), he also found it amusing how it instructed the user<i>Do not turn off your device.  </i>His retort was always,<i>I just turned it on.  Why would I turn it off</i>?  Ah yes, one-sided “conversations” had always been his forte.<br/><br/>While waiting, he reminisced at how surprised he was when Emily asked him to choose a dish for her to make.  There were so many choices, how could she possibly expect him to narrow it down to a single selection?  Instead, he instructed her to think of her top three signature dishes, and pick one without telling him beforehand.  Who didn’t like surprises?  With that in mind, he also listed the foods he absolutely abhorred, like tofu, broccoli, and that was pretty much it.  This was all totally unnecessary, of course, though he did actually enjoy this give-and-take between them.<br/><br/>Updates completed, he signed in and clicked on the logo of<i>Innocent Innuendos </i>from the bookmarks bar.  It’d been only two days since he was last on, so he was hoping neither of his pair of partners had posted, most especially<i>Shadow Queen.  </i>As luck would have it, she hadn’t, but there was a message from her waiting for him in their PM.  There was no post from<i>GhostWriter </i>either, so it was a definite win-win.<br/><br/>Now, about that PM.<br/><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff">47, my love,</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff"></span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff">I am hopeful that my soon-to-be-lover-who-will-be-begging-for-more had a good day?  Yes?  Candace longs to touch Anatoly meaningfully.  And away from the clinic.  He can run from her for only so long.  Here’s something I thought you should know.  The longer he avoids her, the more pleasurable his experiences will be.  Read into that however you wish.</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff"></span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff">Anatoly has her business card, with her personal number on the back.  What more does he need?  Make the call, my love.  It is time.</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff"></span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ffff">Shadow Queen :heart:</span></i><br/><br/>Damn, she sure didn’t mince words, Boris thought.  He’d reply, of course, just not right now.  A hasty response might not be such a good idea.  He preferred to reflect on his answer, knowing full well where this was headed.  This was also known as stalling.<br/><br/>His RP with<i>GhostWriter</i>, on the other hand, was like night and day compared to the one with<i>Shadow Queen.</i>Their characters had met, albeit under trying circumstances, but there was already a mutual respect between the pair.  Their characters had yet to meet any Xenomorphs up close and personal, although Boris’s engineer experienced a harrowing experience with them.  As the lone survivor of his team’s slaughter, he was in no rush for a reunion with the killing machines.<br/><br/>Now that the fun and games at<i>Innocent Innuendos </i>were in a temporary holding pattern, Boris noticed that the clock was creeping ever so closer to meeting Emily at the shop.  He knew he’d need to insist numerous times to her that it was okay to take as much as she wanted.  Hell, grab some stuff for Angela and Roxy, for that matter.<br/><br/>Emily.  A lovely name for a lovely woman.  He wondered if he was in way over his head with the sexy barista, The Slayer of Killer Cookies.  Boris grinned at the spontaneous gamertag or whatnot.  What were his intentions for her?  Did he have any?  There were other questions for sure, but it all came down to one that’s haunted him since high school, if not 5th grade.<br/><br/>What if all she wanted was to be friends?