Ugh... exhausted prompt book almost done. Sheesh im learning a lot.

Thirty Eight

"So let me ask you something." Jade said

Pat Banks looked slightly dubious. "Okay."

"What's your angle in this? Just an opposing viewpoint?" Jade watched the reporters face without seeming to, propping her head up with one hand. "I'm fed up with the games, and that includes the scruffy little reporters they keep sending to bother my staff."

The black woman looked down at herself, then back at Jade, her eyebrow lifting. "You talking to me?" She indicated her chest with her thumb.

Jade's lips twitched. "Your predecessors" She clarified.

"Well." The reporter folded her hands on her pad. "Yes, it's an opposing viewpoint, and that's useful for the story."

"Ah." Jade felt faintly disappointed. She'd been hoping the filming team had started to see through Michelle and Shari's façade of noble underdog-ness. "Yeah, I guess someone has to interview Goliath, and get his perspective."

Banks chuckled a little. She glanced up as the waitress returned, bringing them plates of various pieces of sushi. "Thanks." She looked at her tuna, and then looked at Jade.

Jade popped a piece of well cooked egg on rice into her mouth, and winked.

The reporter left her plate for a moment, and concentrated on her table mate. "But you know, I had to pull all kinds of background video and all that on you for the story, since you were cast as this big old villain, and all the stuff I could dig up just showed you as this lady knight in shining armor saving everyone's behind on national television."

Jade chewed her sushi and kept a straight face. "There's film of me eating kittens, but they won't release it to the press. Too disturbing."

Another chuckle. "No way, because if it existed, trust me, those gals at Telegenics would have already had it up on a poster." Banks disagreed. "So here I was, having to reconcile what I was seeing with what I was hearing. I decided to come and see for myself."

"Uh huh." Jade munched steadily through her meal. "Better eat that before it swims off."

The reporter gave her a mock evil look, but picked up her chopsticks and bravely doused the fish in soy sauce, then took a bite of it.

Jade took the opportunity to remove her phone and glance at it, then flip it open to scribe a short note on it, before she sent it out. She laid the unit down on the table, and picked up another piece of sushi. "I'm not the one you should be talking to."

The reporter blinked. "Excuse me?"

Jade swallowed. "I'm not in charge of this project. The only reason Telegenics is focusing on me is personal reasons on their part. It's not my bid."

Banks put her chopsticks down. "It's not?" She asked. "I don't understand. I thought…"

Jade managed a mildly amused expression. "I'm the CIO of the company. I do actually have more important things to do than baby-sit what is, on our level, a midrange contract being handled by our VP Ops. Who has, by the way, done more than a dozen of them this year already."

"That would be… Tori Vega?" The reporter said. "Is you operations vice president, right?"

Jade nodded.

"And…"

"And my partner." It didn't even give her a twinge to say it, just a sweetness that she could taste on the tip of her tongue as the words rolled off it. "So, if you want a real perspective on the bid, you need to interview her."

The reporter scribbled a note, and then sniffed reflectively. She went back to her lunch plate and took another bite of sushi before she continued her questioning. "All right. I'll do that." She said. "You're very open about your relationship, aren't you?"

"No point in being anything else." Jade answered.

"Does that bother your co-workers?" The reporter asked, glancing up at her. "Must be a little awkward sometimes."

Was it? Jade neatly bit a piece of shrimp in half and chewed it. "Not anymore." She shrugged. "At the beginning, it took a while for everyone to get used to it, but now... eh." She picked up a rice grain and ate it. "Biggest problem Tori has now is all the people who hang around her trying to get her to get me to do things because they're too chickenshit to ask."

Banks burst out laughing. "Oh, that puts a different perspective on it... you know, my colleagues asked your counterparts about that, and they said they just treated each other as business associates at work."

"That explains a lot." Jade drawled. "I don't stop loving Tori while we're in the office, why would act like I did?" The words came out almost in a rush, and after she said them, she found herself somewhat shocked that she had.

The reporter was a little surprised also, but she covered it up by writing several more notes. "Well, they seem to think it's more professional." She said. "What do you think about that? Do you think they're right? After all, there are a lot of people who have to deal with you both on a daily basis, and maybe they don't feel that comfortable knowing what your relationship is."

