Chapter 2

Syd admonished herself to focus, and not day-dream about her personal driver. Luckily her client was also distracted, by her chic business attire and flawless figure, as his eyes never made it up to her face. Also fortunately, his female assistant had a folder with the pertinent details, and the two women conducted their business, and exchanging the details and information necessary as the unfortunate gentleman made inane utterances such as "What? Er, yes yes, ahem." Syd gave a rueful wink to the assistant, who rolled her eyes behind her boss's back.

All in all, aside from the inability to tear his eyes from her torso, he was a sweet old fuddy-duddy. Some men couldn't keep their hands from air groping like some zombie -alien, all unconsciously, of course. They were suitably horrified when they learned of their actions, if they ever did when some unkind busybody took them to task over it. At least, Syd charitably imagined so. Most of her business was conducted through E-mail, and after action reports, aside from the initial de rigueur face to face. That was one huge advantage for working the hours she did, so as not to be impeded by crowds of hanger-ons. Although on occasion, a nearby cubical was over cleaned by the janitorial service, at the expense of the rest of the building.

Her building key and alarm code in hand, and suitable assurances that the outside phone connections would be disengaged for the weekend to avoid remote access during her digital winnowing, "Oh, er, that is um..." and retrieving her hand from the tenacious grasp of Mr Boss, having to try to be unobtrusive and polite as she pried his fingers loose one by one as he kept up his incoherence, she made her escape.

Franklin took the opportunity offered by the peaceful vacant cab to think over, in a careful unspecific way, his feelings for Syd. Mostly he tried to center himself, and regain his calm equilibrium. He wasn't very successful. He was resigning himself to having an effect on her, and was trying to be unselfish about it. He convinced himself that he loved her, even after just such a short time, and that he wanted what was best for her. Franklin set up a resonance in his mind, an auto-hypnotic echo, letting go of possessiveness, and jealousy, and generally wishing for things to turn out however would be best for Syd.

He straightened up to the sound of the back door opening, and was prepared to tell whoever it was that he was off-duty, not rude when his sign was clearly lit, when he realized it was Syd. Instead, he flicked off the off-duty light, smiled his heart-melting smile, all gladness and acceptance and sincerity, involving his whole face especially his incongruously light colored eyes, and said

"I hope everything went well for you, where are we going next?"

Syd would have known he was smiling if all she could see were his eyes, instead of his whole face, his manly stubble, his tousled hair, his quirky lips that she wanted to kiss- With an effort Syd recalled his question, and formulated an answer. It wasn't the answer she wanted to give him, but a more sane and socially acceptable one. Syd had formed brief attractions for various hunky men in the past, but the feelings had only lasted until the said man opened his yap and either drooled, babbled, or expressed sociopathic narcissism.

"um, I would like to go shopping, grab a bit of lunch, and then head to my folks house, if that is ok?" Syd asked hesitantly. How did this man affect her so? She sounded like an immature school girl, where was her confidence and self-control? she wondered.

"Ok, sounds like a plan. How about the Schoff Mall? Since you are paying for my cab on the hourly hire, I wouldn't mind tagging along and helping you carry stuff, if you wanted?" Franklin offered, managing not to sound like his ulterior motives were guiding his sincere sounding offer. He really did try to not want her to accept, but couldn't help himself. He wanted to be near her, and managed to keep that want pure, at least. Content to be in her presence, not wanting anything from her. He meditated automatically, being near her is enough.

Syd surprised herself by giving into her own desires, and found herself saying

"Ok, but only on the condition that you allow me to buy you lunch, or the deal is off. I don't want to have you staring at me eating like a hungry dog" She joked. Franklin inwardly cringed as he felt his heart leap to think of spending more time with her, rather than waiting in the cab like some lonely pet awaiting the return of its master. How could all his self taught control be slipping so badly? He was torn, not wanting to want, yet now wanting to have Syd in his life more than ever. Franklin was falling in love. No, he was in love. He caught himself hoping that this would not turn out badly. Damn, he swore to himself.

