It was a nice party, thought Amanda. Not royal reception nice maybe, but it also wasn't getting interrupted by an assassination attempt, so she was at least a little more comfortable this time. Lee had disappeared a few minutes before, telling her quietly that he'd be back in a few minutes and not to worry. From her perch near the bar, she watched James Delano - a distant second to Lee in the tux wearing department, but Lee hadn't been kidding about the middle-aged men quota, so competition was slim - give his speech about the expansion into East Germany.
Amanda looked around for Lee, certain he'd want to know all about it, but he was still off somewhere having that secret meeting. However, something in her movement must have caught Delano's attention because he paused for a moment right in the middle of his speech and smiled at her as she turned back to face him. Embarrassed at having been caught not paying attention to the big announcement, Amanda smiled back, blushing.
She didn't think any more about it, until Delano suddenly appeared at her elbow a few minutes after his speech was done, smiling at her even more attentively.
"I don't know who you came with, but he's a fool to leave such a vision of loveliness unattended," he murmured.
"Oh! I'm not really unattended," Amanda protested. "Just temporarily abandoned."
"Well, it shouldn't have happened, even temporarily," purred Delano in his oddly-inflected mid-Atlantic accent. "I'm James Delano, your host. And you are?"
Amanda looked around for Lee, hoping for rescue, but he was still nowhere to be seen. Don't tell anyone who you are, Kid.
You could be Mr. and Mrs. Cassidy...
"I'm, uh...Sun-… Sunny K-K-...Cassidy," Amanda grasped at the first names that came to mind.
"Sunny? How charming! Like Sunny Von Bulow?" Delano asked.
"Gosh, I hope not," exclaimed Amanda. "She's in a coma, isn't she?"
Delano burst out laughing, and took Amanda's hand to kiss her fingertips. "A woman with a sense of humor! I love that!"
Amanda was a little uncomfortable with the attention and snuck a quick look around for Lee again, spotting him just walking back into the room. "Oh, there's my date!" she said. Delano turned to where she was looking, and thus had an equally good view as Amanda as Lee stopped to chat with a dazzling blonde who had reached out to snag his arm as he went by. She was making no bones about her intentions and it was equally obvious from Lee's demeanor that her attention wasn't unwelcome.
"That's your date?" asked Delano in a slightly disbelieving tone.
Amanda chuckled weakly and then blushed as Delano turned back to her, eyebrows raised. "Oh Lee can just never resist a beautiful woman, but as long as he remembers to drive me home, I don't take it too seriously!"
Delano turned to survey Lee and the blonde who were now even closer together, the girl whispering something in his ear that made his ready grin broaden. "Hmmm, well if he forgets his part of that bargain, I would be delighted to drive you home myself," Delano announced, a slight tone of disapproval in his voice.
"Oh no!" said Amanda, horror stricken. "That won't be necessary! Lee's never forgotten me yet!" But he would definitely kill me if I let Delano drive me home to suburban Arlington.
They both looked over to where Lee was untangling himself from the blonde's embrace just a little too slowly. "If you say so," said Delano, doubt evident in his tone.
Amanda wondered if she had been mentally broadcasting panicked vibes because Lee suddenly looked up and met her eyes. He immediately straightened up, frowning, the blonde completely forgotten after a brusque farewell that left her pouting after him and bee-lined across the room toward Amanda.
Lee sized up Delano as he approached, not quite certain what his expression was but recognizing that element of disapproval so familiar from his childhood. As he got closer, he realized Delano's hand was resting on top of Amanda's on the bar and that her eyes were wide.
She's not having fun.
He had no idea what Amanda might have said, but decided pure cockiness would work best and greeted them immediately with "Darling! I'm sorry I've been gone so long! Have you been having a nice time meeting people?"
It was Delano who answered before she could. "Sunny has been a charming companion. It's so nice to meet a woman with real… sophistication." Delano's eyes flicked past Lee's shoulder to where, without even looking, Lee just knew that blonde was already moving on to her next target. He lifted an eyebrow at Amanda. Sunny? he asked silently, and she shrugged apologetically as if to say I didn't know what else to say.