Ah. Good question, Jade admitted to herself. In fact, this woman was full of surprisingly good questions. "I think at first a lot of people had a big problem with it." She answered honestly. "But then, ninety percent of the company had a big problem with me to begin with. I think having Tori as a buffer has far more helped than hurt. We..." She paused. "We tried to keep it out of the office at first, but you know how offices are. Every time we passed in the hallway, it would make the weekly newsprint."

"Uh huh." The black women nodded in complete understanding. "I work in an office with forty other thirty and forty somethings and believe me, there's always drama everywhere. That's why I asked." She said. "Because my boss got involved with one of our top reporters, and for a month, it *was* the news."

Jade chuckled under her breath.

"And it was hard, you know?" The reporter went on. "Everyone was tiptoeing around the subject, and it made life real hard for a while."

Jade grasped her last piece of sushi between her chopsticks and neatly positioned it, then dunked one end into her soy sauce. "You break up after that?" She asked casually, glancing up at her tablemate as she took a bite.

The woman's expression confirmed her guess in a heartbeat.

"So yeah, eventually everyone got over it." Jade continued, breaking the silence. "Now we only get the odd remark from clients in the bible belt." She finished her lunch and took a sip of the now cooled tea, picking up her phone as it beeped.

"You know what, you are just too damn sharp, Ms. West." The reporter sighed, after a few more stunned moments. "Here I thought I was being so slick and you just see right through it."

Hey sweetie! Are you sucking up more fame again?

Jade smiled, and scribbled a reply. That's me, Fame-Sucker. How's your head?

There was a brief pause, before the answer came. Spinning from your mother's jokes about how much chocolate I put in to your chocolate chip cookies. Other than that, I'm fine.

Ah. Jade just kept herself from licking her lips. Well, I'm going to keep that afternoon conference call short tonight. I don't think my reporter friend will be sticking around much longer. She might want to talk to you tomorrow or sometime though.

Is she nice?

Jade glanced at her lunch companion, who was taking advantage of her tapping to finish her own lunch. Very nice, and pretty sharp. Not like the last one.

Tori's rolled eyes were almost visible in the reply. About time. I figured she must be okay if you had lunch with her.

Jade read that response twice, then hit reply. Eh. Slim pickings since you're not here.

J No, I'm here baking with your mom. Why don't you get hold of Dad, and bring him home with you?

Dad, cookies, Tori... maybe she'd stop for flowers... Jade paused her thought, and then rewound it. Maybe she'd stop for a bottle of wine. You're on. See you later – don't burn yourself.

Heh heh. Yes, mommy Jade. Have a cup of tea for me.

Jade closed her phone and slipped it into her pocket, leaning back again as her table companion finished up her lunch and wiped her lips. "Sorry if I shook you up a little. If it's any consolation, I've been there." Jade told her, with a faint grin.

"You certainly did shake me up." Banks agreed ruefully. "Or was that a very clever way to get me to stop asking questions?"

Jade's eyes twinkled. "Maybe it was just a way to get enough time to finish eating."

The woman held one hand up. "Okay, touché." She looked up as the waitress came over, and neatly plucked the check from the woman's hands. "I'll take that, thanks."

Jade poured herself another cup of tea, drinking it slowly as the reporter settled their bill. It hadn't been a bad interview, she thought, but it hadn't really given the woman anything concrete to use either.

Had it?

She frowned, having the distinct feeling suddenly that she'd gotten more personal than she'd intended. What if the reporter chose to slant the story that way, and it ended up as part of the show?

Tori wouldn't like that, Jade was pretty sure. She'd had to face the press with that front and center more than she'd ever wanted to, and hated every moment of it. Maybe she should have discussed the whole thing with Tori before agreeing to the interview?

But how was she to know the reporter was going to ask that stuff?

"Well." Banks folded her credit card receipt and put it neatly into her wallet. "Okay, so I have to talk to Tori Vega about the ships, but one of the things that most caught my eye about the information I gathered was the way your company responds to a crisis."

Eh? Jade watched the train she'd thought they were riding on take a siding. She raised a polite eyebrow in question, but remained silent.

"The most spectacular thing I saw was the ATM outage on the East Coast." The reporter said. "Played out on national television. I'd like to talk to you about how that all went down, if you don't mind."

That seemed harmless enough. "Sure." Jade got up. "I've got about forty five more minutes."

"I'll try to make them count." Banks promised. "Is there some place we can pick up a cup of coffee on the way back? I'm still on east coast time."

