LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Reservations?” Simon asked Sara beneath the noise.

      She shook her head. “We just head on out.”

      Simon grabbed his jacket and turned out the lights. As the girls galloped down the hall, he looked at Sara. “You can do this? It’s not interfering with any other plans?”

      “You think I’d abandon you now?”

      He winced. “Am I that transparently desperate?”

      “Oh, yeah.”

      He laughed. “Thank you for the lifeline.”

      “Just tossing back the one you threw me earlier.”

      The look he gave her was…was something. Was it interest? In her? No, there wasn’t a gleam. Hayden and Missy said she’d see a gleam. She wanted to see that gleam, which meant she’d probably spend the whole evening trying to cause one.

      She drove her own car, leading the way so Simon wouldn’t have to admit that he didn’t know where Dave and Buster’s was. His car was a plush luxomobile, on the sedate side for her, but she knew he had to drive visitors around. Besides, on her list hadn’t she only specified that her perfect man’s car should be running?

      When they arrived at the restaurant, Amber and Kayla fled to the bathroom to put on lip gloss and eye makeup, Sara guessed.

      Simon gripped her arm. “Quick—what kind of place is this?”

      Sara briefed him. “Video games. Pinball machines. Super interactive games that you can play against other people by getting in pods.”

      “Pods, got it.”

      “Expensive.”

      “Roger that.”

      “You can win tickets that are redeemable for prizes. Mostly plastic junk, but some cool stuff. To eat, there’s pizza and hamburgers and drinks, but regular adult meals, if you want them. It’s a lot of fun.” When he nodded in all seriousness, she added, “It’s not a place to be uptight.”

      Simon immediately removed his tie and stuffed it into his pocket. He sure got points for catching on quick. If he stuck with Sara, Kayla would think he was the coolest big brother ever.

      Sara smiled, just because he was trying so hard.

      Simon smiled back.

      Oh, yes. The smile was good. The smile drew a person—her—right in. The smile made a person—her, again—forget other stuff, stuff like time and place and circumstances.

      Sara reached out, then hesitated.

      “What?” Simon asked.

      “Uh…you need to…” She hesitantly unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

      She could feel the warmth of his skin and was aware that his eyes never left her face. When she glanced up at him, she saw an intensity in his expression, but she wasn’t sure what it conveyed. It was an expression she wasn’t familiar with and she tried to analyze it. She wanted to be able to report back to Hayden and Missy and see what their take was.

      Without knowing better, she’d say it was longing. But why would Simon Northrup look longingly at her?

      The girls erupted from the restrooms and Sara took a step backward. They’d been hitting the lip gloss and some flowery scent and had combed their hair. Their cheeks and eyes sparkled—and not just from excitement.

      Simon either didn’t notice, or wisely chose not to say anything.

      Kayla gave Sara a wary look and Sara responded by brushing one of her own cheeks to indicate that Kayla had gone too heavy on the glitter. Kayla rubbed at her cheek and raised her eyebrows. Sara gave her a nod and a discreet thumbs-up. Too bad Sara only had a big brother. She would have been a really cool big sister.

      They were shown to a table and Sara made sure they ordered pizza. Kayla would have glowed, Sara thought, even without the glittery skin gel.

      “This rocks!” She and Amber craned their necks all around.

      “While we wait for the pizza, I bet Kayla and Amber would like to play some games,” Sara prompted.

      Kayla quivered in delight.

      Simon looked at her. “It’s fine with me.”

      Sara raised her eyebrows. “Now, Simon, don’t tease. Go ahead and give them some token money.” She looked at Kayla. “He’s afraid you’ll forget about the pizza and we’ll be stuck here with a bunch of cold cheese.”

      “No, we won’t. Promise!”

      Simon reached into his pocket for change. “Let’s see what I’ve got here.” He meticulously picked out five quarters.

      “You are such a kidder.” Sara hoped he actually was kidding. With him, it was hard to tell. “Give me that wallet, bud.” The girls giggled as Sara snatched it out of his unresisting hands and looked through the folding money. Okay, so his walking around money equaled her next month’s rent. Wasn’t financial solvency on her ideal-man list?

      She shouldn’t be thinking of Simon in terms of the list and drat Hayden for suggesting him.

      She pulled out a twenty and nudged Simon’s foot when he opened his mouth to object. “Get a couple of power cards and come back for the pizza, or we’ll come find you. And you know how embarrassing that would be.”

      Kayla snatched the twenty and she and Amber hurried off with a gushing thanks, a giggle and two huge smiles.

      Simon stared after them. “You gave her twenty dollars.”

      “And you’ll give her twenty more before the night is over. Expensive, but a bargain. Did you see her face?”

      “Yes.” He looked at Sara. A long time. Long enough for her insides to get fluttery. “Thanks.”

      “I owed you,” she told him.

      “Not this much.”

      “More.”

      “I’d argue, but the night is very young and Kayla is very temperamental.”

      “Hormones. Don’t worry about it.”

      “Never underestimate the power of hormones.”

      Good advice, because Sara was aware of a little hormone simmering herself. They needed to just unsimmer because number one, while she didn’t actually work with, or for, Simon, they did work at the same company and anyone who had ever read Cosmo knew that was a royal no-no. Sara even had the added reinforcement of Hayden’s example. Examples. Hayden survived just fine, though, because when she was finished with men—and she was usually finished with them first—she was finished. Completely. There were sticky moments from those who failed to get the message, but they all eventually got said message because Hayden could be witheringly blunt.

      Sara didn’t ever seem to be finished with men before they were finished with her. She also had a low humiliation threshold. That would be the number two reason to cool it with Simon.

      Very mature and rational reasoning on why this “date” was purely for practice, if Sara did say so herself, conveniently ignoring the fact that she’d decided not to practice on Simon. She waited for the coolness and calmness of logic to soothe the prickly awareness of him. The awareness part wasn’t bad; it added a nice, harmless zing to their dealings.

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