Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

CHAPTER 32"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."-Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower-"SO WHERE HAVE you been all day?" Melissa asked as Brian let her into hisroom."Here, just like the last couple of days," he answered, taking visual inventory ofher as she made her way to the couch, "although I slept to almost two o'clock today."Melissa crossed her legs underneath a wrap-around jean skirt after she was seated. Thewhite, floral short-sleeved pullover accented her bustline. White ankle-high socks andtennis shoes completed the casual ensemble. Brian tried hard not to look very long."Good grief—why?""I was up until about five this morning.""Let me guess studying?"He nodded."Making any progress?" she asked."Actually . . . not much.""How come?""I started out okay, but only because I went back and re-checked the exegesis ofall the texts I used in my infamous article. I'm just bogged down now in researching allthe rabbis' and church fathers' opinions on the question of other worlds. If I'm going toconvince Christian and Jewish leadership that they ought to embrace an extraterrestrialreality with open arms, I've got to be able to show the idea's consistent with their bestthinkers of the past. Problem is, I'm not a church historian . . . my library really doesn'tcover much of that sort of thing either.""Now who do we know who might be able to help?" she asked, feigningignorance."Sorry ... I guess I should have just asked you for some books.""Too late now, but it wouldn't have mattered much anyway.""Why is that?" he asked, puzzled by the refusal."I don't loan my books; you lose too many that way.""I would hope you'd trust me.""Nope.""No?""No," she confirmed, making no attempt to conceal her amusement."Okay ..." he said, catching on. "What do I need to do to borrow some?""Nothing. I already told you I don't give any of them out. It's a firm policy."Brian looked at her, dumbfounded."You may, however," she laughed, "come to my room and use as many as youlike for as long as you wish. How does that sound?""Well . . . are you sure?"284