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Green-Eyed Monster TOC

Part 29

Part 30

Late Friday Night

Clark hadn’t wanted to hear Lois’s excuses. She, once again, had seemed to have plenty of them. Lois had denied she had been dating someone to Luthor. She had told Luthor that Clark was just a ‘good friend’. And then she had agreed to a date with the billionaire. The very man her boyfriend had told her had ruined his life for the past two years. How could he forgive and forget that? Even with Lois.

On the trip back to her place in the truck, Lois had tried to explain to Clark that it wasn’t a ‘date’ date with Luthor. The reference to a non-date date had his hairs standing on end and Clark had said something in anger of which he wasn’t proud. Something for which Lois would probably never forgive him. He had told her that by agreeing to go on a date with Luthor, she had finally made the transition to being a streetwalker. If he could have taken back the words, grabbed them with his super speed as they hung between them, he would have. They were uncalled for. And even now, seconds after speaking them, he regretted it.

Lois gave him a stare so menacing, he was glad he was the one with heat vision. “Pull over, Clark!” she told him, her voice cold. “If I’m a streetwalker, then I’m walking the rest of the way home.”

They were close to her place, so he pulled to the side of the road to let her out. He didn’t really feel like fighting her decision.

As Lois got out of the truck, she turned to him and said, “I didn’t tell Lex about us because I didn’t want to put your name – Clark Kent’s name – out there for him to latch onto, become familiar with. I wanted him to rid us of Tempus without drawing the spotlight onto you. I wasn’t making a ‘date’ with Luthor, Clark, and I told him as much. I can’t help what he believes. I made an appointment to discuss Tempus’s sexual harassment blackmail with him. And if you hadn’t shut me out, you would have learned that.” She then slammed the truck door in Clark’s face.

No! No! No! You screwed up royally this time, Kent! Go after her!

Clark jumped out of the truck and ran after her, but she had only held up her hand to silence him.

“I don’t want to argue anymore, Clark. You’ve proved to me without a doubt that you don’t trust me.” Her upheld hand caressed his cheek. “I love you, Clark, but I don’t see how we can move forward from this. I cannot be in a relationship with someone who can’t trust me.”

“I do trust you, Lois,” he tried to explain. “It’s him I don’t trust.”

Her eyes gazed at him sadly.

She doesn’t believe you, Kent. Why should she?

“No, you don’t trust me, Clark,” Lois’s voice sounded hoarse as if she held her emotions in check. “If I told you it was snowing tonight, I want to know you would believe me even if it was ninety degrees out.”

“So you want me to believe you even when you flat out lie to me?” he asked her, perplexed. That couldn’t be what she meant?

Lois shrugged and started to walk home. “You define love your way. I’ll describe it my way.”

“Oh. So, now I’m your mother and you’re your father?” he retorted.

Lois’s stride faltered for a moment, then she continued on without looking back. “The only difference being, Clark, is that I never would have cheated on you.”

Clark was about to run after her when he realized that she had spoken about their relationship in the past tense. Instead, he ran into a near-by alley so fast that what was left of his heart remained bleeding on the sidewalk where Lois had dropped it. He spun into the blue suit and blasted into the sky, colder than he had ever felt in his life.

He flew to her place and saw that the police detail was there, watching Lois’s apartment. Even if she didn’t trust that he loved her enough, he needed to make sure that she would be safe without him there watching over her. Then he went home. His father and mother were unloading the van they had rented for the event when he landed.

Clark helped them finish unloading it in less than a minute and then sat down at the dining room table, his head in his hands. His head and chest throbbed in agony over losing Lois.

Idiot! She was protecting you and you called her a whore! You drove away the best woman you will ever find. She loved you, accepted you, and even desired you and you just pushed her away. You just couldn’t believe that someone would love you so much as to risk their life for yours.

“I thought you were staying at Lois’s tonight,” his father said, coming into their apartment.

His Mom elbowed her husband and then came to rub her son’s shoulders, knowing what was wrong without him speaking a word. But he spoke them anyway.

“Lois broke up with me.” His words made it sound so final, so over. He felt cold, numb, dead.

