"OK, Maurice, what are you up to?"
"Maurice? Mrs. Robinson, my name is Christopher Hunter."

Mona rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap, Maury, I'm on to you."

He looked around the living room.

"Don't worry, no one else is here and Angela takes forever to get ready. Especially when it's for a date with a Greek god with smoldering eyes and a butt to match."
"Oh, Mona, you'll make me blush."

"Maury, you owe me an explanation of why you're romancing my daughter in the body of a well-preserved 40-year-old."

"Why does a man do anything? For the cause of love."

"You're in love with Angela?" That was the last thing she needed. It was bad enough when she thought Christopher was a perfect stranger, emphasis on perfect. Now that she had figured out his true identity, she definitely did not want him stealing Angela from Tony, even if Tony almost deserved it.

"Of course not. You know I only fall for fiery redheads."
"And how is dear Endora? Does she know about this?"
"My ex-wife was well the last we spoke. And, no, she doesn't know of this favor I'm doing for our grandson."

"Your grandson? Little Adam?"

"Little Adam is 20 now and quite smitten with your housekeeper's daughter."

Mona sank into a chair. This was even more complicated than she feared. "Does Sam know about this? I mean Sam Micelli. Does she even know that Adam is a warlock?"

"No, he hasn't told her yet. Have you told her about your powers?"

Mona sighed. That was a confession she'd made to only one mortal, her beloved late husband Robert, who had accepted it much more easily than she'd heard that Maurice's son-in-law had accepted his Sam's magic. Mona's powers were weak compared to Maurice's family, a fact that Endora never let her forget on the odd occasions they met. Mona could do some mind-reading, she had once performed a simple voodoo spell involving dolls and a kiss in the garden, and she was aging more slowly than a mortal, but she was not one of the heavy-hitters. Both of Samantha Stephens's half-blood children had turned out magical, but there were few less magical offspring than Angela Robinson. Mona loved her little girl, nerdy klutz though she was, but there were obviously no supernatural powers in that generation. And it didn't seem to have skipped down to Jonathan either.

"I thought not."

"Don't look so smug, Maury. You know I don't live in your world."

"You don't know what you're missing."
"Don't worry, I seem to have fun in this one."

"I'm sure you do." He was still as much of a flirt as ever. And, in the guise of Christopher Hunter, more attractive than ever. But she remembered he hadn't said what he was up to. "You still haven't explained yourself."

"Well, I believe Sam, your Sam, has a father who has been in love with his boss for almost six years."

"Yes, she does. Not that the bonehead will ever admit it, but I know he does. And Angela, my Angela, his boss, won't admit how she feels either." (Well, there was the time that Mona was able to get Angela to talk in her sleep about her feelings for Tony, but that had been a dead end as usual.)

"So Adam tells me. So I'm trying to nudge them along."

"By being Mr. Perfect?"

"Ah, how you flatter me, My Dear."

"Not at all. But don't you think you're overdoing it? Angela isn't as suspicious as I am, but she's bound to catch on eventually. Not to you being a warlock but to you not being who you claim to be."

"I know I can't keep this up forever. But I'll just do it long enough to motivate Mr. Micelli to realize he's with the wrong woman and had better grab the right one before he misses his chance."

She laughed. "You don't know Tony. Angela almost got married to a guy a few years ago and Tony only talked her out of it because I begged him to."

"Do you think I should propose?"

She shook her head. "You don't understand. Tony can get very jealous, but never enough to actually tell Angela how he feels. Although if you could get him to dump Kathleen, I would appreciate it."

"I'll see what I can do."

That worried her a little. Mona didn't like Kathleen, but she didn't hate her. If it hadn't been Kathleen, it might've been somebody else coming along and turning Tony's head. Mona still didn't understand why Tony couldn't have just left it as a one-night stand, but she had hopes that this would not last much longer.

"Be careful, Maurice. I don't want you breaking Angela's heart. Or causing any other damage."

He kissed her hand and for a moment she could imagine him as he really was, a man who was hundreds of years old but looked Mona's age, dressed in a top hat and tails, and maybe a cape, rather than the well-preserved man Angela's age, in a well-cut, fashionable suit. "I will be delicacy itself."

Angela called from upstairs, "Christopher? Are you there? I'll be down in a minute."
Maurice called up in his "Christopher" voice, "I'll count the seconds, My Darling!"

Mona rolled her eyes. Maurice could really lay it on thick. And Angela was such a romantic, she ate this stuff up. Not that Mona wanted to see Angela pining in her room, eating chocolate and mourning the loss of Tony. It was good to see her get out, but Mona had liked it better when Angela was seeing not-so-perfect Peter.

"So, Maury, what's your plan?"

"Well, as you're in on this, and obviously are not going to give me away, my next step is to invite her to Athens for the weekend."

"Greece!"

"Well, I don't mean Georgia."

"Why do you always have to overdo it? And Angela won't go. She's much too old-fashioned to run off to Europe with a man she's just met."

"Oh, I don't expect her to. But it should shake up your Mr. Micelli nicely."

She suspected he was probably right, although she hoped this wouldn't all backfire, as it could in several ways. "And how are you going to end this if it gets out of hand?"

"Christopher is going to be indicted on 26 counts of conspiracy and fraud."

"You're going to stand trial?"

"No, of course not. I shall escape to South America."

"Well, as long as you have a plan."

She wanted to grill him further, and find out more about Adam, but Angela came downstairs just then. Mona decided to mostly sit back and watch this all play out, since it did promise to be entertaining. And she'd step in if she had to, perhaps nudging Tony to fight for Angela, although that had never worked before.