Paul was disappointed that Kat had turned down his invitation, but he wasn't surprised, for a [i]lot[/i] of reasons.  He stood with her, thanked her for the interview offer, shook her hand, and traded farewells with her before she left.  He watched her head down the block and disappear around the corner.  She was a joy to watch from the backside, and Paul couldn't help but smile as he wondered if she was thinking [i]Is he staring at my ass?[/i] 



The coffee shop was [i]strike one.[/i]  But Paul was still at bat.  He hadn't told Kat that he'd already been slated to go to the fundraiser, so her first indication that she'd be seeing him so soon was when she looked away from a conversation in which she was engaged to see him standing near a far wall.  He was holding a flute half filled with champagne in one hand and a small digital audio recorder in the other as he feigned interviewing one of the event's more prominent honorees.  As the man ranted on and on about the acts of charity in which his corporation was involved, Paul's only thought was of how this corrupt blow hard was one of the Syndicate members worth a million dollars to him.  [i]Keep patting yourself on the back, bud ... right where I'm gonna stick a knife in it soon'nuff.[/i]