Well, that’s what happens when your heart stops beating, Kent. You die.

“What did you do?” his Mom asked, sitting down next to him.

“Who says that I…?” Clark started and then stopped at her skeptical expression.

Mom’s right, Kent. You screwed up.

He sighed. “Lois made a ‘date’ with Lex Luthor.”

“Excuse me?” Martha said in disbelief. “No. I don’t believe it, Clark. She loves you.”

Not anymore.

Clark shrugged. “And when she made the date she told him she wasn’t seeing anyone.”

His Mom’s jaw dropped.

“I’m confused, son,” said his father. “I thought you said she broke up with you. These all sound like reasons for you to have broken up with her.”

You never would have broken up with Lois, Kent, any more than you would have torn off your right arm. Fight, yes. Leave her, never.

Clark rolled his eyes. “Apparently, it wasn’t a ‘date’ per se but an appointment to discuss that man at Lexco who’s blackmailing Lois.”

“Wait! Hold on a second, Clark. Lois is being blackmailed?” his father asked.

Time to tell them the truth, Kent.

Clark rubbed a hand down his face and then launched into an explanation of the Tempus from the corporate offices.

“You’re being investigated?” his Dad gasped. “Clark, you should have told us.”

“Perry said he has an escape plan,” Clark murmured with a shrug.

You don’t deserve to ‘escape’, Kent. Not after what you did and said to Lois. You deserve to be caged like the menace-to-society that you are.

“Oh. So, Perry has a plan and Lois is trying to solve the problem another way. What are you doing about it?” his Mom wanted to know.

Clark gulped, the truth burning a hole in his stomach. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” his Dad stated. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

Sure it does, Dad. An idiot that sabotages his own relationship before it has had time to take off. A do-nothing ne’err-do-well? That’s our boy Kent here in a nutshell.

“What else can I do? Besides pay the money back. Only we don’t have it any more, because we used it to pay the lease on the café,” Clark explained.

“How much is it?” his Dad asked.

“Almost two years worth of paychecks from Daily Books.” Jonathan’s son sighed. “But I don’t want to pay the money back. I earned it! I did work shelving as many books as it would have taken five people working an eight hour shift each… more!”

“But they can’t know that, Son,” his father simply stated.

“I know that, Dad. If only Luthor hadn’t raised our lease.”

His Dad threw up his hands. “The great Perry White and his grand ideas!”

His Mom took hold of her husband’s hand. “Laying blame won’t solve this. No matter whose idea it was, Clark accepted the proposition. He took the money.”

Yep! All your fault, Kent. You ruin everyone’s lives you touch. Lois was just trying to help you by keeping Tempus away from you and you pushed her away.

They were all quiet for a minute with these heavy thoughts, before Martha Kent spoke again. “So why did Lois break up with you?”

Because you don’t deserve her.

“Because she says I don’t trust her,” her son said out loud.

“Ah.” His Mom nodded. “And why is that exactly, Clark? She told you what that man from the future told her, right?”

“Yes.” He groaned, burying his head again.

Yep! You screwed with destiny and ended up with zippo! Lois is your soul-mate and you thought that meant you didn’t have to try.

Clark had glanced over at his Mom with a sour smile. “Thanks for the heads-up about that, Mom, by the way.”

She chuckled, patting his hand. “I knew you’d figure it out, sooner or later. You can’t live your life by what someone else predicts for you. You have to live your life by what you want.”

Clark sighed. “I want Lois.”

Jonathan Kent pushed himself to his feet. “What are you going to do about it, Clark? You aren’t going to win Lois back plowing fields of snow.”

What?

His Mom smiled up at his father with love. And his father returned the gaze with tenderness.

Clark looked at his parents with a shake of his head. “So, you think I should crawl back to her on my hands and knees?”

His Mom patted his hand again. “No, dear. Fly back. It’s faster.”

“Where’s my truck?” his father asked.

Clark winced.

The truck!

“I left it about two blocks from Lois’s.” He went to the telephone and dialed his favorite phone number.

