Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

meaningful thing I've ever done."Melissa leaned forward and embraced him again. Brian could feel her warn bodyshiver. She was weeping, and the realization moved him to tears again as well. He put hisarm around her, and the two of them held each other without exchange, overcome byemotion. Finally, Melissa silently released him and pulled back just far enough to beholdhis face. They looked into each other's reddened, tear-soaked eyes."We're a pair, aren't we?" Brian smiled sheepishly.Suddenly the door, located behind Melissa, creaked open. "Time to feed theinmates," a nurse announced jovially as she awkwardly pushed a cart into the room. "I . .. uh . . . hope I'm not interrupting anything.""No," Melissa sniffed and wiped her eyes with a tissue. She looked at the wallclock. "1 guess 1'd better go for lunch, too—oh, I almost forgot!" she said, sliding off thebed. She picked her purse up off the floor next to the chair, but waited to open it until thenurse had set everything up for Brian and gone on her way."I brought you something and don't laugh.""Okay, " Brian agreed, growing curious."There ' s no place in this God-forsaken `Facility' to get any flowers, but I managedto scrounge this up," she said proudly, extracting a single white carnation, the stem bentin two places, from her purse."Thank you," Brian grinned, "I've never gotten a flower before.""Maybe you still haven't; it's pretty hammered. I sort of ... borrowed it from thearrangement in the cafeteria one of the cooks brought in.""It's great," he said appreciatively."I need to get going.""Are you planning on coming back?" he asked, hoping."Of course. Do you want me to bring anything from your room? Maybe a book?The Colonel has given the MPs permission to let Andrew and me do that under theirsupervision.""No . . . we can just talk.""About what?""Anything."238