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him glimpse a vision of her former beauty. He remembered the striking younger scientist featured in all of the publicity about the virus blocker. If only he had met her then.
    “Oh, Ada,” he breathed. He had been patient, and now his prey was almost trapped. The thought excited him, and he thought this might be a good time to seal the deal by servicing the old witch. His hands moved towards the fastening on her blouse as he touched his lips to her neck.
    Then Dr. Klein’s cellphone chimed. To Enrico it sounded like an explosion. She had it set to produce different tones for each caller on her contact list. It was an efficient way to filter calls without having to retrieve her phone each time. Enrico moved his hands to massage her shoulders, hoping she would ignore it.
    She pulled herself away with an effort. “That’s Ms. Stone.” Immediately her expression changed from the flushed look of a woman in the heat of passion to a stern and professional mask.
    “W hat can Pam Stone want?” Enrico said. “She can handle the lab a bit longer, can’t she? Everything else is in order.” His voice was almost plaintive. “You said we’d have three hours.”
    “Enrico, this experiment is very important,” D r. Klein said. “I can’t afford to have a student ruin it.” She rose to read the text message that was sent just after the attempted call. Dr. Klein sighed and shook her head. “I have to go. Can we continue this discussion at dinner tonight?”
    “Why do we have to wait?” Enrico asked, trying hard to plead with his eyes. “I want you now. I want to spend the rest of the day knowing that you have agreed to be my wife.”
    Dr. Klein remained firm . “Perhaps you could grill up some wonderful vegetable kabobs for supper later and we will enjoy ourselves at our leisure. If you don’t feel like cooking, maybe we can order out. There’s a nice little Greek Deli called The Mediterranean in my neighborhood with vegetarian platters fit for a prince. I ordered them last night for supper, but they are so good I could enjoy them every day. The actual cafe closes their inside seating after lunch, but the owner will deliver dinner if I ask. Apparently my virus blocker vaccine saved his mother’s life a few years ago, and he has vowed eternal gratitude.”
    “So, I have a rival,” Enrico said with mock sincerity. “We may have to duel.”
    “Well, he certainly knows his way around a kitchen. You might have a rival if he wasn’t almost as wide as he is tall,” Dr. Klein said. “He is an excellent cook, and he’s actually fairly interesting on the scale of deli owners, but I prefer my men a bit slimmer. His parents came from Greece, and the irony is his name is Hercules.”
    “ This Hercules sounds like an interesting character. Well, to assuage my jealousy over Hercules, if everything goes well today, would you consider taking a vacation day off tomorrow?” Enrico asked.
    “I’ll consider it. We have a lot to get past today, you know. I might have to wait until next week until I can afford to take off.”
    Enrico doubted that Dr. Klein would ever actually take a working day off unless she was so sick or injured she could not rise from her bed. She really is not so young any longer, and she seems the type who might work herself into an early grave. Of course, that might be convenient for him as well. Once he had married her, perhaps his South American connections could even assist him with that too. He believed they had access to poisons that could effectively mimic disease and eventually cause an early demise.
    Poor Dr. Klein, a world famous scientist, might be found at the office in the morning. Enrico imagined headlines in the newspaper and all over the Internet. She would have stayed to work late and suffered an apparent heart attack from stress and overwork.
    He wondered how long he would have to maintain their marriage so nobody would be suspicious that he was anything other than her grieving husband.