Pandora maintained the appearance of preserving her dignity in her posture and the expression on her face, which was unapologetic and apparently not embarrassed either.

“I never claimed that I didn’t want to do that,” she replied, “I just never told you that I did. I was going to tell you about the Upsizing, so that you’d know you were coming to a colony of earthlings who’d become giants. It’s just that, when I was about to get to that part of the conversation in the Lavender Bay restaurant, it seemed to suddenly register on me that you were going to get a surprise about being eaten, once you got to the giant land anyway. That would be the main surprise, whether you knew I’d become a giant or not. It just suddenly seemed simpler to keep things as normal as possible, as far as moving to another dimension can be considered normal, and save all of your most dramatic surprises up until you were there and couldn’t do anything to spoil my plans for you.”

“Well I am certainly surprised about it all,” said Lennox, “Reba told me not to let you know that she’d tipped me off. She wanted me to play along with you until the day we were supposed to meet on the other side of the portal, and then simply not turn up. She thinks that if you can’t lure me to the giant world, then you’ll find another younger man while you still have time before the day of the move.”

“I guess I’ll have to resort to that now, but it won’t be as simple as just switching off my consuming yearnings for you. As soon as you handed me that catalog on the station, I knew you were the one I wanted. I guess I’ll have to settle for someone else now. So why are you telling me, if you know that I’ll be out looking for him tomorrow?” said Pandora.

“Because I don’t want you to do that,” said Lennox.

“Well that’s not for you to say. And by telling me, you’ve let me know that I’ll need to do that, just like my daughter tried to tell you,” said Pandora.

“I mean I don’t want you to look for someone else, because I’m still coming to meet you there,” said Lennox.

“You are?” said Pandora, “I don’t know what to say, except: Why?”

“Back on the station, when you got out your notepad, there was something already written on the first page. You licked your finger to  turn it over and write your phone number on the next sheet of paper. Then in the Lavender Bay restaurant, your tongue made such an unforgettable contact with my finger, when you were accepting the prawn I was offering your mouth. I can see now the reason that you were kind of overdoing it, all to get one prawn into your mouth, but it felt like nothing I’ve ever experienced or dreamed of before,” said Lennox.

“Then I take it that you liked it,” said Pandora.