"Well, thank you for looking after my little ray of sunshine," he tried to sound jovial. "My name is…" To Amanda's horror, Francine's joke must have embedded itself in his brain as well. "Cassidy."
"Oh no," he heard her sigh too late.
"Oh, so you're not just the lovely Sunny's date then? You're her husband?" asked Delano.
A quick glance at Amanda showed that she had closed her eyes and was shaking her head slightly in disbelief. Lee realized the reason behind the disapproving look Delano had given him earlier. "Well, I sure am!" said Lee immediately. "I mean, we couldn't be brother and sister now, could we? We don't look a bit alike!"
Amanda made a quickly stifled hiccupping noise of laughter, which she instantly turned into a cough. "Yes, this is my husband, Lee, Mr. Delano."
Delano's gaze suddenly sharpened and Lee's instincts went on full alert.
"Lee Cassidy?" repeated Delano. "As in Leland Cassidy of Dynamica Industries? I wasn't aware you were on the guest list tonight."
In for a penny, in for a pound thought Lee. "One and the same!" he answered with confidence as he wracked his brain trying to remember why that company sounded familiar. "But I'm not surprised you hadn't heard I was coming to the party. I heard through the grapevine there might be some investment opportunities tonight and finagled myself a last minute invitation."
"Well I'm delighted to meet you at last," said Delano and Lee breathed a sigh of relief, an emotion that vanished as Delano went on, "You know, I thought you'd have more of an accent, growing up in Australia."
"Oh I learned a long time ago that people take you more seriously in business if you have an American accent so I made sure to get one." He moved to grasp Amanda's arm, intent on getting her out of the lion's den as fast as possible, especially after everything he'd just learned from Delano's accountant.
"Money truly will buy almost anything," chuckled Delano. "And speaking of which, I would be delighted if you would let me take you both to dinner tomorrow night. I'd love the opportunity to discuss my little investment opportunity with you and of course, to spend some more time with your charming wife."
Lee's grip on Amanda's arm tightened as he surreptitiously hauled her to her feet. "Well that little opportunity is exactly why I came tonight but can I get back to you for details on that dinner in the morning? I'll need to check my calendar."
"But of course," said Delano genially, pulling a card case from his pocket and plucking one out to hand to Lee. "Have your people call my people."
Your people? Lee stifled the urge to roll his eyes and began to edge Amanda toward the door. "Sure will!"
"Well how was I supposed to know you'd pick Cassidy too? I thought you'd use something closer to your name!" Amanda defended herself in an injured tone as they drove away from the party.
"Well if I'm Butch, of course I'm Cassidy! Why didn't you pick something closer to your name?" Lee fingers were drumming the Porsche's steering wheel like he was Keith Moon.
"That's what I did!" said Amanda indignantly. "I started to say King and then caught myself and then Francine's stupid joke made me say Cassidy!"
"Oh. Right. Well, that was actually pretty smart," said Lee in a sheepish voice.
"If we're going to pretend to be other people, maybe we should discuss stuff like that before we get there?" grumbled Amanda.
"Well, I didn't really think you'd have to be anyone else," Lee admitted, still in that same embarrassed tone. "I thought you'd just-"
"Sit in a corner and wait for you to come back?" sniped Amanda and watched his face redden. "Which is what I was doing," she admitted, deciding to let him off the hook, "until he came up and started flirting with me out of the blue. That was weird."
"No, it's not," said Lee in a gruff tone. "You looked like you were there by yourself and you were the prettiest girl in the room. He'd have been an idiot not to hit on you."
"Oh," said Amanda. "Thank you," she added, ducking her head with embarrassment. "So, uh, did you get all the information you needed?" she asked, changing the subject.
