Lone Rock by Duane Lindsay

Author:Duane Lindsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Duane Lindsay
Published: 2017-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

27 – How About a Couple’s Special

“How about the couple’s special?”

Maggie looked at the menu. “Sweet and Sour Chicken, Cashew Chicken or Moo Goo Gai Pan. Sure.” She sipped tea and looked at Adrian over the rim of the cup. Steam wafted gently around her eyes.

“Are we a couple?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s our fourth date, the couple’s special?” she grinned wickedly, partially hidden by the cup. Adrian was so much fun to tease.

“I don’t... don’t know...we’re—” Adrian stammered. He looked away quickly, his eyes darting around the tiny oriental restaurant. He saw blood red tables with lavender chairs, heavy white napkins and tiny women in kimonos, ornately carved room dividers of ebony, delicate tea cups, anything but Maggie. She let the silence last, watching him with a Cheshire cat grin. Finally, just before she was about to rescue him, he said, “Yes.” His voice seemed a little strangled.

“Yes,” he said again with more assurance.

“Oh, my,” said Maggie. She lowered the cup slowly, surprised by his seriousness. Why should she be surprised, she wondered, he was always so serious. “Adrian, I was kidding.”

“I’m not,” he told her firmly.” I like you...a lot.” Adrian thought about their last date, that magical concert and the uncomfortable intimacy in the car. He’d thought of it constantly in the weeks following. The moment he should have kissed her. With surprising boldness, right out loud and in public, he said. “I should have kissed you last time,”

“In the car?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yes, you should have,” she agreed absently. Everything she knew about men shouted that Adrian Beck, so recently recovered from devastating injuries, was vulnerable. The earnest look on his face said this was a challenge for him, and a risk. But how big a risk, she wondered. Was Adrian the type of man who would break down when she told him what she had to say? She sighed.

“I have to tell you something,” she said and he widened his eyes in apparent interest. “When I called you,” she said. “When I called you—”

The waiter appeared suddenly, like a genie at her side and she grabbed the delay. “I’ll have the Lemon Chicken, with fried rice. Adrian, what will you have?” There, she thought, that put an end to the couple’s special. She wondered if he’d get the hint.

The waiter left.

“You wanted to say?”

“This will be difficult.” Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes. “When I called you I wanted to get a lead into your company.”

“I know,” he said, calmly.

“I know you know. And when I kept calling and getting the runaround, it became a sort of game...like I was going to keep calling until I got you.”

“Okay, you got me.” He smiled at his double meaning and she felt a sense of exasperation.

“No, you don’t understand, Adrian. Even after I got through to you, and we went to the baseball game, I was still more interested in your company than in you.”

“Okay,” he said again. His calmness was beginning to annoy her, since her main concern was her own sense of guilt.

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