McDonald_TWT_GENVers_Feb2014 by Donna McDonald Page A

repeating without explaining.
    She was having a hard time shrugging away the guilt Joe was causing. First she hadn’t even bothered to wear a dress to dinner when Koka’s show had sent a limo for her. Now she was having morning after guilt for not kissing him back like she had wanted to.
    Was she wanting in or wanting out?
    It simply wasn’t fair for her to be so on the fence about a relationship that didn’t have great odds of working out.
    Frustrated, she glared over her coffee at Joe. “Since when are you a poet? What did you and your Todd say about each other the day after his first public outing on a man date?”
    Ignoring her glare, Joe went back to reading the interviews. “Our situation is different. My Todd is still cautious about coming out all the way. In our interviews, we each sort of joked about the dinner being nothing overly important. I said he was a good sport for putting up with a flaming gay like me for the evening.”
    “Well there. Doesn’t that just sum it all up? We both said what was necessary to protect our dates from excessive media hype and negative speculation.”
    Sabine dropped her gaze from Joe and turned her attention back to her lackluster meal. The reason she had called him to come over was because she couldn’t stop thinking about Koka’s banana and rum flavored kiss. It had haunted her all night.
    And Joe was not making things better with his nagging questions.
    “I will never believe it was nothing more than a simple meal. I saw the way the man looked at you. Whatever The Sexy Chef might have fixed for dinner, tasting you was high up on his menu plans,” Joe said bluntly. “And you haven’t said if it happened or not.”
    Sabine ignored the uncomfortably accurate comment and went back to eating her dry chicken. “Last evening is a blur now. I had most of a bottle of champagne in the limo, some killer pineapple shooter concoction he invented, and then a third glass of something I couldn’t identify with the two entrees he cooked. I was in coma after all that. Limo transport is the only reason I made it home in one piece.”
    “I’m not buying any I-was-too-tipsy excuse either,” Joe said, folding the paper. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me what really happened. You have a right to protect your privacy even from someone who has known you for a couple decades.”
    Sabine sighed. “How do you do that? How do you make me feel guilty for no good reason? Okay look Joe—I know I promised you three thousand on a second bet, but I’ll be damned if I spend one more cent on your hare-brained ideas where any man named Todd is concerned.”
    Joe slapped the table in triumph. “ I knew it . I knew I was right. He asked you out.”
    Sabine nodded. “Yes, he did ask me—but I said no.”
    When Joe looked deeply disappointed, she wanted to laugh. “Come on. It was not the kind of evening a newly divorced woman should take too seriously. I’m not ready to date a normal guy yet, much less one that looks as good as Todd Lake does. Martin already did enough damage to my ego. I’m not ready to risk letting another guy have a go at it. Besides . . . I would only be an additional complication in the man’s complicated enough life.”
    Joe shook his head. “Pulling the freshly divorced card doesn’t work with me either, Sabine. I know you and Martin were over long before you two divorced. Don’t you know how lucky you are to find someone actually worth dating?”
    “I didn’t say Todd Lake wasn’t worth dating. Don’t put words into my mouth,” Sabine ordered.
    To make a point, she filled said orifice with another bite of tasteless food while she watched Joe throw up his hands. She loved him, but he was definitely a drama queen when he didn’t get his way.
    “Sabine, you got your very own valentine delivered neatly into your hands and you threw the damn card away before you even read what it said. That was a very dumb move, woman. You need to take flowers to where