Chapter 3

For the next couple of days, he stayed in his apartment working on a new report for his client. It probably would have gone faster if he could have kept the thought of seeing Angel again out of his mind. On Monday afternoon, Paul drove back down to his client. He had a meeting with the president of the company, during which he took some good natured ribbing about his black eye.

"You really should learn to duck. In fact, judging from your appearance you should probably just learn how to run."

They both had a good laugh; Paul never did tell him how or who gave him the black eye. Based upon previous conversations with him Paul knew he had never set foot in Angel Heaven, had never seen Angel, and would never let him live down the fact that a woman had done it.

After five, he went back to his workstation, loaded the new program, adding it as a choice for the president's use only, and ran the report. Paul reviewed the report with him. He made a couple of changes and added an additional request. Paul told him he'd work on it now and leave a copy of the report under his door.

By seven o'clock he had made the necessary programming changes, ran the revised report and, as agreed, left it under his door. Paul could hardly wait to get a burger and a beer.

He drove over to Angel Heaven, parked in the back and walked into the bar. As soon as Dave spotted him he shouted, "Paul, it's good to see you up and about; should I put in your usual order?"

Paul nodded and walked over to his usual seat. He felt a large hand grab his shoulder, turned and looked up. There was Gus; panic instantly overwhelmed him.

He quickly said, "Hi, I'm so sorry about the other night. Dave told me what happened, what I had done, and what happened after Angel threw me out."

He took out a twenty and left it on the bar. "Let me buy your dinner tonight."

When Paul tried to refuse, he just looked and said, "Please, it's the least I can do."

Reluctantly, Paul accepted both his offer and his hand. Pleased, Gus turned and headed back to his table and rejoined his friends. Dave brought over Paul's burger and fries and whispered in his ear.

"Ang read him the riot act when he first came in. He's a really nice guy and probably would have offered anyway, but she made him an offer he couldn't refuse, if you know what I mean."

Paul knew exactly what he meant and a chill went down his spine.

"Does Ang know that I'm here?" he asked.

"She knows; she told me to send you up after you've had your meal. The door to the back staircase is over there."

"Thanks."

Paul savored his meal; he had a second pint of beer and still had enough money left from the twenty to leave Dave a sizeable tip. He got up off his stool, nodded his appreciation to Gus, and headed for the back door. He felt like a high school kid as he climbed the stairs. Paul couldn't wait to be with Ang again.

He knocked on the door and waited. He heard footsteps and the door opened.

"Hi Paul, It's good to see you again. Come on in."

When he stepped into the kitchen, she closed the door behind him and they turned to face each other. She was dressed in western boots, which added another two inches to her height, a pair of blue jeans that clung to her body in all the right places, and a white Angel Heaven tee shirt, which showcased her chest, shoulders and arms. Paul couldn't help noticing that her nipples were erect and right at his eye level. He forced himself to look up into her eyes.

They walked through the kitchen and into the living room. As they passed the second of the two bedrooms, Paul looked in. It was set up like an office; on a desk was a TV monitor. He stopped and looked at it more closely.

Ang said, "That's my security system, I can look at six different views of the bar and both parking lots from here. I also saw that you met Gus."

"Yeah I did," he said," thanks for dinner."

"Don't thank me, that was Gus's idea. I'm just glad for his sake that you came in tonight; otherwise, I'm sure he would have felt obligated to be here every night until you did."

They sat on the sofa for a while and got to know each other a little better. Angel suddenly got up and said, "Let's go for a ride."

She grabbed a denim jacket, her bag and keys, and they headed out the door. "We'll use my truck."

It was a new Ford 150. Even in the dim light of the parking lot you could tell that it was absolutely clean and highly polished. It looked like a show truck. Paul had barely enough time to climb in and shut his door before she took off like a bat out of hell.