Please, Lois. Please, pick-up. Please, tell me it was a huge mistake. That you still love me. That you want me back. Please!

It rung off the hook. “She doesn’t want to talk to me,” he muttered, setting down the receiver.

“Or she’s in the shower,” his Mom suggested.

Plowing fields of snow? His conscience repeated his father’s words. What was he thinking?

The craziest idea popped into Clark’s head and he smiled. He ran into his room, grabbed his winter coat and then kissed both his folks’ cheeks. “You’re brilliant. Don’t wait up!”

If his folks had waved, he hadn’t noticed, because he was already out of Metropolis.

***

Lois banged around in her kitchen in her fluffy bathrobe trying to make something worth eating. Her fury at Clark was still unabated.

Streetwalker!

She threw a pot into the sink. She didn’t really want ramen anyway. She wanted real food.

You’re your father!

It was a tossup, which of Clark’s two insults was worst in her opinion.

Was she being difficult? Was she being unreasonable? Wanting a man who claimed to love her, heart and soul, to believe whatever she told him, no questions asked?

Of course not! You deserve a man who will love despite all the lies that you tell him.

Lois heard a knock at her door and her head snapped up.

Who is that? The Toasters? Clark? Neighbors complaining about the noise? Which do you dread more?

She picked up her ladle and walked slowly, quietly over to her door. She took a glimpse through the peephole and saw Clark waiting on the other side. Her heart still raced, but it changed its rhythm.

Clark! Oh, yea! He hasn’t given up on you. He still wants you. He still loves you.

“Clark,” she whispered, not wanting to call out to him. Her heart was broken. Talking to him wouldn’t fix that. “There isn’t anything else to say.”

“Can I have one minute, Lois? Please. Sixty seconds. I promise. That’s all I ask,” he replied.

Time to make him grovel!

Lois bit her bottom lip. What could he say in sixty seconds to change her mind? She didn’t think she would understand him if he tried super speed talking.

Give him a thirteenth chance! He’s worth it.

She took a deep breath, glanced over at her microwave clock, and said, “OK. Go!”

“No, Lois, with the door open,” Clark stipulated, calmly.

Lois sighed wearily. Did she really want to face him for a whole minute? Look into those eyes that she loved for sixty seconds, knowing he would probably disappoint her again? Break her heart again.

What are you, Lois? Chopped liver? You can handle sixty seconds. Find your spine and use it, woman!

She could handle sexy seconds… SIXTY seconds of Clark before slamming the door in his face.

Lois jogged into the kitchen and set the timer for ninety seconds and then proceeded to unlock her front door. “OK, Clark, what…?” She gaped at him. In those few seconds it took for her to turn on the timer, he had put on a winter parka.

Clark has lost it.

Her eyes darted past him to something white shining in the courtyard light just beyond him. “What the…?” Lois stepped out of her apartment and towards the huge pile of snow, partially blocking her door from the rest of the world. She turned and inspected Clark for lunacy.

“I should’ve believed you when you said it would snow, Lois. I’m sorry,” he simply said, his head bent in contrition.

Lois’s eyes formed slits and she pressed her lips together.

Oh! Did the cute little sex god think you would run to his arms and ply him with kisses after what he called you earlier this evening?

Dipping her hand into the cold, slowly melting, yet still fresh snow, she pulled out a huge handful and threw it at him.

Clark looked like he expected this and zipped up the parka before the first snowball hit.

“Clark Kent!” Lois yelled at him, heaving more snow at him, this time using the ladle to form more perfect and compacted snowballs.

Ooooh. That man just makes your insides boil! He infuriates you all the time! And then he goes and does something like this to show you he loves you and is willing to believe anything you tell him. How dare he?!

“You make it impossible to stay angry at you!” she screamed, hitting the snow with her ladle. Then a spurt of laughter escaped from somewhere deep in her chest.

You said it was going to snow tonight and Clark made it snow.

She continued to chuck clumps of snow at him. And he allowed her to do so until the ding of her microwave timer went off.

He loves you! He made it snow for you!

“Are you done?” he asked.

