Smoke in Mirrors

were to be savored and appreciated.
    You’d think she was a teenager greeting her date for the prom. But she was no high-school senior and Thomas was definitely not a boy. He was a man in every sense of the word and that knowledge filled her with deep, feminine joy.
    She opened the door. “You look fabulous.”
    He appeared slightly startled and then amused by the compliment.
    “Amazing what a suit will do for a man,” he said.
    She shook her head a single time and stepped back. “What’s amazing is what you do to that suit.”
    “Thanks.” His gaze moved slowly, deliberately down the length of her green dress, all the way to her strappy high heels and then climbed back up to her mouth. “But you’re the one who looks good enough to eat. Maybe later?”
    She blushed. “If you’re still hungry.”
    “I will be.”
    He handed her the foiled package.
    “For me?” She took the gift from his hand. “Thank you.”
    “Decided I’d take a lesson from my dog. He’s always giving you things.”
    She tested the weight of the gift. Much too heavy to be lingerie, jewelry or note paper, she decided. Curiosity consumed her. She ripped into the red foil.
    To her surprise, the paper did not come off as easily as expected. The unusual gray sealing tape held the edges of the foil securely in place.
    She pried at the tape with her fingernails. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a package wrapped quite like this.”
    “I did it myself. Got the paper at the card shop.”

    She plucked harder at the sealing tape. “Is that where you got this super-sticky tape, too?”
    “No. I had that at home.”
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”
    “Duct tape,” Thomas said.
    “Ah. That explains it.” She finally got rid of the last of the red foil and the duct tape. She looked down at the black plastic case in her hands. “It’s lovely.”
    “Open it.”
    She unsnapped the catch and raised the lid. A row of graduated screwdrivers and a variety of other small tools, each neatly nestled in a specially molded plastic slot, gleamed in all their stainless steel glory.
    “They’re beautiful.” She did not take her eyes off the handsome tools. “Absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never seen such a lovely set of tools.”
    Thomas was pleased. “You really like them?”
    “I love them. No one ever gave me anything like this before. They’re perfect.”
    “Yeah, well, it’s a pretty basic set, but I think it will handle most of the routine jobs. The smallest screwdriver should work on your glasses.”
    She closed the lid of the tool kit, latched it carefully and set it down on the coffee table. She straightened and kissed Thomas lightly on the mouth.
    “Thank you,” she said softly. “I wish I had a gift for you.”
    “You’re all the present I want. But I’ll wait until later to unwrap you.”
    “Thomas, there’s something I have to tell you.”
    He paused, a little wary now. “What’s that?”
    “I think you would make an excellent father.”
    He just stared at her.
    She took his hand and led him to the door.

    Some time later Leonora found herself standing alone in the relative calm of a small alcove on the edge of the dance floor. She was waiting for Thomas to return from the buffet table with some food.
    The transformation of Mirror House was complete. There was no sign of the organized chaos that had reigned on the ground floor during the past few days. In its place was a glittering scene that could have come straight out of the Gilded Age. The handsome reception rooms were filled with elegantly dressed alumni, members of the faculty and their guests. The heavy wooden furnishings, together with the red velvet draperies and carpets, glowed richly in the light of the chandeliers. The walls of mirrors reflected the crowd in a series of dazzling, endlessly repeating images that seemed to stretch into infinity.
    Roberta, clad in a gray silk suit and adorned with a single row of pearls, came to a halt beside Leonora and surveyed her production with evident satisfaction.
    “I was a little worried for a while that the events of the last few days would put a damper on tonight,” she confided. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Everyone appears to be having a good time.”
    “You’d certainly never guess that one of Eubanks College’s most esteemed faculty members had murdered several people and then committed suicide.”
    “In fairness, many of these people are out-of-town