Late Tuesday night, Susie used her office keys to enter the office building of her former employer. Only a few lights were on, but it was enough for her to see where she needed to go. Besides, she didn’t want to call attention to the fact someone was in the building after hours, especially, someone who wasn’t even an employee any longer. She went to Ambria’s office and entered it, then pointed her flashlight towards the computer.

She walked to the desk, sat down in the chair, and turned on the computer. Once it was up and running, she promptly began to delete all the files, every single one of them, laughing each time she hit the delete button. When she finished, she went to the computer’s trash bin, and deleted all the files there as well. She would love to see Ambria try to explain to her boss why all her files had suddenly disappeared. She shut down the computer, then retraced her steps out of the building, smiling all the way to her car.

* * *

Wednesday morning Vernon went into the office an hour early to work on the project Ambria had been working on, which needed to be completed by Friday. He sat down at Ambria’s desk and logged onto her computer, but when he went to find the file he needed, he couldn’t find it. In fact, there wasn’t one single file on in her computer.

“That’s strange. There should be at least twenty files here. What could Ambria have done with them? I wonder if she moved them to another location,” he said aloud, then clicked on several different locations on the computer, but couldn’t find one single Word or Excel file. By this time, he was furious.

“If she thinks by hiding files, she’s going to keep me from checking on her work, she’s about to find out concealing those files has been a waste of her time.” He grabbed the phone and dialed Ambria’s cell phone, not caring he’d probably wake her up. He rapidly tapped his finger on the desk as he waited for her to answer.

When her cell phone rang on the bedside table, she jerked awake, knowing it was too early for anyone she knew to be calling for a friendly chat. When looked at the caller ID, she saw it was someone calling from her desk. How strange!

“Who is it?” Dustin called out sleepily.

“Someone is calling from my extension at work. Hello?” Ambria asked, her heart still pounding in her chest.

“Do you want to tell me where you’ve hidden the MacDonald file?” Vernon asked her angrily.

“Vernon?” she inquired slowly, surprised to receive a call from her own boss. Now that she was living Amanda’s life, she didn’t understand was why Vernon was calling her, instead of Amanda’s boss? If she’d transformed into Amanda’s life, then shouldn’t it be Irwin calling her. What did this mean? Vernon’s call made her wonder whose life she would be living once they returned home.

“Ambria are you still there?”

“Do you know what time it is?”

“It’s about seven in the morning. Now quit stalling,” he said when she didn’t response to his question.

It wasn’t seven here where she was, but she couldn’t very well tell him she was in a different time zone than he was. If she told him that, he would ask where she was, and maybe even ask whom she was with. “I’m not stalling. I’m just trying to figure out what you’re talking about.” Of course, she was familiar with the file, but unsure why he was calling her about it.

“I want to know where the MacDonald file is.”

“Well I certainly didn’t hide it. It’s where it has always been.”

“Refresh my memory to where that is,” he stated hatefully.

“Where are you?”

“Where do you think I am? I’m sitting at your computer,” he replied angrily.

“Look under My Documents,” she told him, thinking he was a complete idiot.

“Ambria, there isn’t anything there.”

“That can’t be possible,” she replied bewildered to how and why the file was missing.

“I’m looking at your computer right now and there isn’t one single file here, not one. You want to tell me what we’re going to do about the MacDonald file if we have to redo the entire project.”

“Vernon, don’t worried about that right now, I have everything backed up on my thumb drive. If I was you, I’d be more worried about who has deleted all my files.”

“Let me get this straight. You want me to believe you didn’t have anything to these files being missing.”

“Of course I didn’t. How stupid do you think I am? If I lost all my work, I’d be out of a job.” Then the idea of who could have removed all those documents came to her. “Is there anyway Susie Wright could have gotten into the office and done this to my computer?” After she asked her question, she wondered if she had given the wrong name as maybe Susie Wright hadn’t ever worked at their company.

“Why would she want to do that?”

