Dane drove to the restaurant where he’d come out the night Selena invited him to hang with the interns, set them up in a booth, and ordered a couple of beers, figuring Anthony probably hadn’t cultivated a hard alcohol problem. Yet.
“So you want to tell me what the dying patient routine is about? Did you get some bad news?”
“I’m in love.” Anthony groaned.
“That is bad news.” Dane smiled at his own joke, but when Anthony’s frown deepened and he looked like he might start to cry, he walked it back. “I’m kidding. Are we talking about Selena?”
“We went out together twice. I thought I showed her a nice time. I went out of my way to let her see that I respect her. I mean, I love talking with her and want to get to know her better. Obviously, I’m attracted to her, but we’ve only been out twice, so I wanted to let her see that I’m not all about the sex. I thought I was doing everything right.”
“But I take it your feelings aren’t reciprocated.”
“Worse. I think there’s someone else.”
“What makes you think that?”
Anthony squeezed his fist tight on the table next to his glass. “I asked her to go out with me on Saturday night, and she turned me down because she already had plans.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“So I went over to her apartment on Sunday to see if she’d like to go for a walk, but she wasn’t home. Her roommate said she hadn’t been home all night. She’d gone on a date the night before.” His voice cracked. “And she didn’t come home.”
Dane listened to Anthony with apparent interest, unsure exactly what advice he ought to give. He could defend Selena’s honor and fill Anthony with hope that he’d misunderstood everything. He could come right out and tell Anthony that he was the other man. Neither option much appealed to him for various reasons, not the least of which was the prospect of being stabbed in the heart with a steak knife. He went for the third option.
“You should have slept with her.”
Anthony looked like he’d been slapped. “What?”
“The evidence you’ve presented tells me you’ve been friend zoned. And someone else picked up on Selena’s interest, and she ran with the one who could give her what she wants now. Today.” He shook his head, laughing. “You might have over-planned your game, Anthony.”
Anthony’s eyes were dark and angry. “I was respecting her.”
Dane snorted. “No. You were respecting yourself. Did she ask for you to respect her to the point of neglect?”
The curl on Anthony’s lip warned Dane that he needed to tone it down quick. But anger was better than whining. “Do you play chess, Anthony?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I have. Why?”
“When you play chess, there are times to be defensive and times to be offensive. You can’t think of end game before you’ve made your first move. And you can’t make your second move without watching your opponent and seeing what they do. You have to adjust according to how they play the game.”
“You think I failed to read Selena?”
“I think you came to the table with a preconceived notion of your imaginary opponent. And you acted accordingly. And Selena may have decided to go find a table with a better player.”
“What should I do now?”
“You could take up checkers.”
“Enough with the analogies. You nearly lost me with the chess game. I just want to know what I can do to win her back.”
Dane crossed his arms and leaned back. Was he really about to give himself competition? He thought about it. He’d enjoyed the hell out of Selena over the weekend. She was like candy—sweet, delicious, fun. And she was smart enough to keep him entertained, but she lacked the backbone and wit of someone like Val. Or Noelle. And he was growing bored with Selena.
Why not let Anthony have another shot?
“What you want to do is get her alone today. Ask her to come talk to you in the training room. And when you get her alone, take her by the hand and kiss her. Really kiss her.”
“At work?”
“Absolutely. The more forbidden, the better.”