“Nowhere near it, Buster!” she replied still pelting him with snow. She had dropped the ladle by this point, it slowing her down, and just used her hands.

Out of nowhere Clark tackled her, landing both of them in the soft pile of snow. Then he gradually – for him – started piling snow on top of her. She scooped it off herself and tossed it at him just as quickly. Soon they had melted into a mutual puddle of laughter.

When she was able to talk again, she asked, “How?”

Clark shrugged. “It helps to know Superman.”

Lois boxed his ears with her frozen hands and pulled his face to hers. She hadn’t meant to kiss him. Not ever. Never again. And certainly not less than an hour he had called her a streetwalker. But the man had traveled to the ends of the earth to prove to her that he believed her – that he loved her – and then he let her pelt him with snow to get her anger out.

Clark lifted her off the snow and carried her back into her apartment without once separating their kiss. His skin was warm against hers and she didn’t want to let go, but he set her down inside the door. She shrugged out of her now soaking wet robe.

“I love you, Lois,” he said, pulling off his winter coat. Underneath, she saw he was still wearing his bartending uniform from earlier that evening. She hadn’t noticed that when she had looked through the peephole at him.

Hello, Sexy!

Lois was dressed only in the shorts and t-shirt PJs she had worn the previous night, when they had almost made love. The expression on his face told her that he recognized her PJs and he stepped forward, placing his cold hands on her hips. Her eyes closed in anticipation of his hot and passionate kiss. What was unexpected was him pulling her hips towards his to show her exactly how ready and willing he was.

Lois’s hands automatically went to his chest. “Not tonight, Clark.”

He slightly pouted and kissed her anyway. “No?”

“No,” she said decisively. “I don’t want our first time – your first time – to be after a big fight.”

Clark continued kissing her, moving his lips down her neck. “I don’t mind.”

“No, Clark. You deserve better… we deserve better… than make-up sex for your first time… our first time.” Her knees weakened as his mouth reached the base of her neck as she said this.

“Okay, Lois,” he agreed, suddenly letting her go. She almost sunk to the ground but he caught her, picking her up and carrying her to her futon couch. He bumped the couch with his hip, but it didn’t budge. He bumped it again. Nothing.

“It’s stubborn,” Lois said, jumping out of his arms. Pulling, tugging, and pushing she finally got the bed to lie down flat. She lay across it on her stomach as she gazed up at him.

“As I was saying, Lois…” Then he grinned. “I need a shower. I could wait…” He sat down on the edge of the bed. “… an hour?”

Lois laughed, rolling onto her back. “It’s not like swimming, Clark.”

“Mmmm. Lois and swimming.” Clark leaned over and kissed her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her.

I’m thinking the same thing, Clark. Mmmm. Clark and swimming.

“No!” she said, pushing him away. “Don’t tempt me, Clark.”

Tempt away, Clark. Lois’s resolve is dwindling.

“O-K.” Clark drew back slowly, pulling her inner Lois to the surface. He tugged his tie undone and then dropped it on the end of the bed. Then he unbuttoned his vest. “Do you have a towel I could use?”

“Huh?” gulped Lois. Her eyes followed his hands, watching as they gingerly opened each button on his shirt. Instead of his chest, she saw an undershirt and, under the undershirt, the hint of a blue suit.

Clark leaned over and kissed her lips. “May I use your shower? I’m still a little smoky from earlier.”

“Take me with you,” she murmured, wrapping her arms back around his neck.

A grin spread across his face as he scooped her up. “With pleasure.”

They were at the bathroom door before Lois realized Clark had misunderstood. “Clark, I’m not going to take a shower with you.”

“No?” There was that cute, little pout again.

“No.”

He lowered his arm, allowing her feet to touch the floor.

“I love you, Clark.” Lois went to the closet and returned with a towel. “I even want you, Clark.”

His smile told her that he felt the same.

“But I refuse to make love with a man the same day he called me a cheating streetwalker,” she informed him and pressed the towel against his chest. “If you are going to stay the night, I recommend bathing out there first.” She pointed towards the front door and the pile of snow of the other side. “Because if you don’t cool off, I’m not letting you anywhere near my bed.”

