4
I dropped my purse and keys, probably would’ve dropped my cell phone, too, had it not been tucked away in the pocket of my lab jacket.
He quickly bent his towering frame over and picked my belongings up, offering them to me with a smile. “Here you go.”
“Uh…thank you. You-you startled me.”
His smile disappeared, replaced by a slight frown. “I did? I’m sorry.” He looked down at himself and back at me, his expression a bit softer. “Am I that ugly?”
My eyes widened. “Ugly? God, no! You’re nowhere near ugly.” Geez, that was a bit much. “Uh, I’ve just had a rough morning. Kind of out of sorts. I’m actually heading out to lunch now.”
The smile returned. “Really? Can I join you? My treat.”
“Uh…” I really didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know him, and I was still married. Was I even supposed to be having lunch with another man? Then again, it wasn’t like it was a date. But still… “I don’t think so.”
The smile left again, and I instantly missed it. “Oh, okay. Well, I was actually coming here to talk to you about my sister. When would be a good time to come back?”
It was my turn to frown. “Is she okay? The baby’s all right?”
“Yeah, yeah. I just wanna make sure she has everything she needs. I worry about her, you know?”
I smiled. “Well, she’s really not my patient. Cassandra is her midwife and—”
“I know, but I’m more comfortable with you.”
His eyes were glued to mine, and he looked so good in his slacks, blazer, and dress shirt. And my husband had ruined most of my day in person and in thought. I needed…something. A distraction? I don’t know, but that unidentified need made me say, “You know what? I think I’ll take you up on your offer after all. Where do you want to have lunch?”
*****
I drove my own vehicle, opting to follow him to the restaurant rather than take him up on his offer to ride with him in a cream-colored Cadillac Escalade driven by Rell.
Once we were seated at our table in Young’s, an overly-expensive steakhouse, I asked, “Is Rell going to join us?”
“No,” Lorenzo said, looking up from the menu and meeting my eyes.
“Oh, did he leave? He’s coming back for you?”
He shook his head. “No, he’s probably on the lot in the car.”
“Oh…”
He smiled. “Are you worried about him or something?”
“No, I just think it’s odd. I mean, what does he do when you’re somewhere for hours?”
“He stays with the car unless I instruct him otherwise.”
“I see.” I refocused my attention on the menu and fell silent.
“You don’t like that he stays with the car? He’s the driver. That’s what he’s supposed to do,” he said.
Without looking up, I replied with, “It’s none of my business. I don’t know him. I don’t know you. I was just curious.”
We dropped the conversation altogether when the waiter reappeared to take our orders. After he left, I asked, “What was it you wanted to talk about? Something to do with your sister?”
He stared at me, then stood up. “I’ll be right back.”
“Uh, okay.”
He left, and I kind of just sat there thinking to myself that this was the strangest lunch meeting or whatever it was I’d ever attended. Somewhere between five and ten minutes later, he returned with Rell.
“Do you want him to join us, or do you think he should have his own table?”
I peered up at Rell, who looked both surprised and a little uncomfortable, and it occurred to me that maybe he liked waiting outside. Maybe he wasn’t sociable. “I-I don’t know, Mr. Higgs. Ask him.”
He sighed lightly and turned to Rell. “You wanna eat with us, man?”
Rell shook his head and looked at me, shaking it again.
“You want your own table?”
He shook his head once more, rested a meaty hand on his boss’ shoulder, and gave me a little smile and a nod before leaving the restaurant. Lorenzo reclaimed his seat and took a sip of his water.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said.
“I wasn’t going to have it said that I mistreat my employees. Rell is not the most social person. He likes being alone.”
“You could’ve just told me that, and anyway, like I said before, it’s none of my business.”
“Well, you kind of made it your business when you brought it up.”
I reclined in my chair a bit. “Mr. Higgs—”
“You can call me Lorenzo, but I’d actually prefer for you to call me Zo.”
“No.”
He leaned forward. “Why?”
“What did you want to talk to me about regarding your sister?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing,” he repeated.
“But you said—”
“I know what I said. Look, I appreciate how you took care of her and the baby, and hell, how you helped me. We were all in a panic until you got there. Your presence calmed us and got my little sister through everything better than I could’ve imagined. I wanted to thank you, but I knew you wouldn’t allow me to do it properly otherwise.”
I scoffed. “So you tricked me into going to lunch with you?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. And I’m still going to make that donation.”
I shook my head and would’ve left had the waiter not shown up right at that moment with our food. I was hungry and he was paying, so I dug in without another word.
Halfway through our meal, he broke into our mutual silence, asking, “How is it?”
I looked up at him. He had this serious look on his face that made me believe he really cared about my answer. “Delicious. How’s yours?”
“Good, but I could do better.”
“You cook?”
“Yes. You should let me cook for you sometimes.”
Wait a minute. Was he flirting with me?
I placed my fork on the edge of my plate and stared at him. “I should?” Was I flirting back? Did I even still know how to flirt?
“Yes, whenever you want.”
“A date?”
He nodded.
“Mr. Higgs, do you—”
“Think you’re attractive, want to go out with you, want to get to know you better? Absolutely, positively, hell yes.”
My mouth hung open for a moment. He was so handsome, which in the past would’ve been strikes one through three for me, but I couldn’t use looks as criteria anymore since Robert had debunked my whole ugly-men-won’t-cheat theory. And besides, I was in no emotional or matrimonial state to even be considering dating this or any other man. Hell, I was still married. And I told him so.
His face fell, and I wished I could take the words back or make them untrue. “Oh…you’re not wearing a ring. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have—”
“We’re separated, have been for a while now, so no ring.”
“Separated?” His voice perked up a bit.
“And getting divorced. But right now, we’re still married.”
“I see.” He smiled. “Then you can let me cook for you.”
“I could, but I shouldn’t, so I won’t.”
He chuckled. “Doc, you’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
“I told you to stop calling me Doc.”
“If you want me to stop calling you that, then you’re going to have to give me something else to call you.”
“Call me Ms. Mattison, then.”
“That your married name?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not calling you that.”
“Why?”
“Because if I do, it’s only going to remind you of the fool that’s letting you get away from him, and he’s already making things hard enough for me. What’s your maiden name?”
“Strickland.”
“I’ll call you Ms. Strickland. I like the sound of that better anyway.”
I tried not to smile, but I did. “Fine.”
“But, you have to call me Zo.”
“You assume we’ll be calling each other anything after today.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You think we won’t?”
“What if we never see each other again?”
“We will, Ms. Strickland. We definitely will.”