Basket Case

He’d been told he was drop-dead gorgeous, and the cameras didn’t lie. Gunner Nord was in Miami to model designer underwear for a feature ad for one of the prestigious women’s magazines, and he hoped to convince his girlfriend to move to Miami with him. He had a five-star suite in the Fontainebleau, a three-carat ring in a tiny velvet box, and an offer of a tryout for a professional jai alai team. Gunner hoped the first two would be persuasive enough for his high-maintenance girlfriend. While his modeling career was glamorous, Father Time didn’t let anyone slip by him, and Gunner wasn’t idiotic enough to believe he’d be the exception. He was, it seemed, idiotic enough to believe a high-powered New York corporate tax attorney would still find him acceptable if he told her he wanted to chuck the modeling career in favor of playing a sport using a basket strapped to his hand. His proposal died unspoken when he returned to his suite to discover his girlfriend packed and about to embark on a cruise with someone else. Her bon voyage gift to him was a pre-paid massage with a happy ending delivered by a siren of a Cuban masseuse. The therapist’s magical fingers relieved more than just the knotted muscles in his neck and back. They left him with the desire to do something responsible for the rest of his life, but only if the siren would agree to be by his side.