So far, so good, she thought. “Because she might think I had something to do with her getting fired.” Again, she wondered if she’d said the right thing or not.

“Did you?” he asked, slowly putting the piece of the puzzle together as of why Susie wasn’t working at the company any longer.

“No, I didn’t,” she quickly retorted loudly.

“Well, you don’t have to get so livid about it.” Vernon waited for her to respond to why the woman had been fired, but the end of the phone line remained quiet. “You know why she was fired, don’t you?”

“Vernon, if you want to know why, then you’re going to have to ask Rob Clayton about it,” she said. Yet again, wondering if she’d said the right thing since Rob was the President of Amanda and Dustin’s company, not theirs. She shook her head, as somehow people in her life and characters from a book were intermingling, which made all this that much harder for her to keep straight. If she didn’t go crazy by the time this phone call was over with, she would be lucky.

“But you do know why?” he asked, willing to bet his last dollar she knew something about it.

Since he didn’t correct her, she assumed the name had been correct. “Yes, I do.”

“Fine, don’t tell me about Susie. Just tell me what I’m going to do about your files.”

She sighed with relief he didn’t inquire any more about why Susie had been fired. “I keep my thumb drive in the filing cabinet closest to the windows and it’s lying in the very back of the drawer. Your key for the cabinet should be in your desk drawer. By the way, the MacDonald file is finished and the printed copy is on your desk.”

“When do you think you’ll be in?”

She didn’t know if he was being derogatory or simply asking a question about her returning to work. “Vernon, I’ll be in first thing Monday morning,” she murmured, again wondering if she’d said the right thing or not.

“Make sure you’re here on time too.”

“I will.” She hung up the phone, and then laid it back down on the table. She fell back on her pillow, exhausted by trying to watch what she said to Vernon.

“Do you want to talk about the phone call?”

“Can't it wait until later?” she asked as she looked over at the man next to her.

“Sure.” Dustin had heard enough of her conversation with Vernon to know Susie had somehow sabotage her computer. He decided he would have to call Rob Clayton later this morning to tell him about Susie deleting Ambria’s files.

After breakfast, Dustin called Rob about Ambria’s computer, and a few hours later Rob called back to tell Dustin the company surveillance cameras tapes had shown who had entered the building late last night and went into Ambria’s office, and it had been Susie Wright all right. Rob called the police, then called for a locksmith to change the locks on all the outside doors, to prevent anyone from entering that didn’t belong there.

* * *

The rest of the week went quickly for them as they saw several shows, gambled a few times, and even rented a car and took a drive around the city. Each evening when they returned to their room, they filled the night with lovemaking and talking about their future. Sunday, their last morning in Las Vegas, they slept in, made love, and then they went for breakfast. When they returned to their room, they spent the rest of the morning in the hot tub. After lunch, they made love again, then they packed and left for the airport and an hour later, they were in the air on their way home.

It was after their plane had landed in Kansas City that Ambria realized she didn’t know where they were going to live. Had he and Amanda talked about it? She thought back to what she’d read when Dustin had asked Amanda to marry him and couldn’t remember if they had discussed it. She couldn’t very well ask him if they had, for it would make him wonder about her sanity, so she remained silent.

As they waited for the tram to pick them up to returned them to Dustin’s car, he talked about returning to work tomorrow, wondering if people were aware of why Susie no longer working there. The more he talked, the more scared Ambria became at wondering about her own job.

Since Susie, Rob Clayton, and Dustin were all from the same company, she simply assumed she would be doing Amanda’s, but since Vernon had called her after she’d been transported into Amanda’s life, did that mean she was still working at her own job? Since she’d physically changed places with Amanda, she doubted that was the case. So what did the call from Vernon indicate? She shook her head as if it would clear out all the confusing thoughts.

She wondered what would happen once she arrived at Amanda’s office tomorrow. Could she fool everyone into thinking she belonged there? She doubted she could, as how would she recognize Amanda’s coworkers? She knew they wouldn’t be wearing nametags, and she certainly couldn’t very well ask their names.

