When Jo arrived in the complex parking area, dusk had long since given way to night. A full moon rose over the top of the distant downtown skyline. Smiling faintly, she stepped out of her car and walked up to her apartment. She wondered for the breifest moment if she'd see her mother lurking around the parking lot. Miriam Donovan was a worrier, and it wasn't entirely unusual for Josephine to find her there if her mother lost track of her.

By the time she reached her apartment door, the phone was ringing. She managed to get inside just as the answering machine kicked in. The caller did not leave a message.

Dropping her keys on a side table, and the framed painting beside them, she went into her bedroom to check her messages. She remembered that she'd had one starting even as she walked out of the door.

To her surprise, the machine registered five messages. She began to listen to them one by one. All were from her mother. Miriam Donovan was at lose ends as her current boyfriend, Bobby Hedren had cancelled at the last minute. Miriam wanted to have a girl's evening in, complete with chocolate and cry movies.

Josephine hated cry movies because they made her cry. And when she cried, she got all stuffed up. Besides, there was simply no logic in watching a movie that was going to make you feel terrible after.

The first two of Miriam's messages had been relatively sane, simply mentioning her plight and a request for her daughter to call her. The next three increased in hysteria until Miriam suggested that her daughter might have more courtesy than to leave a worrying mother with her fears.

Josephine sighed at the last, and was about to dial her mother's number when there was a knock at the door. Moving quickly through the apartment, she went to answer. She knew without question who it would be.

"Hi Mom," she told the teary-eyed Miriam.

"Oh Jo," Miriam wept. "I'm sorry." She sniffed, wiping at her reddening nose. Despite her 42 years, and a tear-streaked, unmade face, Miriam Donovan was still a very beautiful woman, though a polar opposite of Jo both physically and emotionally.

Gaining control of herself with effort, Miriam asked where she'd been.

Jo sighed and began explaining that she'd had dinner with Shelly and that it had run a little long. In a bored tone, she apologized to her mother for not having told her that she would be out that evening. She hated reporting to her mother. But if she fought it, or gave any resistance to her mother's control, she would be besieged with tears for the rest of the night.

Miriam smiled, seeming mildly satisfied with the answer. "It's okay honey," she waved a fine-boned hand. "It's probably just that I'm feeling a little abandoned since Bobby didn't even call to say good night. He used to always do that."

Jo offered an anemic smile. "Maybe he got a little busy," she said, more to reassure her mother than to protect her mother's boyfriend. She didn't like Bobby Hedren. His latest mistreatment would hardly endear him any further.

"Yeah," Miriam sighed heavily as if the weight of the world were upon her shoulders. "I guess so. He was probably with Billy. You really should go out with him, Jo. He's seen your photograph, and..."

"What's this?" An item on Jo's table had caught her attention.

Jo watched uncomfortably as she picked up the framed charcoal drawing. "It's uh... It's a picture from an artist friend."

"Guy artist friend?" Miriam asked, her eyes watchful. If possible, she was worse than Shelly for wanting to get Josephine hooked up with some man.

"Friend artist friend," Jo replied, not liking the direction the conversation was likely to go.

"Good," Miriam murmured, satisfied. She returned her gaze to the lovely drawing. "Someone special?" she pushed.

"Er, Mom. Did I tell you that I'm getting a cell phone? I've decided it's time. You know you and just about everyone else has been trying to talk me into it for ages."

"And I'm right. Tonight wouldn't have happened if you had a cell. When are you going?"

"Well," Jo hedged. "Soon." The last thing she needed was motherly company at this point.

"When you go you have to go to your Uncle Frank's new place."

"Really? Uncle Frank?" Josephine looked up with genuine interest. Uncle Frank was a topic she didn't mind discussing.

"Yes, really." Miriam stated. "He's running a new electronics store now." Miriam quickly told her the location.

"Maybe I'll try it," Josephine said thoughtfully, thinking how interesting it would be for Jake to try to find the little tucked-away shop.

~*~

"Ouch!" Jo banged her wrist against the counter as she spun nervously away from her coffee machine. The sharp knock at the door had further scrambled her already frazzled nerves. Jake McGregor was due to arrive within the next 15 minutes. Her anticipation level was far too high for her liking.

Moving quickly from her small kitchen, she made her way toward the door and peeped through the peep hole. She observed Jake McGregor was standing smugly on the opposite side. Determined to deflate his ego, she pulled the door open and waved him in.

