DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters copyrighted by Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only and cannot be redistributed without permission from the author. I retain the rights to the plot, not the characters. No infringement is intended.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thank you, Andrea, for your suggestions and encouragement.

DATE WRITTEN: September-October 2001

SYNOPSIS: A little fairy tale about two people who fell in love.

A TALE AS OLD AS TIME

Once upon a time in a land not that far away lived a very pretty housewife named Amanda. She was tall and slender with dark wavy hair and beautiful brown eyes. Amanda had two young sons named Philip and Jamie. Her mother Dotty lived with her to help with the boys. Amanda had been divorced for a year. She had a boyfriend, Dean, who wanted her to marry him. Amanda liked Dean. He was a very nice man. He was someone she could count on, and he was always on time. But Amanda wasn’t ready to marry him yet. She needed more time to think about it.

One morning Amanda had to drive Dean to the train station. He didn’t want his car to get wet while parked at the station when he was out of town. There was a 35 percent chance of rain. Dean was a weatherman and was paid to know these things.

Amanda was in a hurry when it was time to leave for the train station. So she threw her camel wool coat over her nightgown, figuring she wouldn’t see anyone she knew anyway. Then she drove Dean to the station. He kissed her good-bye and reminded her again that he wanted to marry her. She laughed and figured that eventually she probably would marry him, but just not yet.

As Amanda was walking back to her car, an incredibly handsome waiter ran up to her and pleaded with her to help him. She tried to leave, even though the man’s beautiful, beautiful hazel eyes held her gaze. He had his arm around her to keep her walking with him. She did tell him “no.” She should have objected to his arm around her, but somehow it felt nice.

But he begged her to help him, saying it was a matter of life and death. At first Amanda thought he was kidding, but he wasn’t. She agreed to help the handsome stranger. He shoved a small brown paper-wrapped package into her gloved hands, and told her to give it to the man in the red hat. Amanda agreed, even though she thought this a very strange request.

Amanda got on the train to deliver the package. She took a last look out of the door as the train began to pull away from the station. She saw two bad men hitting the handsome waiter. Amanda was scared and worried about the man. But all she could do now was deliver the package as she had promised. She was so surprised to find that all the men sitting in that train car were wearing red hats! She didn’t know who to give the package to, so she took it home.

The unbelievably handsome man was really a spy who was disguised as a waiter. His name was Lee. He found Amanda and asked her to meet him at a party. He was angry that she had not given the package to the man in the red hat. It had gotten him into a lot of trouble with his boss.

Amanda was angry too, because she had not wanted the package in the first place. She told Lee about all the men wearing red hats. She said she would give the package back to Lee. She didn’t want it anyway. Lee thought she would be happy to get rid of it.

Then Amanda danced with her handsome spy. They were at a party. There was music playing. Lee thought it should look like they were having fun. Then no one would wonder about them. Spies had to do things like this in their jobs. Lee held her very close while they danced, and Amanda liked how it made her feel. Lee was so handsome in his black tux. Amanda wasn’t dressed up because Lee forgot to tell her it was a dress-up party. Lee didn’t mind that Amanda wasn’t dressed up. He could see how beautiful she was even without fancy clothes.

Amanda liked the dancing very much. She forgot about Dean while she was dancing with Lee. Actually Amanda pretty much forgot about Dean altogether once she met Lee.

Handsome Lee enjoyed dancing with beautiful Amanda. Lee usually dated rich, sophisticated women and Amanda was really not his type. Yet something about her intrigued him. He didn’t admit this even to himself for a very, very long time. For one thing, Lee didn’t know many women who went to the train station in their nightgowns. He knew Amanda was different in other ways too.

Soon Amanda got to meet Lee’s boss, Mr. Melrose. She also met a lady spy named Francine. Mr. Melrose liked Amanda right away. He could tell she was a very smart housewife. He asked her to help Lee with his spy work. Lee was not happy about this. He didn’t want a housewife to help him. And Francine certainly was not happy about this. Lee and Francine sometimes worked together. And they used to play backgammon together. But that was a long time ago.

But Amanda was happy. She would get to work with the handsome spy and help protect her country. And it would be very handy because she could buy vegetables near spy headquarters.

So Amanda and Lee worked together. It took Lee awhile, but he figured out that Amanda was pretty handy to have around after all. She helped him get away from bad guys many times. She had lots of common sense. Sometimes she got in trouble too, but Lee was always there to save her. Soon they became friends.

After they had been friends for awhile, Amanda dreamed about kissing Lee. Lee dreamed about kissing Amanda. But never did their lips meet. They came close a few times. But they never quite kissed except a few times when Lee kissed her as part of his job. Spies sometimes had to do this as part of their jobs also, just like the dancing. These were called “cover kisses.” Amanda liked the cover kisses because she liked Lee a lot. Lee liked the cover kisses too, but he didn’t know why, and he wasn’t happy about liking them.

Then one night they had to sleep together in a swamp while running away from bad men. It was very dark and very cold, so they made a fire. Lee put his arms around Amanda to help her keep warm. She was scared. He was scared. The men were very bad and the swamp was really icky.

While handsome Lee had his arms around beautiful Amanda, he got a cramp in his shoulder. He bent a little unexpectedly to get rid of the cramp, and found himself face-to-face with beautiful Amanda. She smiled a little. He smiled a little. Something happened while they were looking into each other’s eyes. It was just a small change for each of them. But suddenly Lee realized he really wanted to kiss Amanda, even though it wasn’t part of his job this time. He wasn’t sure what was going on. Amanda knew he wanted to kiss her and that it wouldn’t be part of his job. She was happy. Lee pulled her closer to him. They both closed their eyes. Just as they were going to kiss for real for the first time, the bad men fired a shot. The men were very, very bad for interrupting handsome Lee and beautiful Amanda just as they were about to kiss. Lee and Amanda did get away from the bad men the next day.

Some time later on her back porch, handsome Lee did finally kiss beautiful Amanda for the first time. He wanted to kiss her in the house while they were eating cake. But Dotty and the boys came home early. They came home early a lot. So Lee and Amanda had to go on the back porch to kiss. It was a little tiny kiss but he really liked it. So did she.

It took them awhile to kiss again. He wanted to. She wanted to. But he didn’t know that she wanted to. And she didn’t know that he wanted to.

But Lee and Amanda were both smart spies. They finally figured out that they both wanted to kiss. So they did. Lee locked the office door so nobody could come in. They shared several kisses. They both liked the kisses. They both knew why they liked the kisses. And they were both very happy about liking the kisses.

They knew that there would be many more kisses to come in the future, and there were. Because they finally realized they loved each other, and people who are in love like to kiss. A lot. So they did.

Pretty soon, handsome Lee and beautiful Amanda realized that it was not enough just being friends and working together everyday. They loved each other. They wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. So one day they got married. They didn’t tell anyone about it. Not Dotty. Not the boys. Not even Mr. Melrose. And certainly not Francine. Handsome Lee and beautiful Amanda thought everyone would be safer if no one knew their secret. They found it was easier to kiss more often once they were married. And do other things too. They lived happily ever after.

THE END

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