Dustin glanced over at her, surprised to see her terrified expression. “Now what’s worrying you?”

“I’m thinking about work.”

“What about it?”

“Will I know how to do my job?” she asked without considering of how it would sound to him.

“Of course you will. You’ve been there long enough to know how to do your job.” He laughed, as he squeezed her hand. “You were only gone for a week.”

When she realized how what she’d said must have sounded to him, she immediately turned to look at him and gave him a weak smile. “I’m afraid I’ll be too nervous to concentrate.” It was the truth, at least part of it.

“I’m sure only a few people are aware of why Susie isn’t working there anymore.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” Ambria’s thoughts changed directions as she began thinking this strange occurrence would end soon, and once again, she would just be reading about Dustin and his life with his new wife. The thought of losing him, petrified her and she grabbed hold of his hand.

She couldn’t wait for them to return to her apartment, as she had to know how the book ended. Was she to stay with him and live the rest of her live with him? She wondered if the couple’s picture on the book would still be of Dustin and Amanda, or would it be her on the cover with him. Maybe once she saw the cover of the book; it would tell her what she needed to know.

Ambria was concentrating so deeply on her situation; she didn’t notice Dustin pulling to her apartment parking lot. When the car stopped, she looked up and gasped, for she’d expected them to be at Amanda’s apartment, not hers.

“Ambria, what’s wrong?” He was concern about her as she’d been acting strangely since waking the morning after they were married.

She turned and gave him a weak smile. “I’m surprise we’re here.”

He gave her bewildered look. “Where else would we be?”

“I meant that we’ve arrived at my place so soon,” she mumbled quickly trying to cover her blunder.

“I know we didn’t decide much that day other than to get married, but I just assume we’d live at my house. I stopped here so you could pack up some of your belongings to take with us.”

Ambria quickly tried to think if Amanda had been at his house, but as far as she could remember, Amanda hadn’t ever been there. “I don’t mind living at your place. My lease will be up next month, but maybe they’ll let me out of it a few weeks early.”

“Did you want to stay here tonight or pack a few things to take over to my house?”

“I’ll pack some clothes for tomorrow and then we can go to your place.”

They got out of the car and Dustin took her keys from her as they walked to the door of her apartment. He opened the door, then moved back so she could enter first. She entered, then quickly looked around the living room, relieved to see everything was the same as it was the last time she’d seen it.

“I’ll just be a minute. Make yourself comfortable while I grab a few things.” She left him in the living room, then rushed into her bedroom to find her book. She searched the bed, but when she didn’t see it, she figured it must have fallen off the bed. She went around to the other side of the bed, sighing when she found the book face down on the floor.

Ambria picked up the book and swiftly turned it over. The book had the same title, but that was all. A frown of confusion filled her face, as the cover and the characters were different, it wasn’t the same story she’d been reading before she’d ended up in Dustin’s bed in Las Vegas.

She sat down on the bed with the book still in her hand, trying to figure out what this change meant. Was she going crazy? Tears appeared in her eyes, as she was afraid she was losing her mind. She was still sitting there when Dustin came into the room to see what was taking her so long to pack her bag.

When he saw her tears, he rushed over to her. “Sweetheart, why are you crying?” He sat down beside her, but when she just shook her head, he pulled her into a tight embrace. “If you don’t want to move away from your apartment, we can stay here and I’ll sell my house.”

She shook her head again. “No, that isn’t why I’m crying.”

He gazed down at her hand and saw her book. “Does it have anything to do with your book?” All she could do was nod in response. “Isn’t it any good?” She sniffled, but still didn’t respond. He reached over to her bedside table, grabbed a tissue, and handed it to her.

“Thank you.” Ambria took the tissue from him and blew her nose. “I can’t explain it and even if I tried, it wouldn’t make any sense to you,” she said, her voice sounding small and helpless.

Dustin was baffled to how to comfort her, afraid of how to handle this situation without making matters worse. They really didn’t know much about each other and he didn’t want to make the mistake of making her mad. “Is there something I can do to make you feel better?”