"I got some but not nearly enough," Lee answered, letting her distract him. "We know Delano is involved with Curt Hollander somehow so there's something more to this East German deal than just chickens and my contact says there may have been a murder over it. And I'm a bit worried it might be the agent we had covering Hollander – it would explain why he's missed his check-ins."
"A murder?" squeaked Amanda. "Delano may have murdered someone?"
"No, no, no, no, no!" said Lee hurriedly. "Hollander is the one I'd look at for that kind of stuff. No, James Delano isn't dangerous – he's just mixed up with dangerous people." He glanced over at Amanda, and raced to reassure her. "But don't worry – you won't have to see him again. Your lucky streak may have just handed me a perfect cover to continue to get close to this without raising any suspicions. At least, I hope it has – why the hell is that name so familiar?"
"Yeah, whoever Leland Cassidy is, Delano seemed pretty excited to meet him."
"Yeah – a little too excited." Lee stared thoughtfully out the windshield as he continued to drive. "I don't suppose your housewife club had ever looked at Dynamica Industries?" he asked hopefully.
"Sorry, not that I can remember."
"It was a long shot. I'll just hit up the computer when we get back to the Agency."
"Do you need help with that? My typing skills are way better than yours."
"What?" Lee glanced over and started to laugh. "Sorry, I meant the human computer. If Efraim doesn't know everything I need off the top of his head, then I'll have to really do research."
"Oh, of course," Amanda smiled. "Well, I'm still available to help. Mother won't expect me back so early."
"Yeah, sorry the evening got cut kind of short," Lee replied.
"Oh Lee, don't be silly – it wasn't that kind of evening. I know you're working," Amanda said comfortably. "I'm just glad I could help."
"Wow, I wish all my dates were as understanding as you," he grinned.
"Well, I'm not a real date, am I?" laughed Amanda. "I'm your wife!"
Lee burst out laughing. "Yeah, I guess you are, Mrs. Cassidy."
"Good. Then we can expect you for Thanksgiving dinner next week," Amanda went on. "Mother will be so excited!"
The Porsche swerved slightly out of its lane as Lee jerked his head to look at Amanda. "What?"
"If we're married, I think the least you can do is come for family dinner," said Amanda. She turned wide innocent eyes on him. "Don't you?"
Lee rushed to try and stammer out an excuse. "Uh, Amanda, I don't… I mean, me and holidays, that's not something I do… I mean, it's nice of you to invite me, but…"
"I'm teasing," she couldn't help laughing reaching over to pat his hand. "I know you're on the duty roster for the whole weekend. Besides, can you imagine if I really brought you home to meet my mother?" She gave a mock shudder. "If I thought she'd laid it on thick with Dean, I can only imagine what she'd be like if she thought we were dating!"
Lee was torn between relief and disappointment that the invitation hadn't been real. "Well, maybe I'll get to meet her someday and sweep her off her feet."
"If anyone could, you could," laughed Amanda. "She's always had a thing for bad boys."
"You think I'm a bad boy?"
"Oh yeah. Fast cars and fast women – that's you," she nodded. She glanced over at Lee in the silence that followed her answer. "On the surface, I mean," she went on, reaching out again to rest her hand more firmly on his arm this time. "That's not who you really are."
"You don't think so?" he replied flatly as they pulled up at a red light.
"Lee." She squeezed his arm until he glanced sideways. "I know it's not." They stared at each other for a moment until Amanda gave a decisive nod and he finally relaxed.
"Bad boy or not, my mother would still make you take her racing in this car though," she added, giggling.
"Would she now?" When Lee turned to her, dimples back in full force and eyebrows waggling, she knew what was about to happen and braced herself against the door, as he revved the engine.
"No, she wouldn't!" Amanda started to backtrack rapidly. "I was kidding – she hates driving! Even the Key Bridge scares her to death when…OH MY GOSH!" she screamed, her bubbling laugh turning into a whoop of pure exhilaration as the light turned green and Lee floored it, tearing down the dark empty streets of D.C. toward Georgetown.