Clark gulped. Message finally received.

Good!

***

Saturday Evening

Clark rushed into Daily Books. He was late. Later than late. It was already after eight o’clock. Way after. Lois got off at eight and was supposed to meet that Tempus guy after work. When the man sent her that bouquet of flowers yesterday, he had told her he would pick her up at the store when she got off her shift. Clark had meant to be there early, before eight. But some kids got stuck on a train track with a train coming and then Superman made sure the kids got home after the rescue.

He had been going to suggest that Lois clock out before quitting time and let him whisk her away to his folks’ apartment. He didn’t want Lois to go on the blackmail date at all. He had gotten himself into this mess; he would get himself out. The CD stealing charges were bogus anyway. There was no way Tempus would make them stick, especially a week after finding the wrappers.

Lois wasn’t at the newsstand. He hadn’t expected her to be. She wasn’t in her Magazine Receiving room or the break room. Clark forced himself to take a calming breath and closed his eyes to listen for her heartbeat. It wasn’t in the store. He was too late.

Clark plodded down the escalator steps.

“Hey, Clark!” Ralph called to him from the music department’s customer service counter. “I’m sorry about fouling up that message from Lois earlier this week.”

Clark turned his dark mood towards the oaf. “Lois also mentioned you siccing a tabloid reporter on her at her home.”

Ralph held up his hands. “OK. OK. I’m scum. Lois already read me the riot act tonight.”

Lois’s boyfriend moved closer to the counter. “Did you see Lois leave tonight?”

“Yeah. She said she had an appointment and clocked out early, grabbed her stuff, and bolted.”

Clark’s brow furrowed. She had?

“She even stood up that bearded guy. Boy, was he mad.” Ralph chuckled. Then he remembered to whom he was speaking. “It wasn’t a date,” he reassured Clark. “She told me as much when she left him that note with me.”

Lois stood up Tempus?!

“Note?”

“Yeah. She told me that some guy with a beard would be coming in and looking for her about eight. And to give him the note, if he did,” Ralph explained.

Clark raised a brow. “And did you give him the note?”

“You’d think I was a damn telegraph office all the messages Lois leaves with me,” Ralph complained. “Yes. I gave him the message.”

“What did it say?” Clark asked.

“How should I…?” Ralph started before Clark’s expression intensified. “OK. OK,” he admitted, picking up the trashcan and pulling out a crinkled note from it. He tossed it to Clark. “Tell Lois I quit. I’m not going to be her messenger anymore. That Tempus guy threw that in my face.”

Clark was amazed how long it took to drag the whole story out of Ralph. He flattened the note out on the counter.

Sorry, Lois had written. I got a better offer. Lois

Clark laughed softly to himself, flinging the note back into the trash and thanking Ralph. The gall of that woman of his. Standing up her blackmailer! He started to whistle as he left the store.

Thank God, Lois was safe.

Clark loved Lois. And he was a very, very lucky man that she loved him at all.

Do you think she’s still mad at you? his conscience asked.

It had been the first time he had ever heard of rolling in snow increasing a man’s ardor. Clark sighed. He deserved and would gratefully accept any and all punishment that Lois dished out at him. No matter how long it lasted or how torturous it would be. And it was certainly a form of torture.

He loved and desired this beautiful woman. He knew Lois loved and desired him as well. She wanted him, she told him so. She even welcomed him to spend the night… cuddling with her in her bed. The condom box nonetheless sat unopened in the next room. Snuggling and sleeping, nothing more. So close, yet still too far away.

Clark had never thought he would get as close to a woman as he had with Lois. Now that he had tasted the passion she could unleash in him, felt the warmth of her skin under his fingertips and her body pressed against his… Clark swallowed. Knowing he could have made love to her last night if only he had listened to her, talked with her instead of having shut her out, gave her the benefit of the doubt and not assumed that what he saw and heard was actually what he had seen and been said. He needed to behead his green-eyed monster or it would be the death of him.

