No More Waiting, She Chooses Love

Conrad gave me a look, a twinkle of knowing in his eye. "Does he have any idea what he's missing out on?"

He had picked up on Dustin's feelings for me, so this was his way of probing.

I feigned ignorance. "Only he knows what he's missing."

Conrad dropped the subject, and we continued our walk. As we passed a koi pond, he remarked, "He's got quite the collection of koi here. I've heard him say that when he calls out 'Dinner time,' they all line up and swim over." "Really? Dustin's got a special talent for fish whispering, then," I joked.

"Don't believe it? Let's give it a try," Conrad suggested, leading me to the pond's edge. True enough, there were all these koi fish-reds, yellows, whites, and even some with patterns, looking plump and well-fed, clearly well taken care of and quite charming. "Your turn," Conrad encouraged me.

I reached out to touch the water, and the fish scattered in alarm. "How do I try?"

"Just call out 'Dinner time," he instructed with a smile.

"But I've got nothing to feed them with. Wouldn't calling them over without food make me a liar?"

Conrad laughed. "I'll go get some."

find some fish food, I watched the corpulent fish, my interest piqued. I cleared my throat and announced, "Dinner

my voice fell, the fish remained

chuckled. "You're too quiet. They can't hear you through the

Conrad was teasing, I raised my voice and called out again, "Dinner time, dinner

until he came back with

with me," I

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Conrad said, handing me

failed, culinary

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swarmed over to snatch up the

the villa's entrance hall. He gave me a set of numbers, and

interior was

house was all warm tones, creating use w a relaxing ambiance

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