Brian took care of some business over the Internet while in his hotel room. After that, he decided to rest for awhile before meeting Lea Parker for dinner. He slept for an hour and felt refreshed. He changed and went downstairs to the lobby to meet Lea.

Brian saw Lea at the service desk and walked over to her. She said hi and came around the desk into the lobby. Brian saw her entire body for the first time and was impressed by her great figure. They chatted briefly and went into the restaurant.

The waitress sat both of them in a cozy booth and lit a candle on the table. The restaurant was upscale, and violin music played softly in the background. Sitting across from each other, Brian was able to get a good look at Lea. He saw her bright green eyes glowing with life. Looking into her eyes was like peering into her soul.

Lea Parker was always beautiful. When she was a baby, she had almost white hair and blue-green eyes. Everyone who saw her when she was a child said she should get into modeling because she would be a superstar model. Her parents did not allow her to model; they did not want her to rely on her physical beauty to survive. They wanted Lea to learn to use her mind to survive and prosper.

Even so, she was a strikingly beautiful child. Her long white hair, glittering eyes, and flawless face complimented her well-proportioned body. Kids and parents noticed her beauty throughout her school years. Her father was in the United States Air Force, and so Lea’s family traveled a lot. Lea was born in Hawaii and attended school in Hawaii, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Florida. As a result, Lea had learned to speak English, Japanese, German, and Italian.

Her family did not live in one location for very long, so Lea never had a chance to establish long-lasting friendships. This also applied to love relationships. Her father was relocated to various military bases around the world. Therefore, Lea met a lot of different people, most of whom were nice, but she never got real close with any of them.

When she was a teenager, her father was stationed in Florida. Lea went to high school there and loved it. Her father had to relocate again to Canada, and Lea’s entire family was going to move there. But Lea decided she wanted to stay in Florida, so she got a full-time job while finishing high school. This enabled her to live on her own in Florida after her family moved to Canada. Lea was only seventeen when she was completely self-sufficient.

As far back as she could remember, she loved to sing. Lea would sing for her family when she was a child. She also loved to do creative artwork like making collages and engravings. But her true talent was in mathematics. Her great physical beauty astounded everyone, which prevented people from noticing her remarkable math skills.

Lea was always at the top of her class in mathematics, regardless if she was studying in Japan, Germany, Italy, or America. Her ability to picture the world in numbers and then perform mathematical calculations was remarkable. She could solve any math problem. Other students struggled with abstract math problems that were easy for her. She helped her classmates by making the most difficult math problems easy to understand.

Lea worked as a secretary at a construction company while attending high school. Construction workers heard about her and went out of their way to go into the office. They asked her questions about their paycheck or vacation time or other things. All were impressed by Lea Parker’s beauty. Many tried courting Lea, including the business owner. She dated a few workers, but she did not find anyone who was right for her.

When Lea’s boss saw how she incorporated the computer into the company’s accounting system, the boss promoted her to accounting manager. In this position, Lea was in charge of managing the company’s income, expenses, payroll, and annual projections. She had a firm grasp of the business from a numbers standpoint, and was able to flag out errors and reconcile accounts. Lea even offered suggestions to her boss about reducing expenditures in order to increase profitability.

Upon graduating from high school, Lea went to college. She earned an accounting degree at the University of Arizona. After college, Lea moved back to Florida and went to work at a hotel. She became the chief accountant and did a superb job managing the hotel’s finances. But soon this was not challenging for her, and her mind began to wander.

Lea knew how to make the hotel business more efficient and profitable. She made several suggestions to her boss, and some were implemented. Then Lea wondered if similar changes could be made in other hotels to increase their profits.

She had been working at the hotel for three years when she proposed to buy the business. This pretty young girl shocked the owners by proposing to run the 100-room hotel by herself. But Lea was a sharp businesswoman who made the owners an offer they could not refuse. By the time Lea was 25 she owned her first hotel in southern Florida.

Lea hired competent people to manage her hotel. She also began looking at other nearby hotels. She would go in and see how those hotels operated. If a hotel operated inefficiently and she saw how it could be improved, Lea offered to buy the hotel. Within a year Lea owned four hotels. She bought hotels that were not operating at maximum efficiency and then streamlined their operations to boost profitability. Lea incorporated all her hotels under one corporate name, and owned one of the most profitable hotel chains in Southern Florida. She became a self-made millionaire by age 27.

Because of her brains, beauty, and wealth, men constantly tried to win her love. She dated several men. Some were handsome and rich. Most of them wanted to marry her. But Lea was a fiercely independent girl; she enjoyed her freedom to date different men. What she discovered, however, is that she could not find a man who satisfied her both intellectually and sexually. So Lea never married or had children.

When Brian Storm met her, she was dating an older man. She did not want to marry an older man, but he treated her good and she enjoyed his company. So she continued her relationship with him. But sometimes she wondered if she would ever find the right man for her.

Sitting across from Brian, Lea Parker looked at him closely. She figured that Brian was about the same age as her, and she admired his healthy glow. She looked at his curly brown hair and had an urge to run her delicate fingers through it. Then she looked into his tiger-eyes. She saw them focused on her, but they looked so benevolent—like this man would not harm a fly. As she looked at his tanned, fit body, she realized he could do a lot of harm if he wanted. But upon seeing his demeanor, she realized that the person in front of her was once a child who had matured into a man. He was a true gentleman.