"We have some inside the office." Jade led the way out of the restaurant, giving a casual wave at two of the marketing regional managers who had just sat down to eat. "Unless you'd like to try Cuban coffee."

"Cuban coffee? Okay, sure. How bad could it be?"

Jade grinned evilly, and pushed her way out the door.

"Well?" Tori angled the phone against her ear as she mixed items into a mixing bowl. "What's the scoop? She'd given Sinjin three hours to hear back from their vendor, and her patience was wearing thin. "Listen, if he won't talk to you, Sinjin, I know who he can talk to."

"Relax, Tori. He just called." Sinjin sounded much happier. "He's pissed. Really, really pissed, but they put the order through. He said he's in a lot of hot water."

"Tell him he could be in boiling. I was going to sic Jade on him." Tori informed her MIS chief. "Can you imagine what she'd have said?"

"Um... yeah." Sinjin chuckled wanly. "Actually, I can. But whatever, he caved. So we're cool. I was just gonna call you."

Tori felt her shoulders relax. Despite her fierce words, she knew damn well they didn't have time to spec out a new vendor's gear and if their current partner hadn't given in, she really didn't have much of a backup plan to replace them.

Jade, of course, was in reserve, but Tori really hated to pull that hat out unless she really had to. It made her feel like she wasn't capable of doing her own job, if she had to go running to her partner for help all the time.

She felt good that she'd been able to resolve this problem by herself. "Okay, so when can we expect delivery?"

"Monday." Sinjin sounded a touch smug. "I think you scared the crap out of them. Maybe they went and bought those units at distribution, and just resold em to us at our price."

Tori chuckled. "Whatever it takes." She said. "We've given them so much business; they've got nothing really to gripe about." She pulled out a baking tray and set the fish fillets she'd just coated onto it's already lightly oiled surface. "Okay, thanks, Sinjin. I'm going to set up a touch point meeting tomorrow afternoon for the whole team, just so we can see where we're at."

"Gotcha."

"See you tomorrow."

Sinjin almost hung up, and then paused. "Hey, Tori?"

"Mm?"

"Are you feeling better?"

Tori blinked her bad eye, which had pretty much opened fully during the course of the day. The swelling had gone down, and now it was merely tender to the touch. "I feel a lot better, thanks." She told Sinjin. "At least I can see out of both eyes now, and I just look like half a raccoon."

"Cool deal." The MIS manager replied. "I was wondering because I just saw big D, and she looked real antsy so I was hoping it wasn't because you were feeling bad."

"Ah." Tori pondered. "Well, we're having a family get together tonight."

"Oh. Um..."

"I'm cooking."

"Oh!" Sinjin's tone altered to one of understanding. "Cool! Hey, have a great time, okay?"

"Thanks, we will." Tori now hung up, and set the phone down. She scattered a handful of crushed pistachio nuts over the filets, then covered them and set them in the refrigerator.

She was alone now, Ceci having headed back to her boat home to pick up a few things for the dinner. Chino was curled up on her bed in the corner of the kitchen, and Tori had a soft New Age CD playing in the living room player.

It was quiet, and peaceful, and it smelled like recently baked cookies. Tori leaned against the counter and gazed out at the pretty, sunlit ocean and indulged in a brief moment of mindless observation.

Then she went to the refrigerator and removed a bottle of ice tea, going to the sliding door and opening it and slipping outside into the warm air. It smelled like warm sand and salt outside and she sat down in their swinging chair with a sense of satisfaction.

Chino had scuttled out after her, and she stood up on her hind legs and put her front ones on the porch rail, gazing out at the sea with an intelligent expression.

"You like that, Chi?" Tori sucked slowly at her ice tea, swinging back and forth in the chair. "Want to go for a walk on the beach?" She asked. "Just you and me? We can find some sticks for you to bring back to mommy Jade, how about it?"

"Growf." The dog dropped down and came over to her, licking her knee affectionately and sitting down next to the swing chair, her tail sweeping the stone tiles rhythmically.

"You're so cute." Tori scratched the dog's soft ears. "You know what, Chi? We're going to the cabin this weekend. How do you like that?"

The tail swept faster, as the Labrador recognized a word she knew.