"I see someone got directions from some body," she taunted as he walked past her.

"And a very good morning to you, too, Sunshine," Jake stopped to grin down at her. Then glancing around her apartment. "Nice place. It suits you."

Josephine frowned, a little ashamed at having forgotten her manners, but put off with Jake for bringing it up. "How would you know what suited me?" Josephine asked.

"One can learn a lot about an opponent during battle," Jake responded.

"And we're in battle?" Josephine asked, raising a brow. The man had absolutely no right to look so calm and composed when her nerves were a wreck. Chalking it up to too much caffeine, she moved toward the kitchen.

"Oh definitely," was Jake's reply to her back.

"Would you like some coffee?" she asked sweetly. Maybe a little caffiene would be good for him. The slight uncertainty that she had sensed the day before, on the drive to the supermarket, was gone. The taunting man from dinner was there to stay, it seemed.

"I thought you would never ask," Jake responded. "You can also tell a lot about the way a woman makes coffee."

"I don't buy that," Josephine turned on him.

"Prove me wrong," Jake smiled teasingly at her.

"Fine," Jo turned toward her cupboard and brought down a coffee cup. Carefully pouring a measured amount of the dark brew into the cup, she lifted an inquiring eye toward the sugar. At Jake's smile and slight nod, she placed two measured teaspoons of sugar into the cup and stirred. Then, reaching for a matching saucer, she placed it beneath the cup and handed it to Jake.

Raising the cup in a gesture of thanks, Jake took a careful sip. "Delicious," he said.

"But what did you learn about me?" Josephine asked, hoping that her anxiousness to hear his answer wasn't showing overly much.

Jake settled his cup on the small dining table and leaned against the counter opposite Josephine. Jo shifted slightly, feeling as if the smallness of the room was lending an almost intimacy to the atmosphere. Resisting the urge to move altogether, she gazed calmly back toward her guest, forcing herself to wait patiently for his response.

"I think," Jake began slowly, "that you are a very precise individual. You like things ordered, no surprises. You dislike chaos," Jake's eyes narrowed as he watched her. "Perhaps it even frightens you a little. But I think that beneath that calm, collected façade that there bubbles a very passionately chaotic woman just clammering to be let out."

Jo stared, gaping at him for a full ten seconds before she forced her mouth closed. "You don't know what you're talking about," she finally said, while an inner voice called her a liar. "You're making that up. You can't get that from coffee."

"You're also in denial," Jake said easily, retrieving his cup and taking another sip. "Delicious," he declared. "Good to the last drop." Jo wanted to hit him.

"I'm not in denial," she told him, wanting to wipe the smug off his face. "And I do like order. I'm a scientist. I have a scientific mind; it's only logical. But I am not frightened of chaos, and my calm is not a façade."

"Mmm,"Jake nodded, not agreeing or disagreeing.

"What does that mean?" Jo demanded clarification.

"That means," Jake said, "That I can prove you wrong on that score, too."

"Oh, and just how would you do that?" Jo wanted to know. How in the course of one evening of taunting debate he seemed to know so much about her was really hard to fathom. She felt a driving need to prove him incorrect. At least, she hoped that was what her need was driving her toward.

"I could kiss you," Jake offered, an unreadable expression on his face.

Jo's heart jumped at the mere mention, then immediately warmth rushed across her features and she felt hot and cold at the same time. "What is that going to prove?" she managed, though already her pulse had begun to pound in reaction. Her body was going through all of the inevitable physical responses of a woman who was attracted to a man. It was simply biology. Logic could always overcome hormones.

"It will prove that there is a passionate woman underneath," Jake repeated in answer to her question.

"No." Jo looked across at him. "No, I disagree. I'm calm because of the logical way that I perceive things. Nothing more, nothing less."

Jake shrugged and moved a step closer to her. Jo took an involuntary step backward which caused Jake to pause in his motions.

"Are you afraid?" he asked.

"No," Jo denied it.

"Why is your heart pounding?" Jake asked. "Just like mine."

"Purely biological," Jo insisted. "Logic overcomes."

"Let me kiss you."

Jo didn't respond, merely continued to gave into piercing blue eyes.

Jake reached for her glasses and gently removed them. Standing very close then, he looked into her eyes. "Shall I take that as a yes?" he asked.

Jo's lips parted to breathe a whispered response.