"Here, let me help you," he said, reaching down.
"No!" she shrieked, pushing at him with both hands. There was no way that tiny bit of cloth would stay in place if he bent down, and right now it was exposing a wide sec tion of flank as it was.
He looked a bit startled, but he straightened again. Meanwhile her loud cry had its effect. Doors opened up down the hall. Heads popped out. Wide eyes stared in credulously, and then the grins started to appear.
"Having trouble, Charity?" the gray-haired woman from across the hall asked. She looked Ross over with in terest. "Everything all right?"
Charity's cheeks were bright red. This couldn't really be happening to her. This had to be a nightmare.
"Oh, yes, certainly," she managed to reply brightly. She smiled up and down the hall to reassure them. "No problem here."
No problem, but a naked man was standing in her doorway, holding a yellow cherry-print cloth over his pri vate parts. She glanced at where his hand still held the corners of the puny thing together, then looked quickly away again.
"Get inside," she whispered wildly as she leaned down to pick up the Styrofoam boxes. She rose again, staring at her purse, which still lay at her feet. Both hands were full. Should she drop one box, or just forget the purse was hers?
Ross still stood in the doorway. He hadn't moved an inch. "Let me get it," he said impatiently.
"No, no, no," she urged, still wearing a plastered-on smile for their audience. "Don't you dare!"
One well-placed kick of her foot and the purse went sailing right past him into her apartment.
"There, you see? I can handle it myself.'' She turned for one last smile at her neighbors. "Everything's fine," she called. "Just fine."
The grins were dissolving into giggles. Ross leaned out and waved.
"Everything's fine," he said, backing her up. "No problem."
"Get inside," she muttered fiercely through gritted teeth. She pushed in as well, kicked the door closed with her foot, placed the two boxes carefully on an entry table and leaned against the closed door, trying to calm herself, clenching her fists at her sides.
Ross stood before her, feeling ridiculously pleased with the way things were going. It was so unlike him to act this way. Something about Charity made him do it, he real ized.
"Have you had a rough day?" he asked pleasantly, unconsciously echoing the very lines she'd been practicing only half an hour before.
Charity opened her dark eyes wide and glared at him for all she was worth. If only her heart would stop beating so wildly, she might be able to get out at least one coherent sentence before she killed him.