“You could kiss me,” she said shyly, turning to look deeply into his eyes.

She wanted to make sure he was here with her and not just some sort of figment of her imagination. She dropped the book as he reached for her. One minute he was kissing her, and the next minute they were making love in her bed. Afterward they laid there with Ambria’s head on his chest, each trying to catch their breath.

“My God, woman, you’re going to be the death of me yet.”

Ambria giggled. “I guess that means we won’t be having sex ever again.”

He turned over and grabbed her in a tight embrace. “That’s the last thing I want to happen.”

She smiled at him. “I guess we better get dressed so I can start my packing.”

“You feel better?” he asked, referring to her earlier outbreak of tears.

“I feel wonderful,” she dreamingly.

“So, you don’t feel like crying anymore?”

“Nope,” she said, her eyes sparkling at him.

“I still don’t understand why the book had you so upset.”

“It really isn’t important.” There wasn’t any way for her to explain about the book, not anything that would make sense to him anyways.

He looked closely at her. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ll take a few things with us tonight to last the week, then this weekend, I’ll pack up the rest my belongings.” She was quiet for a moment, thinking about what to do with the rest of her belongings. “I’m not sure what to do about my furniture. Will we need any of it at your place?” she asked without thinking how it would sound to him, because if she’d ever been there, she would know the answer to her question.

He laughed. “That’s right; you’ve never seen my place. So far all I’ve done is to buy a bed for the master bedroom.”

Ambria just stared at him. “What about your furniture before you bought the house?”

He looked sheepishly at her. “I was living at college for the last four years, staying with my parents in Chicago during the summer. So when I got this job, I bought the house and moved down here, buying only the bed once I moved in the house.”

“Why haven’t you bought any furniture?”

“I met some woman at work and she’s kept me too busy to go shopping.”

She giggled at his comment. “Maybe we should stay here until we can move my furniture to your house.”

“I’ll tell you what. Tomorrow, I’ll hire movers to come over here while we’re at work to pack everything up and move it all to my place.”

Ambria looked around her bedroom and frowned. Did she really didn’t want some strange men packing her underwear and other personal items? “Let me pack some of my unmentionables and then the movers can pack the rest.”

“I’ll run out to get some boxes, then when I get back, I’ll help you pack,” he said, then gave her an ornery smile. “Unless you don’t want me to see those unmentionables either?”

She laughed. “You’ve seen me naked, so I don’t think there’ll be a problem if you saw my underwear.”

“We’ll take a small load over to my place tonight.”

“Do you have any dishes, silverware, or cookware?”

“Not a single piece,” he said, his face turning a bit red with embarrassment at her know this.

She looked at him strangely. “Then how have you been eating?”

“So far, I’ve been eating out for lunch and dinner.”+

“Don’t you eat breakfast?”

“I bought some cereal bars, several small cans of juice, and that’s it.”

“I guess you have enough for me to have something in the morning?”

“Yes, I have plenty.”

“Go get the boxes and while you’re gone, I’ll put what I want to pack tonight on the bed.”

“May I have a kiss before I go?”

“No,” she stated, giving him a serious expression, as she stepped back from him.

He put his hand over his heart. “You’ve wounded me.”

“Just go. The sooner you leave, the sooner we can get this stuff moved and go to bed.”

He laughed. “A woman with the same thoughts as I have.”

“I didn’t say anything about having sex, just about going to bed.” Her eyes were filled with merriment as her thoughts had been on sex with her new husband.

“How about if you pull out your dresser drawers, then we’ll move them over to the house that way.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Why should I do that?”

“Then I wouldn’t have to go out to get boxes and we can leave for the house that much sooner,” he replied, his eyes sparkling as he glazed at her.

She shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re still thinking you’re going to get sex when we get to your place.”

“Newly married and already she’s telling me no,” he said, with a fake whine, while putting his hand over his heart.

“I guess once we’re at your place, you could try to persuade me to change my mind,” she said, stroking her finger down the side of his face.

