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37

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Kathy knocked on the bathroom door some hours following. "Ed? You alright? It's time to head on over to the Brinkleys. We'll be too late to be early, like how you like it."

"Too late to be early!" Ed immediately stood up from his bowl and opened the door. "There is no such thing as too late to be early, my dear," Ed said in a bold tone and gave Kathy a kiss.

Kathy looked at Ed's dress and pointed. "Is that how you're going?" She asked nervously.

Ed looked down at his dress as well. "What? No, no, no. I'll be back in a sec." He quickly went to the bedroom and switched into a nice suit, then reappeared. He walked to the closet and got his and Kathy's coats, then handed Kathy hers, put his on and opened the front door.

Kathy put the coat on but did not move. She cleared her throat, signifying Ed's absent-mindedness.

He shook his head at her, not understanding.

"I wonder how Mr. Brinkley will read your script when it's all the way over here," she said sarcastically.

Ed's eyes lit up. "Oh, my! Yes! The script! Thank you honey! Thank you! Thank you!" He yelled, kissed Kathy on the forehead, then rushed past her to the typewriter to get the script.

"Sometimes I think that if your head wasn't attached you'd forget it someplace as well," Kathy said as Ed was scrambling to get all of the script pages together.

"Ha ha," Ed said sarcastically, then grabbed Kathy by the arm and pulled her out of the house, shutting the door behind them.

Upon arrival at the Brinkley residence, Ed felt that churning in his stomach when he saw the house just as he had on the previous visits. He just admired this man so much and felt honored to even breathe the same air as him.

When they were all seated, Mr. Brinkley said, "So, Edward. You have the script for me?"

"Oh, I sure do," Ed replied, taking the bundle of papers from under his arm and holding it out to Howard. Howard took it and looked down thoughtfully at the cover, then flipped through some of the pages quickly, inspecting it.

"If you don't mind, I'll save reading it for later," Howard said.

Ed nodded. "Yeah, sure. That's fine by me. Read it whenever you like. I have a feeling that you'll like it, though."

"Really? Well, that's nice. I hope you're right-- In fact, I know you're right. You're a very good writer, if I do say so myself."

Ed began to blush like a little schoolgirl. "Aw, shucks."

Kathy winced, embarrassed at Ed's behavior around Brinkley. She just felt that it wasn't proper for a man to act this way because of another man. It was unheard of.

Speaking of 'unheard of'... Nadia hadn't even heard anything that had been said while they were sitting. Since Ed entered their house, all she had been doing was gazing helplessly with an open mouth at him, wishing she were married to him... or at least on top of him.

Suddenly, she stood up and said, "Ed, can you come help me in the kitchen?"

Ed's face went from red to white, but he stood up as well. "Uhh okay," he replied, then followed Nadia down to the kitchen.

It wasn't long before Ed was backed against the wall with Nadia's face in his shirt.

"Listen, Nadia. I'm really flattered and all that you want to be all over me all the time and that you find something in me... for some strange reason... but his has got to stop."

"Oh Ed, you are so funny," Nadia giggled, then began working her tongue in his ear.

"No, really. It's making me... sad."

"Sad?" Nadia asked, kissing up and down his neck.

"Yes. I just think about what would happen if Kathy found out and--"

"Kathy will never find out."

"You don't know that. She could. Besides, I love her and I don't think this is right."

"Yes, yes. It is."

"No, it really isn't. I am spoken for and I don't want anyone jamming their tongue into any of my orifices unless they're my wife."

"But you like it."

"Uhh... no. I don't. What makes you, the girl at McGinty's, and every other woman on the planet think that I like it when I'm unfaithful to my wife?"

Nadia pulled herself of off Ed and looked him in the eye. "Th-There are o-others?"

"If it's female, it wants me. I'm even starting to get a little bit worried about the males--"

Nadia turned her head away from Ed and bit her fist. "What's her name?"

"Who?"

"That girl at McGinty's?"

"Carlina Epstein. Geez, you just don't do that to your employee! I mean, come on!"

"That bitch," Nadia said coldly.

Ed gasped. "There's certainly no need for that kind of naughty language, missy!" Ed said, waving a finger in her direction. "Wait-- What?"

"How dare she try to steal my man!" Nadia said angrily, her eyes burning with hatred.

"YOUR man? Good gravy, lady. How many times do I have to tell you? I love Kathy, not you. Not anyone else on this godforsaken earth. Kathy. K-A-T-H-Y."

Nadia moved away from Ed and began to the counter. "I think I'm going to go down and have a talk with this 'Carlina Epstein'."

"What... what is wrong with everyone! Has everyone just gone completely and utterly insane!"

"I'll show her that taking things that aren't yours is not very nice..." Nadia picked up a knife and began to chop celery quickly with it. "Yes... I'll show her good."

Ed shook his head in disbelief, eyes wide with shock. He slipped out of the kitchen and back to the living room to engage once again with some normal people. Just as he was finished buttoning up his shirt and adjusting his clothing, he reached the living room and stared confusedly at what he was observing taking place.

Kathy and Howard were standing together, not just reciting lines from his script, but acting it out.

"... So. Word on the street is that there's been a werewolf around these parts. Do you know anything about this, ma'am?" Howard asked in a New Yorker accent.

"Do I know anything about this? No. Why would you think I would?" Kathy replied in a frail, grandmother-like voice.

"Let's just say we received an anonymous tip."

"From who!"

"It's anonymous."

"I see... well then..." Kathy suddenly began running around the couch. "You can't arrest me if you can't catch me! Hahahahahaaaaaa!"

"Oh, now I--" Howard looked up and saw Ed standing in the hallway, watching them. Kathy stopped running and saw Ed as well.

"I see you were testing out my script."

"Oh yeah, Edward! This is gold!" Howard said, holding the script up. "Kathy and I decided we'd look it over just for fun and boy, it really is great!"

"Really? Oh wow. I thought you were just mocking me or something."

"Nah! We love it. I love it. I couldn't have chosen a better guy for the job."

Ed's face went red again, then everything went black and he fell to the floor, out cold.