Thread: Can She Rise To The Challenge (google and skittish_butterfly)

As Michael forced his way into Katherine's recital of her terms and conditions, interrupting them with annoyingly sensible answers that gutted her objections and left her situation feeling even more vulnerable, her mind kept thinking. Her mind was supposed to come up with brilliant retorts, but when the light of inspiration struck and the product of her background thoughts blurted from her lips, she was shocked to hear herself announce lavender. She blinked and looked down for a moment, then mumbled slightly sheepishly, I just... the safety thing... that's... she trailed off uncomfortably, remembering for some reason the scented bath oil she'd used the night before. Was that a hint of it in the office's air? No, just her imagination. What had triggered it? There had to be some explanation. I'm sorry, go on. And so she gave him permission to go on deconstructing her carefully constructed case, all because her brain couldn't resist a little puzzle, so eager to show off the answer. Why would she even spend a second thinking about a word she wouldn't ever use? She blinked away her annoyance with herself, willing herself to pay attention to his words again, finding the weaknesses in his arguments too important to give up on just because of one screw up. Persistence, that was always the key. The problem, at least with the 3-use rule, was that she couldn't see a way around his point. He wasn't claiming the right to do anything, just saying if she had to use it three times, it was over. It was infuriatingly reasonable. She felt a familiar ache behind her eyes as he went on, then slipped her glasses off as she realized she'd been wearing longer than she should for farther distance viewing. Katherine rubbed the bridge of her nose and shifted in her chair again as she dropped the glasses into her purse, realizing now they didn't help at all with him. The legality thing seemed to trouble him less than her, mainly because he had a team of lawyers where she had only her own untrained opinions, and was admittedly just trying to be argumentative enough he would decide it wasn't worth bothering with her. Then the time issue. Of course he needed more, which is why she wanted less. Well, about the time Michael. I understand you could say that you think I won't need the exercise on my own time because I'll do it here, but, ok well, maybe that makes a little sense, but you don't realize how much exercise I do. And to imply I'm not in shape is kind of insulting really. It's not a matter of an hour a week, it's regular serious exercise pretty much every day, so I don't think I need you to be supervising my physical condition. But lets just say -- for arguments sake only -- that I did one of those exercise hours with you during the week, I don't think there's anyway you can justify taking a big part of my weekend. You keep mentioning you went to the university too, as if it matters, but surely you know how important it is to have time on the weekend to get rid of the stress of a long study week, maybe study a little but mostly to recharge batteries, right? So surely you see I need my weekend to myself. So proud of having gone to University and clearly learning so little there, and now having it turned against him. Katherine felt just a little of her momentum coming back. She picked up the paper again, not really needing the glasses except for intense study of small print. She checked off item after item, covering problems ranging from liability coverage for injury, to food and other incidentals that would be considered essential, to gas expenses for her travel, to holidays, and more. She looked up, hoping to see a defeated look in his face as she turned the paper over. Do you want to respond to those right now, or wait until I finish the second side?