DeMario took a cup of coffee offered by Pete. “Pete and I will do another recon this morning to see what the damage was last night. It is kind of strange how everything quieted down after midnight.”
Pete sipped his coffee. “Yeah, but I think everyone just got dug in, waiting for the real action to start.”
Ed parked his Citroen at the apartment complex. He then walked up to a door and pushed the doorbell.
“Good morning Ed. Come on in, I was just finishing packing.” Pauline caught Ed staring at her three suitcases and smiled. She was dressed in a green backless and tight dress that accentuated her perfect breasts, the fitness of her bottom, and her shapely legs. “It is all about choices. This dress is not very warm if it gets cold.”
Ed had to work to control his breathing, seeing Pauline looking so good in her tight dress. “My car doesn’t have air conditioning and it is already almost 90 out. The northeasterly will be blowing warm air into Oakland. You will be fine.” Ed had to admit that it would really feed his ego to be seen with someone as attractive as Pauline.
Pauline leaned up, put her arms around Ed’s neck, pulled his head down, and deeply kissed him. Ed picked her up by her bottom and passionately returned the kiss. Pauline looked Ed deeply in the eyes. “Being here in my apartment, if we are trying to take it a little slower, we better get going to Oakland. Or we won’t be going slow any more. I can’t resist much longer.”
Ed smiled and set her back down. “You are right. It would be too easy to let our passion take control. We should savor our falling in love. It isn’t every day that this kind of thing happens. You are becoming everything to me.”
Pauline had to work very hard to resist kissing him again. Doing so would make her lose all control and then they would not be going to Oakland any time soon. “I think of you all day and all night.”
“I think of you constantly. I really look forward to spending the day with you.”
Joe and Elise cruised along in the fast lane of the freeway in El Zin, their customized 1956 Chevy hot rod panel truck. The tuned exhaust rumbled deeply, hinting at the horsepower under the hood, and that this was no ordinary truck. Of course the chrome tips on the 3-inch diameter twin exhaust, and the chrome wheels with wide meats on the rear rather flashed that this truck had something more. Elise rolled her window up to cut down on the wind and exhaust noise so that she could talk “This is awesome to get a gold medal and best of class for this event. The competition is pretty stiff.”
Joe smiled at his wife. “You know, you just get more beautiful every year.”
Elise blew him a kiss and then got more serious. “Has the effects of the two wines completely worn off yet?”
“It wore off sometime during the night. I am feeling absolutely no effects.”
“How much of that wine is in the tunnel?”
“It really is more of a multi chambered room than a tunnel, but there are several hundred bottles of different wines and at least 30 barrels. I am really not sure of the count of the different types of wine. There is also a door in the back of the main room that I have not yet been able to open. I have no idea what is behind it.”
Elise brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Wow, you haven’t shared that with me yet! How many volumes of old books and notes are there?”
Joe suddenly felt guilty and somewhat trapped. He had not shared his explorations at the Wine Witch with Elise. “Lots, none of them in English. There….is something else I haven’t told you.” Joe took a deep breath. “I have figured out some of what is in those notes with some outside help.”