Chapter 1

It was June 7th. A beautiful summer day, bright and clear. It was also Gabriel Ramirez' birthday, which he fully intended to spend alone and away from any sort of brightness at all. Slightly before noon, however, there was an unexpected knock at the door.

Gabriel frowned, wondering who would possibly be at his door; he didn't particularly have any friends. Sighing, he stood up and walked to the door, looking through the peephole.

It was a lovely sight that greeted him. He had to admit that. Confusing, but lovely. A young woman he vaguely recognized from around the neighborhood stood there holding a basket in one hand and a covered dish in the other. She was wearing ... well, not much, honestly; not quite the world's smallest bikini, covered only by a gauzy, short, wrap-around skirt. Her more than generous breasts strained against the flimsy material, and her long hair hung loose and flowing down her back. She looked a touch nervous.

Gabriel opened the door, puzzled. "Um, can I help you?"

Her green eyes lit up as she smiled brightly at him. "Um. Hi! Can I come in?"

Gabriel blinked. "Uh ... I guess so." He stepped aside to allow her in, and closed the door behind him. "Did, um, you need something?"

She stepped inside, looking around. Gabriel's house was definitely on the eccentric side. He and his ex-wife both loved fantasy, so when they had the house built, they had it built as a castle, complete with four towers on the corners, thick stone walls, and Gothic archways. The theme was carried on into the inside, as well, begetting stone floors, carved gargoyles over the doorways, and antique tapestries hung on the walls, though the 'castle' still had every conceivable modern comfort and convenience. She smiled up at him. "Nifty," she said, in a tone not unlike a small child presented with a five pound chocolate bunny. "Um. I'm Pandora. I know you don't know me, really, but, well..." She nibbled her lower lip, smile faltering just a touch. "See, we have mutual friends. Online. So, I know it's your birthday, and I knew you probably weren't doing anything, and needed cheering up, so, well, here I am, and I have chicken, and a nice bottle of wine, and a cake, too. See?"

Gabriel blinked. "Uh ... okay."

She smiled again, nervously. "So, I thought I'd come over and feed you and cheer you up. If you don't mind, I mean. Um ... cake?"

"No, that's ... that's really sweet. Um, thanks." Gabriel seemed rather stunned, still.

She relaxed slightly, and her eyes sparkled as she smiled at him again. "Cool. Where should I put things?"

"Um ... oh! The dining room's over there." He motioned towards the room, following her in.

She swayed along in front of him. His eyes were caught ... very briefly ... by the three inch heels that were responsible for part of that sway, then travelled rather helplessly up her body to the swaying hips themselves, set on top of sinfully curvy legs and beneath an impossibly tiny waist, and guaranteed to attract any male eyes fortunate enough to be in the area. Heels, the faint scent of perfume ... signs of seduction? The bikini could be standard teenage summer wear. The loose hair, sheer girlish vanity. But ... heels? And the scent, which probably had some classy designer name, but really should have been called "Incentive to Rape" ... could that really be accidental?

Pandora sat the basket down on the table and started pulling things from it. First, a pretty velvet cloth, on which she laid out the food ... tiny bite-size pieces of fried chicken, a bright salad with sliced cherries, a bowl of lush, red strawberries, then two crystal wineglasses, a black bottle of wine, the label containing not a bit of English, and finally the cake, which looked like it probably came from the most expensive bakery in town. She smiled over her shoulder at him, a hopeful light in her eyes. "It's a strawberry romanov cheesecake. It should be good ... my sister does all this fancy cooking, and I asked her to make me something nice, and this is what she came up with."

Gabriel nodded. "It ... looks nice." He pulled out a chair for her, gesturing at it.

She sat gracefully, sweeping the short skirt down beneath her legs in a practiced movement, the waited on him to sit beside her before opening and pouring the wine. It was a deep gold color, the smell rich and fruity. She handed him the crystal glass, then filled one of the pretty little plates she'd pulled from the basket and set it in front of him.

Gabriel took a sip from the wine, eyes widening appreciatively, and nibbled on a bite of the chicken.

Pandora watched him nervously for a moment, then grinned and nibbled at the food on her own plate, taking a tiny sip from the half-glass of wine she'd poured for herself. "My baby sister is an amazing cook, she really is. It's this huge natural talent thing going on, you know?" She peeked up at him from beneath long, dark-gold lashes. "So ... do you talk?"

Gabriel blinked. "Um ... not when I'm stunned speechless, no."

Pandora cocked her head. "Stunned?"

"Well ... yeah." He gave her a crooked grin. "I'm not used to having beautiful women show up at my door with food and really nice wine." He cocked his head to the side slightly. "Where did you get the wine, anyway? I don't think you're legal yet..."

She shrugged. "The wine cellar. Couldn't read the labels, but it's kinda organized with the good stuff in back, and this was off the last rack, so I figured it'd be okay." She took another sip, and wrinkled her nose a touch. "Can't say I care for it, actually."

"It's good, really good." He took another sip. "So ... you said we had mutual friends?"

She turned away from him, letting her hair fall down to hide her face a bit. "Mmmhmm."

"So you don't actually know me, then?"

"Well ... I read some of the boards you're on. I've got friends there."

"Oh? Which ones?" He took another bite of chicken. "This is good."

"Well, fantasywritersrevolution, and alt.callahans, and perlmonks," she said ... naming one fantasy literature group, one generalized conversation group, and one technical group he frequented.

"Cool." He took another sip of the wine. "This is really good wine. What are your parents going to say when they realize it's missing?"

She shrugged. "They won't. I doubt they've ever been down there. Wine cellar came with the house, you see."