As for Syd, she wanted to spend time with Franklin. Here was the first man she could remember who treated her as a person, and not a goddess or sex-object. She found his (she giggled to herself giddily at the pun) frank manner and forthright acceptance of her comforting and heartwarming. She was so used to dealing with the effects of her looks, that not having to was like the sun coming out from the clouds, and she was exhilarated and buoyed, as if an oppressive weight was suddenly removed. Her normally well controlled features broke into a dazzling smile, and she didn't even notice the passing bicyclist running into a utility pole in his distraction, head turned back to keep her in view.

As they headed off toward the Schoff Mall, Syd became aware consciously of something that had impinged on her subconscious mind during the trip from the airport. She recalled that it had taken about ten minutes less time to get to the city center than any other trip she had taken from the airport before, yet she had felt safe, not even thinking about the speed or other traffic. She paid attention now, and noticed that while he kept at or below the speed limit, and maintained a buffer or bubble of free space around his cab, there was a smooth flow to his driving, enhanced by what she could only think of as 'opportunity'.

Cars just seemed to melt away, opening up space for the progress of their cab. Lights were always green, slower cars found room to merge out of their way, No pedestrians tried to cross in front of them. Riding with Franklin was a smooth, seamless experience, and his calm competence generated a feeling of security and trust. It was almost magical, especially since there were no exceptions.

Some good drivers could keep a flow like this going for awhile, but eventually there would be a bobble, a car cutting them off, or a missed light, or a bicyclist in the lane, but although she kept expecting it, there was no such obstacle. The lack of slowdowns added up, and they arrived at the mall fully five minutes before she would have expected, despite the increasing Friday afternoon traffic, and smoothly pulled into a freshly vacated parking space right by the entrance.

Franklin shut down the engine, pocketed the key as he got out and walked around to open the door for Syd, who thrilled at his nearness, and his perfect height- just half a foot taller than her. He offered her his left arm, and escorted her to the mall entrance where he opened the outer door for her, slipping in slightly behind her and then smoothly into the lead for the next door, as if they had choreographed the move and practiced it for hours. He smiled into her eyes, so very rare. An honest smile, and directed to her, not some aspect of her figure.

He continued to support and guide her through the mall crowd, never taking his eyes off hers, never having to stop to let someone through or because someone had stopped ahead. It was magical and amazing, as if the entire mall were a dance musical and Syd and Franklin were the leading man and lady. At the center of the Mall, he paused, and guided them down to an empty bench, breaking her from her revere with a question-

"What are we shopping for, Syd?"

She blushed, realizing that she hadn't thought that far ahead, and Franklin misconstrued her embarrassment, apologizing for forcing himself into her shopping expedition. "I could go wait in the cab, if you would rather." He offered.

"Oh no, nothing like that!" Syd said in a bit of a panic. "I just needed to get gifts for my folks, and I hadn't decided yet what. I was just going to window shop, but I realize I haven't been paying much attention to the available goods. That is why I was embarrassed." She coyly looked down, her face burning hotly.

Any other man might have been forgiven for throwing himself at her feet, claiming all wrong to himself, and vowing undying fealty to this goddess, but Franklin had the benefit of his training, and he merely offered her his hand instead of his arm, and the connection of skin to skin stood in leu of eye contact, allowing them to wander the Mall chatting about this and that as they gazed at the proffered goods.

Entering a bookstore, they perused the saucy fridge magnets with their racy slogans, sharing nudges and giggles, and Syd ended up buying a political thriller for her dad. Onward they went, their growing intimacy obvious to any hypothetical observer who might have noticed their body language. Franklin actually caught themselves swinging their clasped hands backward and forward absently and playfully, a physical manifestation of their joy. Not the actions one would expect from a cabbie and his fare, to be certain.