“I refuse to make love with a man the same day he called me a cheating streetwalker,” her words continued to echo in his ears almost twenty-one hours later.

Oh, yeah. He definitely deserved any punishment Lois gave him. He was lucky she was talking to him at all. He was simply relieved she had accepted his big pile-of-snow apology.

Clark had over an hour before his shift started at the store. He drove over to visit Lois at her apartment. He would have flown, but Superman wasn’t allowed to make any public appearances at her place. He knocked on her door, but she didn’t answer. He checked his watch. If Lois had taken the bus home, she should have been back by now. He lowered his glasses and did a quick peek inside. The apartment looked the same as it had when they left this morning. Empty. No sign of a struggle.

He waited for another fifteen minutes out by the pool. There was still a small mound of snow left from the night before. When she didn’t appear, Clark hopped back into his Dad’s truck and drove over to the café.

Neither Maisie nor his folks had seen Lois at the restaurant. He even checked upstairs at their apartment. Nope. She just had disappeared. He tried calling her place again, but the phone rang off the hook.

Where could she be? Luthor’s?

No. Clark couldn’t imagine the man making a date for the next evening with a woman he had just met. Even if that woman was Lois. Nor would Luthor make an appointment on a Saturday night. He must be booked solid for months. No, Lois must be off somewhere by herself.

Movie? Out to dinner?

Yeah. Maybe. Lois knew Clark was working that night and she didn’t want to go anywhere Tempus could track her down. That must be it. No reason to panic.

Clark got back in the truck to return to the store. As he drove he once again listened in to The Soundman show on the radio.

“Tonight we’re taking dedications for Metropolis’s latest lovebirds. Superman and his main squeeze Lois Lane,” Lenny Stokes announced through Clark’s radio. “That was just New Kid in Town by the Eagles, dedicated by… I’m sorry, did you get this down right?... A Happy Girl in Metropolis? I’m shaking my head, people. I think there’s going to be an opening soon on my production staff. All right. What’s coming up next? Carole King? Yes, Carole King singing I Feel the Earth Move. Who dedicated this?... You don’t know. What do you mean ‘you don’t know’? Okay, people, I definitely have an opening on my production staff! This is unacceptable. Unacceptable. Anyway, Superman, here’s Ms. King…”

Clark bubbled with laughter at The Soundman’s exasperation. It felt good to laugh after the last hour of alarm. And Lois certainly knew how to make the Earth move under his feet. Thanks to whoever dedicated that song to them.

***

It was almost time to clock in when he arrived back at the store and Clark hoped that perhaps Lois had mentioned something of her plans for the evening to Perry.

The Chief glanced up when Clark stuck his head into the office. “You get Lois squared away, safe and sound?”

Or not.

“She’s disappeared,” Clark informed him as he stepped all the way into the office and shut the door. “Ralph said she stood up Tempus.”

Perry raised a brow. “Ralph said?”

Clark looked down with a shrug. “Superman had to rescue some kids. It was after eight by the time I got here.” He glanced up at his boss. “Lois didn’t say anything to you about ditching her blackmailer?”

Perry shook his head. “No. She did ask me about Luthor though and the Daily Planet. Have you been telling her tales about me?”

“No,” Clark replied and then asked, “Is there anything to tell?”

“Must have been Jack. Kids.” Perry shook his head. “What? No. I still have feelers out. Nothing definite. Did you bring the money?”

Clark nodded. “From last night’s tips. For what do I need it?”

“To pay your employees,” Perry said with a grin.

“What?” Clark stammered, perplexed.

His boss waved off his question. “Go, make sure all the customers are out. The closers are leaving early tonight.”

Clark furrowed his brow in confusion, then shrugged. The Chief had never let him down. He trusted him and went to do his job.

At ten thirty, all the customers were out and the tills counted. Perry led all the closing staff to the front doors. It was a good half-hour earlier than usual.

“But we haven’t had time to really straighten,” petitioned Ralph, who hadn’t wanted the half-hour dock in pay.

“Clark and I will handle it tonight. Go home, kiss your wife and children goodnight,” their boss said shooing the staff out the front doors.

