“Not really, but thank you.”
“Ha! Well, tit for tat, buddy. How about if you give me a few compliments?”
“Easy,” he said.Uh-oh. This could be dangerous. If I’m too superficial, she won’t believe me, because of her rotten self-esteem issues.
“You never know. I might.”
“Oh, you heard that?”
“Yup. Go ahead. Be superficial. I dare ya.”
“Ha. You know how to get results, don’t you?”
“You fish; I dare.”
Konrad held up his hands. “Stop. I’ll tell you, but first you have to promise to believe everything I say.”
“Hmmm. A challenge. Okay, go for it.”
“First, you’re absolutely beautiful. I love your light-blue eyes and lush lips. Your high cheekbones and the dimple that deepens when you smile.” He lowered his voice. “Your soft skin. The way you look at me when we’re about to get intimate. Your kisses.” He added telepathically, “The way you scream your lungs out when you come.”
Roz’s cheeks flushed, and even though she was staring at her coffee cup again, she was grinning.
“Okay, enough. I believe you, but better not push it.”
If only she wasn’t a lawyer.
“Why are you worried about my being a lawyer?”
“Oh, you heard me, again.” Konrad needed a quick distraction. “I’d really like to find a job I could feel passionate about…almost as passionate as I feel about you. And I thought you said something like that too.”
Roz chuckled. “Believe me, I’d like to find another career. I went into law for the wrong reasons.”
“What do you mean?”
“My stepfather seemed powerful and untouchable as a lawyer. I wanted to feel that invulnerable too. Now that I look back, I can see exactly how scared I was at the time. Not of him, but all the changes taking place in my life. I was afraid of the unknown.”
“That makes sense. You’re not scared anymore?”
“Change sounds pretty good about now. But I don’t want just some other job. I want to wake up excited to go to work.”
“Yeah, I’ve known a few people who actually loved their jobs. I don’t think they’re that much different from you or me. They’ve just found their bliss.”
“But how do we discover our bliss?”
Konrad scratched his head. “I guess they try it and fall in love. Just like dating.” He snapped his fingers. “That’s it. We can try lots of different things, together. Eventually one of us is bound to find something that clicks or something so enjoyable it doesn’t even seem like work.”
Roz sat back and raised her eyebrows. “That’s a brilliant idea. We can make the attempts into dates, if you want to. It sure beats going to the movies or some other time waster, just to have an excuse to be together and have sex afterward.”
Konrad’s jaw dropped. “We can still have sex after the practical dates, though, right?”
Roz laughed. “What would you do if I said no?”
“Cry, and then ask you to a movie.”
They laughed together and wound up grinning.
Konrad reached across the small table and took her hand. They wove their fingers together. A couple of people in the coffee shop glanced their way.
