Cat in a hot pink Pursuit

want to hit the spa?”
    “Sort of the idea.”
    I could use it myself but... there are reasons. Why don’t I just open the wine. You can get warmed up in all that hot water?”
    Actually, she was getting pretty warmed up without the aid of a hot tub.
    She changed into her suit in the guest bathroom, then brought the basket out to the deck where an underwater Blue Hawaii light lit the bubbling hot water from below. Heavenly!
    Temple hadn’t realized how worried she’d been about her impromptu expedition to Max’s turf until she slipped under the hot water. Aaaah. Who would have thought the young woman had so much tension in her?
    Two bubbles of glassware appeared on the drink indentations built into the spa’s side. Red wine, gleaming like Burmese rubies. Max sat on the hot tub lip.
    He tugged at her one blue velvet shoulder strap. “Can velvet get wet?”
    “Modern miracle, spandex for water babies.”
    He chuckled and offered her a cracker with cheese from her CARE basket.
    “I wasn’t sure you’d still be up,” she said.
    He gave that remark the long pause any inadvertent double entendre deserved.
    She laughed and sipped room-temperature wine, which felt cool compared to the hot tub.
    “I’m glad you came,” he replied soberly, in kind.
    “We seem to have been passing like ships in the night lately.”
    “Agreed.” Max sipped from his wineglass, then spoke. Soberly. “I’m working up a new act. It’s secret. That’s why I’ve been so distracted. So absent.”
    “Ummm.” She put her wet arms up to clasp his still-clothed ones, cables of steel. “No wonder you feel like Superman. That’s wonderful! Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “I don’t know when I’ll be ready to make it public. Maybe not for... months. It takes—”
    “Discipline. Zen mania. Max! This is great news. I thought—”
    “What?”
    “That you’d lost interest in... things.”
    “In magic, or you? Never you. Am I now breaking my thirty-five-year-old back to make waves in the magic game? Yes. Guilty. I can’t say when my new apprenticeship will end. I have to make a spectacular comeback.”
    “Of course. I’m so glad. I thought you’d given up on magic.”
    “No.”
    “Well then.” Temple snuggled down into the churning water. The aquatic blue light reminded her of something? The Blue Light special at Kmart? “I have to tell you. I may be AWOL myself for, oh, a couple weeks or so.”
    “So long? Really?”
    She nodded, her chin dipping into a froth of bubbles.
    “I have to... go home. Minnesota. My dad. A minor cardiac thing. A stent? Anyway, they want me there.”
    “Of course.” He kissed the top of her head. “I hope your father is all right. I’ll miss you,” he said.
    What a liar she was! She didn’t deserve sympathy! At least Max wouldn’t worry about her.
    “I’m sorry, Temple.” His voice vibrated somewhere above her head but she felt it in her heart. “Things will be better later, won’t they?”
    “Absolutely. And now... they’re just perfect.”
    “Just perfect.” He pulled away to lift his wineglass as her fingers curled around the stem of hers. They drank ruby velvet.
    “Get in,” she said. “You don’t need a suit.”
    “Can’t. I’ve got a midnight appointment.”
    “With whom?” She hadn’t meant to sound sharp, she was just surprised.
    Max trailed a hand in the warm, bubbling water. It ran UP her arm. “I’m working out in secret. Using the Caped Conjuror’s home setup while he’s dazzling the second-show set at the New Millennium. I can’t stay.”
    “But—”
    “But there’s no reason you can’t stay here and enjoy the spa. The door will lock automatically on your way out.”
    “I didn’t come here just to enjoy the bubbles.”
    “I know. And do you think I’ll enjoy several hours of working out twenty-five feet above a terrazzo floor on bungee cords?”
    “Max! It sounds—”
    “Dangerous? Yes, what I’m doing is dangerous, Temple.” His blue eyes looked opaque, black against the night’s own darkness.
    “But spectacular.”
    Max laughed. “If you mean I could make a spectacle of myself.... Comebacks are hell, Temple. You have to give up a lot, including your dignity. And a private life.” He bent down to kiss her. Her fingerprints made darker blots on his black sleeves.
    “Rain check? Ciao.”
    It almost never rained in Vegas but when it did, it was a gully washer.
    Temple floated in the spa’s programmed turmoil, feeling her internal