“How would you suggest I go about it?” he asked, stepping to move his body next to hers.

She moved her arms around his neck, pushing her body closer to his as she began nuzzling his neck. “If I have to tell you, then I think our marriage is in trouble,” she told him softly in his ear.

He grinned at her teasing. “Could you give me a little hint?” he joked back.

“I do like the sight of your naked butt.”

“I thought so,” he whispered just before he moved his lips to hers.

After the newlyweds made love, again, Dustin ran out to get boxes for her breakable items, while Ambria pulled out the drawers of her dresser and moved them to the front door. When she was done, she called her mother to tell her they were home. Melanie told her she wanted to meet her new son-in-law, and Ambria told her they would come over after they were settled.

When Dustin returned, they decided to move the dishes themselves since Ambria didn’t want to worry about anything getting broken. After the coffee pot and a can of coffee were stuffed into a box, they moved into the living room to start on Ambria’s delicate statues that had once had belonged to her grandmother.

Ambria carefully wrapped each figurine in newspaper, then set them down into a blanket-filled box. After she was satisfied with the packing they’d accomplished, they started putting her dresser drawers into Dustin’s car. When they ran out of room in his car, they began putting the rest into her vehicle. After her car was full as well, she decided the moving company could move the rest of her belongings.

She was anxious as she followed Dustin to his house in her car, her mind filled with questions about her situation, puzzled to why her book’s story had changed. Was this a sign indicating she was staying in this life? Or was this all really some sort of strange dream and one of these times when she woke, she would be back in her old life. The thought of losing Dustin saddened her and she began to cry.

When she saw Dustin pull into a driveway, she quickly grabbed a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her tears away as she didn’t want him to see them and start questioning why she’d been crying. She took a deep breath and let it out, and it seemed to calm her. She got out and started unloading the car as Dustin came over to help take her belongings into the house. When they were done with her car, they started on his.

When both cars were empty, and everything they’d brought over except the dresser drawers had been put away, Dustin took hold of her hand. “I think we need to break in that bed of mine.”

“The way we have sex, we may break it completely,” she whispered in his ear.

He pulled her into his arms. “I love you.”

She smiled at him. “I love you,” she said, and she meant it. How could that be possible? She had only known him for a week, certainly, that wasn’t long enough to have such intense emotions for this man.

He moved her backwards until the bed was against her knees. “This time is to help build up our appetite for dinner.” He pushed her down onto the bed, then jumped on top of her and started tickling her.

She smiled at him. “Dustin, how am I going to explain to the paramedics what happened to you when they come?”

“Just tell them I died a happy man,” he muttered, then he quickly rolled them over until she was on top.

She laughed at his silliness, but her mood swiftly changed as Dustin brought his lips to hers. Afterwards as she lay in his arms and ran her fingers through his chest hair. “Am I still alive?”

“Yes, you are. Now that we’ve done working, I’m taking you out for a nice dinner.”

“Dustin, I can cook something here for us.”

“No, we’re still on our honeymoon.”

Ambria smiled at him. “How long is this honeymoon of ours going to last?” she teased.

“At least until after we make love again.”

She giggled. “Are you trying for some sort of record for the most times in one day?”

“You better behave, or I may never let you out of my bed.”

“Are you planning on chaining me to it?” she joked back.

He gave her a thoughtful look. “Hey, that’s a good idea.”

Ambria lightly smacked his arm. “You think I’d stand by and let you do that?”

“Who knows what condition you’re going to be in after we make love again.”

His comment made her laugh again. “If I were you, I’d be more worrying about what condition you’ll be in after the next time.”

“You think I can’t make love to you five times in one day and not survive?”

“I think the last time was the sixth time, but I really haven’t been keeping track.”

“Well, then a good dinner should do us wonders to refresh us.”

“Are you sure we’ll feel like going to work tomorrow?”

“We may have to come home at lunch time and take a nap just to make it through the day.”