"You like the cabin, right? I like the cabin too. I think I like it better than even this place." Tori confided. "How about I teach you to ride on the back of the motorcycle, hm? Would you like that? Your ears all flying back?" She tugged one ear.

"Growf!" Chino wiggled her entire body back and forth.

Tori chuckled. The sun was already behind the line of the houses, so the porch was in shade. A cool breeze came up off the water, and she squirmed into a more comfortable position, and exhaled in contentment.

Okay, so where I am at the moment? She let her eyes follow a lazy white cloud as it drifted overhead. I've got my project going, the equipment's ordered, my people are in place, the wiring is going. I'm doing good.

She nodded once or twice.

It's a good plan. I know the technology works. So the only question left is – how do I price it so that it comes in under what that bitching lowballing Michelle comes up with? "I know she's going to lie, Chi."

"Rowf?"

"She's going to low ball that bid, sure as I'm sitting here just like she did everything else. But I don't want to fall into that game."

"Rr." Chino rested her chin on Tori's knee.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about that." Tori told her pet seriously. "I want to win this one, Chi. I really do." She ruffled the dog's fur, then she let her head rest back against the chair, simply enjoying the lazy moment.

Jade opened the door to the house, poking her head inside and listening to a surprising lack of sound. "Tor?"

When she wasn't answered, she entered and stood aside to let her father come in behind her, then shut the door and glanced around curiously. "Maybe she took Chino for a walk."

"Fuzzball likes that." James allowed.

With a faint shake of her head, Jade ducked into her study and dropped her laptop case off, then went towards the kitchen. She paused as she spotted a Labrador tail outside on the porch, and changed direction. "Ah. Maybe not."

She slid the door open and looked out, then emerged onto the porch with a grin as Chino scrambled up to greet her. Tori was sleeping soundly on the swinging chair and only slowly stirred as she heard the noise their pet was making. "Uh?"

"Hey." Jade managed to get past the canine roadblock and sat down on the chair next to her partner.

"Oh... bwah." Tori blinked herself awake, her hands reaching out instinctively to wrap themselves around Jade. "I fell asleep."

"Really?"

"Uh huh." Tori stifled a yawn, and then rested her head against Jade's shoulder. "I didn't mean to do that. I was just going to relax for a minute, then take Chi for a walk on the beach." She gave her partner a little hug. "But I guess waking up to find you here is a pretty good substitute."

"You guess?" Jade reached over and tilted Tori's head up a little to study her injured eye. The swelling had gone down quite a bit, returning a more normal shape to her face and the bruise seemed a little less lurid. Two light brown pupils looked back at her, rather than the morning's one, and she smiled in reaction. "I missed you today."

Tori grinned, her eyes lighting up from within. "How did your meetings go?"

"Pretty good." Jade leaned back and braced her foot against the rail, rocking them both gently. "Hacking calmed down today. I only saw three attempts, and they were all pretty lame."

"Think you scared them off yesterday?"

"Maybe." Jade said. "Dad's inside. Mom go back to the boat?"

Tori nodded. "Guess we should go inside and be sociable, now that you've woken me up and all." She nudged Jade affectionately. "I need to go put some water on my face... I could go right back to sleep."

"C'mon." Jade stood, lifting her up at the same time. "That's a cute apron. I like the pocket."

Tori looked down at herself. "Ah." She studied the position of the single, centered pouch, featuring a saucy looking hamster. "I wonder why, Hamster Jade?"

Jade pushed the sliding door open and entered the cool of the house, where her father had taken over the loveseat with Chino in adoring attention. "Look what I found outside."

James looked up. "Hi there, kumquat." He greeted Tori. "Spiffy looking battle wound you got there." He got up and came over to meet them, peering curiously at Tori's face. "How in this earth did a feller kick you in there with all that stuff you put on your head?"

"Just bad timing." Tori released her partner. "The toe of his boot caught me right in the gap here." She touched the front of her face. "It happened so fast, all I knew was one minute I was turning, the next I was on the mat. Boom."

"Wall." Jim turned her face to the light a little. "Ain't a patch on what Gigi there used to get. Should be all fixed up in no time." He patted her cheek gently.

"That's what I hear." Tori grinned, ducking past him and heading for the downstairs bedroom. "Be right back."

James settled back down on the couch, and Jade took a seat across from him on the larger one. "Been a hell of a week." Jade said, with a grimace. "How's it going on your end of things?"

