Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

"What can you do in ten minutes?" The girl asked.

Corley's face was expressionless as he said, "Ever heard how curiosity killed the cat?"

"Sorry."

"Once the money's in your pocket, keep your mouth shut." Corley threatened.

After getting home and showering, Roseanne planned to review a few papers before hitting the sack.

Just as she sat down, she received a message from Corley.

[You left your gloves in my car.]

He attached a photo of the gloves. They were indeed the ones Roseanne wore that day.

It then dawned on Roseanne that she had taken them off after getting into the car because the heating was high. Corley had kindly taken them from her and set them aside.

She had forgotten them when she left.

[Can I drop by to pick them up sometime?]

has

at Kingswell University. Since you're an alum, if it's not too much trouble, maybe you could

yet. But with him

Friday at 11 a.m. Does that work

no objections and sent

...

they had agreed, Corley parked his car and walked to the

coffee shop was on a quaint street not far

a knack for decoration that appealed to the younger crowd, making it popular even on

seat by the window. Roseanne arrived a few minutes later, and a waitress came

record

with a soothing, foreign song, exuding a bohemian charm. Corley ordered an

gloves." He had packed the gloves in a brown paper

out to take

air rich with the aroma of coffee beans, the ambiance neither too cold nor too dry, utterly comfortable. "Do you come

street, visible through the floor-to-ceiling window, lay a river, completely frozen over in the dead of winter. Bare willow

over its edges, dr

in a

layer of snow