On her way to the dentist, her phone rang. It was only 9:30 in the morning. It couldn’t be him. It must be her mother, wanting to interrogate her over the phone since she didn’t get a chance to do it in person.
Well, she couldn’t avoid her mom forever. She dug her cell phone out of her jacket pocket. Her phone had its own case with the absolute necessities in it: credit card, cabbie cash, and a spot to tuck business cards if she was ever offered one. It took her a minute to answer, and she was almost to the subway. That gave her the perfect excuse to cut the call short.
“Hey, Mom—”
“Mom?” asked a sexy male voice on the other side of the line. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never ‘Mom.’”
Oh my God! It’s Jayce. She giggled as she realized her mistake. “I—uh…I thought…”
He laughed as a combination of relief and mortification washed over her.
“I’m pretty sure I know what you thought. Don’t worry about it. Your cell phone probably didn’t recognize my number. I’ll have to program it in when I see you again.”
He wants to see me again. Yay!
“I know you have a dentist appointment, but I was wondering if you were free for lunch. We can get sticky buns and destroy all your hygienist’s hard work.”
She loved his sense of humor. Just the right amount of irreverence. “I’m going to tell her you said that.”
“And get me in trouble with the ADA? You wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, you’re right. You’re probably already walking a fine line with them for not flossing.”
“So where and when do you want to meet?”
She wanted to say “Right here, right now,” but that would sound desperate. “How about if I call you when I’m done?”
“That works.”
“Same number you just called me with?”
“Yup. Or I could just go with you…”
“Huh?”Now who’s sounding desperate?
“Turn around.”
Kristine halted and whirled around. Another pedestrian on his cell phone almost walked right into her. He mumbled some profanity, then swerved around her. About twenty feet behind him a familiar tall, dark, and smirking guy sauntered up to her.
“Were you following me?”
“Nope. I was heading toward the TV studio and recognized you as you were crossing the street two blocks back.”
She didn’t know how to feel about this “coincidence.” If he had been following her around, that would be a little creepy.
He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I figured I’d see if I could get two tickets.”
They resumed walking at the city clip they both seemed used to. The explanation sounded reasonable. But… “Why didn’t you just call and ask them?”
“I did. They said first come, first served. I was going to call you when I got there and ask if you were interested. Then I saw you and thought I’d have a bit of fun.”
“You’re all about having fun, aren’t you?” She didn’t mean to sound so judgmental.
He shrugged. “Firefighters work hard, so we should play hard too. The more fun we can have during our time off, the better.”
“Like what we did last night? That kind of fun?”
“Ha! I wasn’t talking about that. Like I said, I’m picky.”