Lea thought about her situation with Brian and started laughing. Brian looked around but did not see anything unusual. He looked puzzled.

Lea Parker said, "Do you know what’s so funny? Here I am having dinner with you, but I never asked you your name!"

Brian smiled and said, "You mean I never told you my name?"

Lea shook her head from side to side.

"I’m sorry. I guess it all happened so fast at the service desk that I didn’t think of it. By the way, I’m Brian," said Brian.

Lea giggled and said, "I know; I looked you up on the computer. But I wanted to hear it from you."

"What else do you know about me?" asked Brian.

"I know that you’re not from around here, which means you probably would like a tour of West Palm Beach at night," replied Lea.

"Ah…well…I didn’t think of that…but now that you mention it…" muttered Brian

"I know, I know. You’d like to see some of this town’s main attractions." Lea replied.

Brian nodded yes and said, "What else do you know about me?"

Lea thought for a moment and said, "That’s about it."

Brian felt relieved. He said, "Do you know my last name?"

Lea said, "I saw it on the computer, but I don’t remember. Why?"

"Just wondering. I’m kind of secretive; I don’t want people to know too much about me." Brian replied.

Lea began to get interested in Brian. She said, "Yeah, what are you so secretive about?"

"Stick around and you’ll find out," replied Brian.

Lea looked a bit frustrated. Then a waitress came over and took their orders.

They ate dinner and got to know each other a little better. Both grew interested in each other as they conversed. When Lea told Brian she owned the hotel, Brian was shocked. He said, "You’re the owner? I can hardly believe it!"

"Oh really? What’s wrong with me owning this hotel?" Lea said playfully.

"Nothing, don’t get the wrong idea. I just had no idea I would be eating dinner with the owner of this hotel." Brian replied.

"Well you are. Now tell me what you do for work," asked Lea.

"I, uh, make, ah…" stuttered Brian.

"Yes, go on." Lea said.

"I extend people’s life-span," said Brian

Lea looked baffled.

"Don’t worry, I’ll tell you more later. But for tonight, will you please show me West Palm Beach?" asked Brian sincerely.

"Sure, I know just where to begin." Lea said happily.

"Sounds good." Brian answered.

The two young adults finished dinner and left the restaurant. Brian walked next to Lea as they toured the streets of West Palm Beach. Lea felt comfortable walking with Brian and Brian felt good walking next to Lea. He asked her, "Lea, I see you have a beautiful ring on your finger. Does your husband know you’re with me tonight?"

"Oh I’m not married. My aunt gave me this ring; it’s from her great collection of jewelry. When I graduated from college, my aunt gave it to me as a present." Lea said.

Brian stopped on the sidewalk. Lea turned around and saw him standing motionless. She said, "What’s wrong?"

"You mean someone with your beauty and brains is not married? I don’t get it." Brian said.

Lea smiled and said, "Thanks for the compliment Brian. I’ve dated several men, but I haven’t found one who meets my intellectual standards. I don’t want to be held back by a man; I want to be uplifted. Since I haven’t met a man who I admire both intellectually and physically, I never married. However, I’m dating an older man now, but I will not marry him because, well, I don’t want to marry someone from a different generation."

Standing on the sidewalk, Brian looked at Lea and said, "I’m no psychic, but I can see the future: you’re going to be married soon."

"No, not with the man I’m dating." Lea said.

"Circumstances change, people change, relationships change. Believe me, as a man I know that you will not remain single much longer." Brian said as they began walking together.

The two young adults walked along the water and stopped at a railing. Ducks floated by their feet as Brian and Lea peered into the water. The water and sky were dark-blue, illuminated by the moon and some lampposts.

Lea turned to Brian and said, "What about you; are you married? Do you have any children?"

"No."

"Why not? I’ll bet your friends are married and have kids." Lea said.

"A lot of people my age are married and have kids. I almost got married with my first true love in college. But I was not ready for marriage. There were things I needed to do before getting married and having children." Brian said.

"For example?" asked Lea.

"I needed to grow up. I also needed to establish myself in a career. None of the conventional career options appealed to me." Brian said.

"So that’s why you got into the life-extension business?" asked Lea.

"You could say that. You see, I’m different than most people or at least I’m honest enough with myself to honor my differences. I can’t be happy going along with the crowd, for example, going to college, getting a job, getting married, having kids, getting a house, etc. I knew this wouldn’t satisfy me. So I forged my own path in life." Brian replied.

"And where did it get you?" asked Lea.

"Next to you." Brian replied.

They both fell silent.

The two young adults stood together in the night. Their minds went to work thinking in different directions. Lea mentally reviewed her life. She recalled her early love of math, her first job, her college days, her first entrepreneurial venture, and her life now. Then she tried to imagine what her life would be like in five years, ten years, twenty years into the future.

Brian thought about the first girl he loved when he was in first grade. Then he recalled going through puberty and how his first sexual encounter was a bit scary. Next he recalled falling in love with a beautiful girl in college. Then he reviewed his relationship with Christie Bridges and Tamara Fox. And now he saw Lea Parker next to him and realized she was different from all the other girls. She had that rare combination of exceptional beauty and brains that kept Brian mentally alert yet physically attracted to her.