Page 4 of Tiger on the Prowl

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Olivia felt her stomach growl and rose from her chair in front of her computer and walked into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and peered inside. There wasn’t much, some wine, a few bottles of water, cream, condiments, and a few salad items. She wasn’t exactly a great cook, but she was hungry. And a limp salad wasn’t going to do it for her tonight. She’d worked hard on her book, and needed something substantial.

After locking her computer and external hard drive in the safe again, she grabbed her handbag, stuffed a couple of cloth bags into it, and left the cottage. At six o’clock, the air was humid, and the streets were still teaming with people returning from work or going out for an early dinner. Olivia didn’t bother taking her car. She decided not to go to the large supermarket, which was a ten-minute drive away, but to a smaller, local market with a large deli section, where she could probably find something she only had to reheat.

She walked along the cute streets of Alexandria that led her deeper into Old Town, the touristy center of the Virginia town bordering the Potomac. She’d been very lucky to find a house so close to downtown. The rent was a little on the steep side, but it was worth it. She could walk to almost all the places she needed on a daily basis: the gym, the post office, the bank, restaurants, and shops. It was important to her, because being a writer meant she was isolated. She had no colleagues, no boss, nobody to interact with daily.

Olivia stopped in front of Hank & Frank’s and put her hand on the door to open it, when she heard a man call her name.

“Olivia?”

She turned on her heel and couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Jay cross the narrow cobblestone street and approach her. He looked virile in his low-riding jeans and his casual linen shirt, a small backpack thrown over one shoulder. Something was different about him though, and it took her a second to realize what it was. His head was shorn bald. When she’d last seen him, he’d had very short black hair, which had looked good on him, but she had to admit that the bald look suited him even better.

“Hi, I thought I’d recognized you,” Jay said.

She finally found her voice again. “Jay, hi, we were all getting worried about you.”

“Worried, why?”

“Well, you haven’t shown up for your classes in two weeks, and nobody knew what had happened to you.”

His brow furrowed. “But I left a voicemail for Amber letting her know that I couldn’t teach.” He pointed to his shoulder. “An old rotator cuff injury was playing up. I had to undergo a procedure. I’m gonna be out for another couple of weeks at least before I’ve got full range of motion back.”

“Oh, that’s good. I’m glad it’s healing.” Olivia let out a breath. “But it’s odd, because when I asked Amber she said she hadn’t heard anything from you, and she couldn’t reach you on the phone.”

“Nothing against Amber,” he said and leaned closer, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But I’ve seen how frazzled she gets sometimes. I bet she erased my voicemail before she even listened to it. Because if she had, she would have known that my phone was stolen, and I had to get a new number. That’s why she couldn’t get ahold of me.”

“She’ll be relieved to hear that,” Olivia said with a smile. “I’ll tell her.”

“I’ll give her call tomorrow, so don’t worry. I’ll sort it out with her.” Then he pointed to the store she’d been about to enter. “Am I holding you up from shopping?”

“No, no, not at all,” she said quickly, not wanting him to leave now that she finally had a chance to talk to him outside of class. “I was just going to grab something for dinner. My fridge is empty.”

“I was about to do the same. Just grab something I can shove in the microwave. I’m not much of a cook.”

“Yeah, same here.” She smiled and took a deep breath to collect all her courage. She had to ask him out now, before the moment passed. “Uh—”

“Well since we’re clearly both hungry, why don’t we go out to dinner together? My treat.”

Her heart beat into her throat, and her stomach made an excited somersault. “Dinner, uh…” She could barely get the words out.

“Unless you’re not interested. I mean, I’d understand… I uh—”

“I’m interested, definitely interested,” Olivia blurted.

Jay grinned. “Yeah, me too.”

At his words, she felt heat shoot into her cheeks. Oh God, she might as well have said that she wanted to sleep with him! She couldn’t have been more obvious if she’d tried.

“It’s still early. We might be able to get a table at the Chart House without a reservation,” Jay suggested. “Do you like seafood?”

“Love it. Seafood, I mean, I love seafood.” Did it show that she was nervous? Finally, she was going out to dinner with the man she’d been lusting after ever since he’d started teaching at the studio, and now she sounded like a complete idiot, not the writer who had a way with words.

“Well, then let’s walk there,” Jay said.

When she turned, he put his hand at the small of her back for a short moment, a gesture meant to steer her in the right direction. The touch of his hand was electrifying, and sent hot tendrils of lava into her core, just like it did whenever he used his hands to adjust her yoga poses in class.

As they walked down toward the Potomac, where the Chart House was located, Olivia tried to calm her fluttering heart. This was what she’d been waiting for ever since she’d met Jay.