“Artificial insemination?”

“Yes. That’s when the egg—”

“I know what it is, Irene. I’m just wondering why that’s your big breeding plan.”

“Do you really think I’d allow the swapping of fluids between me and Bradley?”

Van Holtz’s eyebrows lowered and she watched him go from relatively normal human to a male about to shift to his animal form.

“What? What did I say?”

“What does Bradley have to do with anything?”

“I didn’t mean him specifically. I’m talking about the Bradleys of the world.” She shuddered. “The thought makes my skin crawl. So, artificial insemination seems the safest and least repulsive route.”

Van Holtz let out a sigh. “True, that’s one option. Or you could simply have sex with someone you want to have sex with.”

She shrugged and picked up a Superman comic. “True. But that happens so rarely. You’re the first. Not my first sexual encounter, as I told you, but the first one where having sex wasn’t a chore.”

Laying the shopping bags he carried at his feet, Van Holtz ran his hands through his hair. “I swear, you are trying to drive me insane.”

“Now what did I say?”

“Forget it. This discussion is over.”

She shrugged. “Okay.”

He went back to searching through the comics and Irene began to read one. To be honest, she found them hard to follow. Her eyes never knew which bubble to go to first.

“So,” Van Holtz suddenly said, “whether it’s artificial insemination or the good old-fashioned way . . . how many kids?”

Why he wouldn’t let it go, she’d never know. But she didn’t want to argue with him. She was actually having quite a nice time with the Neanderthal. “I was thinking a minimum of two. Jackie has siblings and seems to enjoy them. I had none and it would have been nice to have an older brother or even a sister as long as she wasn’t as smart as me. Too competitive,” she added when he glanced at her. “Yes. So at least two.”

Van Holtz grunted. “Good.”

“Why is that good?” But he ignored her and kept searching the stacks. “Van Holtz?”

“Uh . . . excuse me?”

Irene glanced over her shoulder at the three young boys standing behind her. She’d place them at about thirteen or fourteen. She’d never been very good with guessing ages, though.

“Yes?”

The boys glanced at each other and then back at her. “Are you Dr. Irene Conridge?”

Irene’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit and one of the boys looked away from her.

“Yes. Why?”

The boys suddenly turned away and began whispering to each other, then they pushed one ofthem back over to the table they’d come from. Irene studied the table and saw maps, many-sided dice, books, and enough junk food to destroy an army. One of the books had a dragon on the cover in all his flamey glory. She stifled a smile. She recalled quite a few late nights as a powerful mage.

The one sent back to the table searched through his oversized backpack and returned with a magazine. She immediately recognized her face on the cover and remembered that she’d written a piece on the Chaos Theory for a science magazine several months back. She’d forgotten all about it.

“Could you sign this for us?”

Irene took the magazine. “Of course.” Before she could ask for a pen, Van Holtz pushed one into her hand. She didn’t even bother to look at him to see his expression. She could imagine the smugness all on her own, thank you.

She got the boys’ names and signed the magazine, not daring to ask them how they would share this particular item. While signing, she asked, “So what campaign are you gentlemen running?”

Their eyes widened in surprise. “You play D&D?” one of them asked in awe. He had an unfortunate case of acne she prayed he’d grow out of sooner rather than later.

“Played, actually. It’s been a few years. Did you buy your models or make them yourselves?” Before she knew it, they’d dragged her over to the table and several other science and math geeks joined them. The discussion zigged between gaming to the Chaos Theory to science in general to math and back to gaming. She did her best to answer all their questions and glanced around several times, looking for Van Holtz. She didn’t see him and she put the moment of cynicism out of her mind that he’d left her there in disgust. He could be an ass, but she didn’t see him being that big an ass. So she continued answering questions and pretended not to worry.

Van sat on a bench outside the comic book store. He’d stopped by the local booksellers and picked up a book called Science Made Easy. One chapter in and he was already lost.

“Well, hello, Mr. Van Holtz.”

Van immediately recognized that forced sultry voice and barely stopped his wince in time. He looked up and made himself smile. “Farica. Hi.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for my date.”

She blinked a few times before she caught herself, managing to keep that bright smile. “Date, eh? And who’s the lucky girl?”

As if on cue, Irene walked out of the comic book store, her geeky fan club right behind her.

“Yes,” she was saying. “I have the program every summer, open to students between thirteen and sixteen years old.” The boys followed behind her and couldn’t see as she desperately mouthed, “Help. Me.”