"Wall now." James spread both long arms out across the leather surface, and extended his legs, crossing them at the ankles. "Ah do believe I have been of some use to you ladies during this here week."

"Yeah?" Jade half grinned.

Tori poked her head out of the bedroom. "Yeah?"

"Yeap." Jim looked pleased with himself. "Soon as you come on out here, kumquat, I'll tell all about it."

Hm. Tori patted her face dry. Maybe it'd been a better day than even she realized.

Half an hour later, the fish were in the oven, Ceci had returned with a bucket of vegetables and dip to snack on, and they were all sharing a beer as the few lines of sunset peeking between the houses painted the beach outside a coral pink.

Jade was sprawled in one corner of the couch, with Tori next to her. One of Tori's legs was slung over hers, and she was happy to sit there and listen to the conversation as she slowly sipped at her drink.

It was times like this when she understood the measure of change she'd experienced in the last few years. Aside from having a partner, someone to share her everyday life with, she'd also regained a family that had been lost to her.

It was almost as though she were a completely different person sometimes. Not inside, because Jade knew she herself hadn't changed any, but outside, where other people saw her. Instead of being a loner, mysterious and threatening, she had become someone who even her co-workers treated as one of the corporate family now.

As though falling in love had made her much more understandable to them.

This was odd, because it had made her much less understandable to herself, sometimes. Jade gazed quietly at the tan thigh covering hers, half smiling as she slid her fingers over Tori's skin and savored its warmth.

Tori flexed her leg in response, rubbing the inside her heel against Jade's calf, while she kept on talking, explaining what she'd been doing on the ship.

"So, we finally got everyone to agree to what we wanted to do and give us space." Tori said. "But I tell you, it wasn't easy."

"Naw." James shook his head. "Nobody likes to give up a nickels worth of space on board one of them there things, kumquat. Every squinch is worth the earth." He said. "Though them folks should count their blessings... worst I saw in there was five bodies bunking up together and them's with their own bathroom."

"Oo." Ceci chewed on a celery stick. "Luxury." She poked James in the ribs. "More than six inches of drawer space and I bet they don't hot bunk."

Tori paused, looking at them. Then she turned and looked Jade questioningly.

"Remind me to take you on a tour of an aircraft carrier next time we're near one." Jade told her.

"O…kay." Tori amiably returned her attention to her in-laws. "So you're saying they've got it pretty good, compared to what sailors in the service have, right?"

James shrugged one shoulder. "Get used to anything." He commented.

"Yes." Ceci interpreted. "The first time Jim took me to see where he lived on a ship; I nearly just took a header overboard. Twelve stories up. Horrific."

"Wasn't that bad."

"Oh, yes it was. Nobody was more relieved when you got your officer's promotion than I was."

"Was it that bad?" Tori whispered to her partner.

Jade pondered the question, as she watched her parents playfully arguing across from her. "To be honest." She whispered back. "It was the one single thing I knew would keep me out of ship duty."

"Really?"

Jade nodded. "A rack is a six inch foam mattress, with a space underneath to store your stuff. It's got a curtain across it so you can sleep in the daytime, and they're stacked three atop each other."

Tori's eyes widened.

"Hot bunking is two guys or three sharing the same bunk in turn."

Tori's eyes nearly came out of her head.

"Hey, beats a foxhole." Jade grinned slightly. "And the food's a lot better."

"Brr." The Brunette shuddered. "Well, to hear those guys talk, you'd think I was trying to take away their Christmas presents. But we worked it out."

"Yeap." James nodded. "Heard them hollerin about the same thing over on the boat I'm at. Don't think they worked out the same deal you did... they were still hollerin this morning."

"Heh." Tori smirked a little.

"Them women running that thing don't know much about getting folks to co-operate." The big Retired seal continued. "All they do is run to and back making a lot of noise." He folded his arms over his chest. "Ah do not like them."

Jade sighed inwardly. She hadn't expected her father to like them, and it made her wonder how once upon a time, she had.

Youthful dementia?

"They're not too fond of us." Tori said. "I thought Michelle was going to chuck up a kidney when she had to call and ask me for that circuit." She leaned back against Jade. "Thanks for sending those pricing lists over, by the way."

Jade wrapped her arm around Tori's waist and rested her chin against her partner's shoulder. "We know for sure they're paying more than we are." She agreed.

