An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice. (Lord Byron.)

Sarah was glad she'd told Melissa she would stay at work until Melissa's flight came in. She needed the extra hour and a half to drink some coffee — Richard's celebratory champagne had been potent.

The warehouse was quiet, for once. Everyone had gone home on a wave of good cheer. It was funny, she thought, how much she had come to like working in a small company. The holiday parties at CompuSoft were certainly splashy enough, but beyond a general drunkenness, there wasn't a lot of cheer. What MagicWorks' party had lacked in caviar had been more than offset by spontaneity. Richard had put company resources into what people really wanted — time off and extra income.

She wasn't too muzzy to finish arranging for an all-weather rental vehicle, complete with chains and a cellular phone, just in case. She was just signing off the rental agency's Web page when she heard the Jaguar's horn outside.

She hurried out to greet Melissa, who was getting out of the driver's seat. "No, you drive," Sarah said. "I'm still a bit tipsy from our party. Richard gave everybody two weeks off for the holidays."

"That's great," Melissa said, her gray eyes lighting up. "I have some marvelous news, just unbelievable news, and if you get some time off—it's perfect."

Sarah cajoled and pleaded for more details, even attempted a freeway seduction, but Melissa was adamant. She was expecting a message on the machine at home, and if the message was good, then she would tell Sarah all the news.

Melissa raced up the stairs ahead of her and as Sarah came in the door, she heard an unknown woman's voice on the answering machine saying, "Everything was a go."

Melissa gave a whoop of joy and flew to the door to hug Sarah. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you now." She pulled Sarah into the living room and pushed her down onto the sofa.

"Shana Dawson is going to be my agent," she said with a million-gigawatt smile.

"Darling, that's terrific," Sarah said, both amazed and thrilled. No wonder Melissa looked as if she'd won the lottery.

"There's more. The phone message meant that she was able to get invitations for you and me to go to a really, I mean, really swank New Year's Eve party where everyone who is anyone in the lesbian and gay community will be."

"Is the party in Los Angeles?" Sarah realized she'd have to modify the return flight, but there was only a small fee to change the tickets.

"Of course," Melissa said. "And guess what else? She also got us an invitation to a Christmas Eve party in Hollywood. The woman who made Dream Shadow will be there."

Christmas Eve. "So you want to spend Christmas week in L.A.," Sarah said slowly. She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"Not just the week, silly! Shana says that there's something going on all the time in L.A. It's just not like here. She can get me entrance to a zillion parties and symposiums, I just have to be ready to go where she says. If you have two weeks off we'll have plenty of time to find an apartment before you give notice. I mean, if you give notice now they won't let you have the time off, will they?"

"An apartment," Sarah repeated, feeling stupid. She just wasn't tracking what Melissa was saying.

"Well, we'll need someplace to live, won't we? I told Shana that you found a job here really easily, and she says that the Valley is full of software firms."

"I lucked into this job," Sarah managed to say. "Melissa, I —"

"Isn't this the best news?" Melissa sank down onto the sofa next to Sarah. "You are happy, aren't you?"

"I'm delighted for you." Sarah groped for words. Her head throbbed as if a giant gong had gone off inside her skull.

"This is really going to lead somewhere, instead of this dead-end grant. I'm going to resign it. It's just not worth my time."