” Andrea stopped speaking and gave her older sister a wide-eyed look. “You’re right. I’m not nervous anymore! How did you do that?”

“You can’t be nervous and amused at the same time. They’re both powerful emotions and one overrides the other. If your sense of humor kicks in, you lose your case of nerves

at least according to the professor who taught the psychology class I took in college.”

“Fascinating,” Andrea said, giving Hannah a probing look. “What else did he say? Are there any other emotions that cancel each other out?”

“There’s another pair that I remember. He said you can’t be angry and amorous at the same time.”

“Amorous?”

“You know,” Hannah said, and then she made little kissing noises.

“Oh, that amorous,” Andrea said, beginning to grin. “Thanks for telling me, but I think I already knew that. It must have been instinctive.”

“You’re probably right,” Hannah said with a laugh. Her psychology professor had insisted that particular phenomenon was the secret of any happy marriage.

“All the same, maybe I’d better put it to the test,” Andrea said with an impish smile. “Bill can try it out on me, right after he gets home from Miami with Ronni Ward.”

“So what do you think?” Lisa asked, presenting Hannah with the tray of Mini Cherry Cheesecakes. “Will Mr. Lawrence like them?”

“They look fantastic, and I think that’s more important than how they taste.”

“Hannah!” Lisa looked positively shocked. “How can you say such a thing?”

“I was thinking about Dean Lawrence, not us. We care how things taste more than how they look.”

“Oh, now I understand. And you’re right about him. He’s a very shallow person. Everything is me, me, me.”

“How so?” Hannah asked, agreeing with her young partner completely but wanting Lisa to enumerate her reasons.

“First of all, he just assumes that he’s irresistible to women.”

“You noticed?”

“I couldn’t help but notice. I told you about refilling his coffee and how he kept right on talking and didn’t even say thank you.”

“I remember.”

“Well, that was better than what happened just a couple of minutes ago when I went around with the coffee carafe again.”

“What happened?”

“He made a pass and I won’t go into detail. Let’s just say he doesn’t know how to keep his hands to himself. I wasn’t expecting it and it startled me so much, I almost poured hot coffee down his collar.”

“Maybe you should have.”

Lisa giggled. “Maybe you’re right. If he ever does it again, I’ll figure out a way to let him know it’s not appreciated. But there’s another thing about him I noticed.”

“What’s that?”

“He believes that appearance is more important than substance. That’s the earmark of a charlatan