James shifted and took a swig of his beer before he answered. "Wall now, something funny's going on there." He said. "Either them women are just nuttier than a squirrel, or I don't know what. They put that damn order in six times, and not one body there can figure out why."

Jade cocked her head in confusion. "Huh?"

Tori's eyes narrowed. "Six times?"

"Yeap."

"Must be some kind of mistake." Jade said. "How did you know? You got six copies of the invoice?"

Her father nodded. "We figured first it was one big truckload of that stuff you all use, but I was sorting the pages, and they just kept..." He made a rotating gesture with one hand. "Didn't make much sense."

"Oh no." Tori said. "It makes perfect sense."

Everyone looked at her. Jade blew gently in her ear. "It does?"

Tori turned her head, and her eyes almost went crossed. She blinked. "I got a call today from our infrastructure supplier. Seems that all the stuff we need, suddenly went out of stock."

Jade's eyebrows hiked right up.

"Do tell?" Jim murmured. "Wall then."

"Hmph." Ceci felt she understood enough of the conversation to contribute at least a token noise of disgusted agreement. She had no idea really of what was being discussed, but the expressions on both Tori's and Jade's faces clued her into the fact that neither was happy.

"So you think…" Jade paused.

"Do you seriously think it was coincidence?" Tori replied.

"No." Jade shook her head. "So what's the plan?"

Tori felt that little tingle inside whenever she had to put her business skills out on display for Jade's perusal. She was good and she knew it, but she also knew Jade was more than good and no matter how long she worked with her, she never got over that little internal squiggle. "I had Sinjin call them, and tell them either they coughed up our order, or we'd switch vendors companywide."

Jade's eyes widened a little, more white showing around the deep blue centers.

James whistled.

"My." Ceci murmured. "For some reason I'm getting the feeling that meant more to them than me threatening the same thing to Publix."

Jade cleared her throat. "And?"

"They caved. It's on the way." Tori replied matter-of-factly. She exhaled in satisfaction. "And now that I know who paid those little buggers off… I almost wish they hadn't."

Jade digested the information briefly, and then smiled. "Nice." She gave Tori a squeeze. "But what did you have in mind if they said no?" Threats aside, specing brand new gear they had no experience with in that time frame wasn't a realistic solution and she knew Tori knew that.

"Oh, I was going to throw you at them." Tori assured her. "I was just seeing what they were made of, and it turned out to be Swiss cheese." She patted her partner's muscular leg. "So it turned out okay, but now – now that makes sense, Jade. Don't you think? That has to be why they did it."

"Unless it's a mistake." Ceci commented mildly. "Someone hit the fax key too many times."

There was a brief moment of relative silence. "That could be." Jade said slowly. "But – given what Tori said about the vendor's reaction, I'd have to say it's not a mistake. If it was, they'd have just called and corrected it. I'm sure when they got the PO six times, someone said something."

"Well..." Tori rolled her eyes.

"True enough, Gigi." Jim said. "Someone surely did say something, but someone was told to mind their own business."

So. Jade felt angry, but more comfortable with this bit of business behind the back stabbed ness. The cellular transmitter was beyond Shari, but this kind of bullshit certainly wasn't. "Better keep an eye on that shipment." She warned Tori.

"Ah surely will." Jim replied, with a half grin. "Since them fellers picked me to be in charge of that there part."

"Heh." Tori picked up Jade's hand and kissed its knuckles, then got up and headed for the kitchen. "A tisket a tasket two bitches in a basket..." She warbled as she disappeared.

Jade chuckled, and shook her head. "Damn, this just gets screwier and screwier." She sighed. "You having fun there, dad?"

Her mother laughed.

James gave a dignified sniff. "Ah do like to think ah am providing a useful service." He said. "And it surely is a good thing to know that general civilians are a damn sight dumber than most of the people I done worked with in blue and white suits."

They all laughed, and Jade relaxed into the couch again, letting the tensions of the day seep from her. Things were looking up, she decided. She'd had a good interview, Tori had handled a sticky problem with panache, and her father was having a kicking good time making trouble for her adversaries.

Life was good.

"Hey, Jade?" Tori called from the kitchen. "Can I get a hand with all this?"

Life was very good. Jade launched herself off the couch and headed for the scent of baking fish and cookies. Things were working out nicely all round.

She only hoped it kept on going that way.