Damsel Under Stress by Shanna Swendson Page B

stared at each other for a moment, then the woman hid her face behind her folder and burst into nervous giggles. “I’m so sorry! I guess I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions,” she said.
    As I walked away, untying the apron, I heard him say, “Believe me, I’ll never make a pass at you. Not that I don’t think you’re attractive, but…Okay, can we just forget all this? There’s nothing I can say right now that wouldn’t sound like an insult or get me in trouble.”
    I handed the bartender his apron, then presented him the rose with a flourish. “Thanks! I’ll never forget the look on her face,” I told him, then I hurried back to Ethelinda before he could say anything. I hoped she hadn’t done anything else while I was gone.
    “For what it’s worth,” I said as I took my seat, “there are reasons other than romance for men and women to have dinner together, and you might want to be sure of the reasons before you interfere. You could have ruined that man’s career.”
    She gave a haughty sniff, then summoned dessert. I thought she might have forgotten about my own issues in all the excitement, but just as I dug into the chocolate cake, she asked, “And things are going well for you otherwise? How was your dinner Sunday night?”
    I had to blink myself back to my own relationship concerns. After what I’d seen from her this evening, I knew the last thing I wanted was to have her involved. “Things are going great,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “I doubt he’d have invited me home for Christmas with him if they weren’t. And we’re going out later this week.”
    “Your dinner, though? It went well? Your outfit was good?”
    “The outfit was a big hit, and the dinner was good, too. It started a little awkwardly, but the friends-to-dating transition can be a challenge. We seem to have worked it out, though.”
    “Nothing happened, did it?”
    I instantly grew suspicious. “What do you mean?”
    “Oh, nothing unusual?”
    “You mean like the restaurant catching on fire?”
    “Heavens! Is that what happened?” She seemed so stunned that either she was innocent or she was Dame Judi Dench in costume and makeup, turning in another Oscar-caliber performance.
    “Yeah, but it was a minor fire and nobody was hurt.”
    She fanned herself and looked like she was having heart palpitations. “A brush with disaster! That doesn’t happen to my clients!”
    I grew suspicious again. She was pouring it on awfully thick. “It’s okay, really. Everything worked out.”
    “It did?”
    “Yes, it did, so relax.”
    “That’s good to hear.” She finished her dessert, the empty plates vanished from the table, and she said, “Do you need anything else from me?”
    I hadn’t actually needed that much from her, but I said, “That’s it. I hope I didn’t waste your time.”
    She waved a dismissive hand. “Pish tosh. Time spent with my clients is never wasted, and I needed to eat. Are you sure you don’t need anything else?”
    “Nothing. My roommate’s already loaned me her cashmere sweater collection, so I don’t need any wardrobe help. I don’t need you to turn a pumpkin into a glass BMW. We’ve got our next date planned, and I think I’ll be okay. Yeah, I’m a little nervous, but that’s part of the fun of a new relationship. The butterflies only intensify everything.”
    “Well then, you know how to reach me if you change your mind.” She got up, and I followed her out of the tavern, where she abruptly vanished in her usual burst of glitter. I was halfway tempted to sneak around to Owen’s street and see if his lights were on. Both his study and his bedroom overlooked the street. But, knowing my luck, his Katie radar would be working and he’d look out the window just in time to catch me, and then I’d feel like an idiot. Instead, I hurried home, wondering what was missing from those blank pages Ethelinda mentioned.
     
    Owen was at a meeting and I was sitting at my desk in the