"What do you mean you were almost killed?!?" yelled Dee Hunter at her husband. "You were supposed to be taking a vacation day! You're just a magnet for disaster, aren't you?" She was venting all her anger at him in one huge avalanche of scolding accusations. "And why didn't you call me? It's been a week! I was worried sick!"
"Now, Dee, calm down," admonished Rick Hunter, trying for the tenth time to reassure his wife that everything was all right. "I'm fine, and I couldn't call you because the comm tower was knocked out by the shockwave. I stayed a few extra days in order to help organize the recovery teams. No one was seriously hurt, thanks to the quick reactions of a few locals and some adepts from the Guild."
An involuntary shudder crept its icy fingers up Dee's spine at the mention of the Guild neo-sorcerers. "Those people give me the creeps," she said, wrapping her arms about herself as if suddenly struck by a chill.
"Oh, I dunno," mused Rick, a sly grin turning up the corners of his mouth. "Maybe you just have to get to know them better. It's not really 'magic', you know."
"I know. Still…"
"They seemed perfectly nice to me," continued Rick, "and the blonde one was even pretty cute."
Dee's eyes opened wide. "What?" she sputtered, advancing on her husband again. "I think I'm beginning to understand why you've been gone a week, you dirty letch!"
Rick raised his hands to ward off the verbal assault he knew was imminent, but the smile he fought to keep under control was peeking through the deliberately serious façade he'd erected. Dee noticed and stopped her advance, realizing she'd been had.
"Why, I oughta knock your block off, you big moron!" she said, a smile forming on her own lips in response to the mischievous grin on her husband's face. She felt the anger over her husband's cavalier attitude toward his near-death melt away, diffused and robbed of its potency by a simple lame comment. Once again, Rick had defused a sticky situation with that damned charm of his. How does he always get away with that with me? she wondered for the thousandth time, but she knew the answer.
She stepped closer to Rick and this time he didn't back away in mock fear, and wrapped her arms around him. Looking up into his eyes, she said sincerely, "I love you."
"I love you too," replied Rick, meaning it.
"What say you try and steer clear of any and all future falling meteors though, huh?"
"Deal."
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