“I’m not married!” corrected Ralph as Perry waved him off. Ralph stomped down the sidewalk.

Clark shut and locked the doors. “So are you going to explain your ‘big plan’?” he asked.

Before Perry could answer, there was a knock on the door.

“Your night crew.” His boss beamed. “A few part-timers who agreed to work an extra shift under the table one night a week with you.”

Clark looked at him like he was nuts.

“They can’t get full-time, but when you noticed you were getting a week’s paycheck for one night of work, you arranged this deal. They get the extra shift under the table and you were able to ease your guilty mind over the extra funds in your paycheck. And I didn’t have the hassle of paperwork and phone calls to the corporate office to straighten the whole thing out.” Perry half-shrugged. “It’s still not one hundred percent legal, but one thousand percent more honorable and less suspicious. Lexco can’t fault you if you actually paid workers to work with the extra funds in your paycheck. And the government can’t really fault you because you did pay taxes on the extra income.” His boss gave him a quick glance.

“Yes. I pay my taxes.” Clark shook his head as he walked to the front door. He could see Jimmy and Jack waiting for him to let them in.

No wonder Perry said he might have to fire him. Not one hundred percent legal. Perry!

Clark opened the door allowing Jimmy and Jack to saunter in. As he went to close the door again, Jimmy stopped him.

“Wait, CK. Sarah’s coming.”

Sarah?

A serious brunette woman close to Clark’s age came to the door.

“Sarah, this is Clark,” Jimmy said, introducing them. “Sarah started about the same time as Lois. She cashiers on the third floor.”

“Clark? Clark Kent?” She looked him over head to toe in his security guard uniform. “The Clark Kent? A security guard?” She appeared disappointed.

“The?” Clark stammered, staring quizzically at her.

When did you become famous? When did someone add an article before your name?

He watched as she glanced over her shoulder to a man standing stiffly across the street at the park and shook her head. “I read in the paper that you were dating Superman’s girlfriend.”

Clark craned his neck for a better look at the man across the street. “No. I’m dating my girlfriend. Superman doesn’t date. Who’s that?” he asked, nodding to the man across the street staring at them.

Sarah smiled indulgently at Clark. “My bodyguard.”

“Where’s Milton?” Perry groused.

Distracted, Sarah and Clark both turn to their boss.

“Milton?” Clark asked.

“Milton Applegate! He’s the fourth,” Jimmy explained. “Here he comes.”

They all turned and watched as a tall, geeky guy with glasses, Clark recognized as a quiet customer service bookseller, lumbered up the sidewalk.

“Fourth?” Clark asked.

“Your paycheck is five times higher than it should be. You’ll be sharing the extra four parts with these people here,” explained Perry. “For the work they put in tonight.”

“This isn’t your only job, is it?” Sarah asked Clark.

Clark snapped his attention back to her.

Why is she so interested in him?

“Ah, no. I also work for MDS, delivering packages,” he murmured. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this woman seemed familiar. Perhaps he had delivered something to her before and she couldn’t place him, like he couldn’t place her.

“A delivery man?” Sarah’s shoulders fell as she shook her head. “Never mind. It was a shot in the dark anyway. We’ll go to Plan B.”

Plan B?

Sarah looked Clark over once again. “Too bad,” she murmured to herself. “He was kind of cute, too.”

Clark took a second good look at the woman again and asked the question on the tip on his tongue. “What’s ‘Plan B’?”

Sarah shrugged. “I marry and get impregnated by Ching …” She nodded to the man across the street. “And try to pass his child off as yours, claiming you died after our wedding night. Either that or Ching fights Lord Nor to the death, instead of you, for the honor of my hand in marriage.” She said this as if she were simply talking about the weather.

All four of the men stared as Sarah rode the escalator upstairs. And then Perry, Jimmy, and Jack turned and looked curiously at Clark, who appeared as dumbfounded as the rest of them.

That will teach you to ask stupid questions, Kent.

*** End of Part 30 ***

Part 31

New Kid in Town performed by the Eagles, written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther.

I Feel the Earth Move written and performed by Carole King.

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