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. "This is at least a two-hundred a bottle wine."

She shrugged again, totally unconcerned. "Like I said, it came with the house. They don't drink wine at home, anyway." She took another sip. "I'm beginning to see why. You say this is good wine?" she asked incredulously. "What the heck would bad wine taste like, then?"

Gabriel smiled. "Actually, you'd probably like some 'bad' wines better. If you haven't had wine before, you don't know how to really taste it, so the more ... obvious flavors drown out the subtle nuances."

Pandora laughed, causing her most obvious attributes to jiggle in a truly distracting way. "Well ... I guess 'wine snob' is better than 'scared to death'. At least you're talking to me, anyway."

Gabriel's lips twitched. "I'm not actually a wine snob. My ex-wife was, and she taught me about it. I taught her about whisky."

She shuddered. "I don't think I want to learn about whiskey. This stuff tastes bad enough. Here ... have some cake. I don't know what's in it ... she wouldn't let me watch, but it smells freakin' awesome, doesn't it?"

After handing him a piece of the cake, she filled his glass.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"

Pandora smiled up at him sweetly. "Why would I do that?"

Gabriel looked at her thoughtfully. "I don't know." He took a bite of the cake and moaned appreciatively. "This is good."

Pandora licked a bit of whipped cream from her wrist and closed her eyes in bliss. "Oooooh god yes ... yum..."

"So are you?" He took another sip of his wine.

Pandora nibbled on a strawberry, her face still soft and dreamy with culinary pleasure. "Mmmm ... maybe."

"Why?" He raised an eyebrow as he asked, leaning back in his chair. "This is really good. You said your sister made it?"

"Mmhmm. She's a genius in the kitchen, she really is. I could never make something like this."

"Going to answer my question?" he asked.

"Hmm ... I don't know."

"So you just decided to come over and bring me food on my birthday, even though you don't really know me?"

"Well ... I do know you, sort of. I know about you, anyway. And so I know you're nice, and that you were probably feeling like crap, and, well, I didn't have anything better to do, that's for sure, and I thought that it would be nice ... for me, too, because I don't get to talk to people who are ... well ... nice and smart very often, and I didn't really think too much because then I wouldn't have had the nerve to do it, so, well, here I am. See?" She smiled up at him hopefully.

"I think so." He takes the last bite of his cake. "I'm out of food now, though."

"Have some more wine," she suggested, as she filled his glass.

"You are trying to get me drunk."

She flushed, looking down. "Maybe."

"Why?"

"Well ... you'd be more relaxed. Maybe feel better?"

Gabriel looked thoughtful. "Well, I am feeling better than I expected to, but I don't think that's the wine."

She smiled up at him, looking a touch shy. "I just ... wanted to make things easier for you. So that maybe you could ... well, maybe you'd want to talk to me. I ... meant it when I said I don't have a lot of chances to talk to people. People who are worth talking to, anyway. I just thought maybe I could give you something, well, nice to do today. Some wine, a pretty cake. Someone to talk to. Maybe we could ... swim, or ... something."

Gabriel smiled. "That ... sounds really nice. Thank you."

Pandora looked relieved. "I ... thanks. I know some people think I'm ... a bit strange. Especially guys. My sister says I intimidate people ... you don't think I'm intimidating, do you?"

Gabriel looked at her thoughtfully. "Well ... yeah. You're a little intimidating. I'm not used to being around beautiful women anymore."

Pandora ducked her head, cheeks turning red. "Thank you," she murmured softly, then seemed to shake herself as she straightened up and offered him an impish smile, arching her back just slightly. "So you do like the way I look ... I'm glad. I wasn't sure."

"How could you not be sure?"

Pandora sighed in frustration and shook her head. "How can I be sure? How can I ever know what a man is thinking? You're all so ... so confusing!" she said with sudden irritation. "I try ... god knows I try. But half the time, if a guy's asking me out, his eyes never make it up to my face, and he never even seems to hear what I say. So I thought, fine, I'm just dealing with the wrong kind of guys. So I try to talk to the smart guys, and they all act like ... like I'm some sort of monster or something, like I'm going to turn into a giant mantis and bite off their heads if they talk to me, so that didn't work, either."

Gabriel chuckled. "Well, like I said, you are kind of intimidating. And smart guys in school have no self-confidence, so yeah, they'll freak. Ten years ago, I'd have freaked."

"Did I say anything about 'in school'? Yeah, I tried high-school guys. But that's not all I tried. I've tried talking to guys my age, guys a bit younger than me, guys a bit older, guys twice my age, hell, one guy three times my age ... and it's always the same. They either don't hear a word I say, or they act like I'm some sort of freakish monster that they have to hide from. I even ... well, I thought maybe the problem was just ... you know, average intelligence. So I joined Mensa, and went to some meetings but there..." She shook her head, looking honestly bewildered and hurt. "It was so weird. There ... it was worse. It was like my looks made me ... bad. And stupid. Even after I won their stupid chess tournament, they still treated me like ... like half my brain was gone because of my tits, and half of that was gone because of my face, and what's left wasn't worth anything because of my age ... but boys my age were treated like people. I was treated like ... like a puppy or something. A cute little pet playing like she was a real person." She looked away, suddenly miserable. "It's not fair ... I'd change it if I could. My parents paid to have my older sister's boobs increased, but they wouldn't let me get mine reduced, even if I could manage to pay for it myself. I just got so tired of being a freak ... I thought ... well, that someone who never went out, someone smart, sweet ... someone like you ... might not ... you know ... might be different," she finished softly, not meeting his eyes.