“Dustin Crenshaw, I’m not going to come home with you for lunch and have everyone at work know what we were doing.”

“We’re newlyweds, everyone is going to assume we’re doing just that every time we leave the office together.”

“I’m still not coming home with you at lunch time for sex. Talking about food, I think you’d better take me out to eat before I faint from hunger.”

“I can’t have that. Come on lazy bones; get your butt out of bed.”

“I have a feeling this marriage isn’t going to work,” she joked, smiling at their friendly banter.

“And why is that Mrs. Crenshaw?” he asked, nudging his new wife in her side with his finger.

“I’m being blamed for something that isn’t my fault.”

“You think it’s my fault you’re lying naked in my bed?”

“Yes, sir I do.”

“Okay, I’ll take the blame this time. Tell me how I can make it up to you.”

“A steak dinner should do it.”

“A steak dinner it shall be, but first I must insist you get dressed before I take you out of this house.”

“Then you’ll have to get dressed too.”

Dustin rolled on top of her so quickly she hadn’t been expecting it and let out a squeal. “Dustin, please not again.”

“Ambria, I just want you to know how much I love you,” he said, looking deeply into her eyes.

She smiled at him. “I know.”

“Do you know how happy you’ve made me by marrying me?” He put his hand on her face, and lightly stroked his fingers across face as he smiled down at her.

“So you don’t think we’ve made a mistake?” she asked, trying to sound serious.

Dustin’s smiled faded. “You think we have?”

When she saw his worried look, Ambria felt bad for taunting him. “Dustin, I was teasing you.”

“You’re sure?” he asked, not sure if she’d been teasing or not. “You can tell me if you think we’ve made a mistake.”

“I’m positive we haven’t. Now let’s get dress and go for dinner.”

“Right, because you’re going to need your strength for later,” he said, trying to keep from laughing.

She pushed him off her and got out of bed. “No more talk about sex until after dinner. We need to talk about work.”

“Work? Why would we want to talk about that place on our honeymoon?”

“Are we going to tell everyone we’re married?”

“No, we’ll let them all assume we’re having a hot sordid affair and living in sin,” he said seriously, then chuckled at her shocked expression. “Yes, we’ll tell them.” He gave her a happy grin, then took hold of her hand as they walked out of the bedroom to go to dinner.

They had a nice meal and while they ate, they talked about how they were going to tell their coworkers about their marriage. Once that was decided, she told him about her mother wanting to meet him and he said his parents, Delbert and Sharon wanted to meet her as well. He told her they would take a weekend and go see his parents as soon as they could arrange it. Ambria asked if they could take the train and Dustin said it sounded like fun.

While they were waiting for the check, Dustin held her hand and rubbed his fingers across the top of her hand. His touch brought a warm feeling to her body and soon all she could think about was going home to make love to her new husband. “Dustin, I think it’s time for us to go home,” she said carefully, trying to keep her desire for him out of her voice.

“I like sitting here, touching your hand and looking at you.” He thought she was the most beautiful woman in the entire place. He’s seen several men look at her during their meal, and he was happy knowing she was all his.

“How about going home and do more than just looking at me?” she whispered in his ear, then moved back to look at him.

Dustin looked deeply into her eye to see if she was teasing, surprised to see her desire staring back at him. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He smiled at her. “We’ll leave as soon as we get the check.”

The waiter brought their check to them, and Dustin got out his wallet and laid some cash down on top of the bill. “Come on, let’s go home.”

The ride home was a quiet one, but neither of them seemed to notice. Dustin parked in the garage, then got out to help Ambria out of the car. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the house, not even taking the time to close the door from the garage, as he rushed her into the bedroom. Ten minutes later, they lay side by side, Ambria was in her husband’s arms, and each was exhausted by what had just transpired between them.

After they recovered from their lovemaking, Dustin called his parents to make plans for Ambria to meet them one weekend. Ambria was nervous to meet his parents, but she was reassured by Dustin that Delbert and Sharon Crenshaw were wonderful people and would warmly welcomed her into their family.