She frowned as if examining his words, or her feelings about them.
“Do you believe in souls?” he asked.
She looked up at him. “Yes,” she said. Then added, “I think so.”
“Then let me tell you how it seems to me, about us. Lots of times, two people get married on the basis of physical attraction, two primates, two Homo sapiens who look good to each other. Or maybe they get married for convenience, or because they both like the same things, or it seems to them they’d better do it now, before it’s too late. Or for whatever reasons.
“But sometimes two people, before or after they marry, touch soul to soul. And when that happens, a different kind of bond forms between them. They may or may not recognize consciously what happened, but they do realize, at least briefly, that it was something special. And if they validate it and build on it, the relationship can be very very good.
“That’s what happened between you and me. At least that’s what I think.” He lowered his voice a bit more. “The physical is nice, believe me. But it seems to me we have more than that going for us. Something stronger. So for me, it’s fine for you to be gone a few days. Weeks if necessary. I’m comfortable with that because I’m comfortable with us.”
It had been more answer than she’d bargained for, been ready for, or knew how to handle. She didn’t meet his eyes. “Do you ever look at other women?” she murmured.
“Hey, sweetheart, part of me’s a healthy, forty-year-old male primate. Of course I look at other women, but looking’s as far as it goes.”
“You don’t—think about them in a sexual way?”
“I respond to them physically, but I don’t fantasize about them. If you were gone long enough I might fantasize, but I can’t imagine making a pass at one.”
Now she did meet his eyes. “You’re a nice man, Ben Shoreff. A very nice man. I can’t imagine what I did to deserve you.”
“Hmm. Well,” he growled softly, “try imagining what you’re going to do to deserve me when we go to bed tonight.”
“Oh! You!” She cocked her coffee cup, then set it back on its saucer, and lowered her voice almost to a whisper. “What’s the earliest we can put the girls to bed?”
“Steady, sweetheart. Their usual bedtime, nine. That’s about the earliest we can get away with.”
40
After returning from Montana, Lee had spent two days on her new duties. She knew Millennium’s worldwide operations thoroughly, from her work on the operations chart. Now she was discovering the problems of training and installing a large number of new counselors and supervisors at field locations, integrating them, and providing suitable facilities, at minimal cost, and without disrupting ongoing counseling and training.
One thing in particular troubled her, and she’d arrived at the office that morning intending to speak with Lor Lu before he could leave on another tour. It was a nuisance having him gone so much. When he was away, Anne Whistler could answer almost any of her questions, but no one could fill Lor Lu’s shoes.
She touched a key on her pad, and waited a second.
“This is Lor Lu. What can I do for you, Lee?”
“Give me a few minutes of your time.”
“How would right now be?”
“I’ll be right there.”
Standing, she grabbed her stenographic recorder and left at once. Lor Lu’s office was near the other end of the third-floor corridor. She was there in less than a minute, and began without preliminaries.
“As of last Friday you had a total of 370 Life Healing counselors in training or internships in the U.S.,” she said. “About 160 are expected to be certified over the next three months. We have 316 training abroad. Add the 83 advanced counseling trainees, 48 counseling supervisor trainees, and 74 training supervisors . . .” She trailed off, looking meaningfully at the small Asian.
“We’d train more if we had more training supervisors in place,” he said. “But I feel quite pleased with our progress.”
He grinned. Usually she found that reassuring; just now it troubled her. “So,” she said, “where is the business going to come from to keep them productive? It’s costing Millennium money to train and house and feed them, and pay their weekly stipends. And when they graduate, there’ll be salaries to pay.”