I tell him what happened, minimizing the part where I stepped between the man and his daughter. A frown crinkles across his forehead. The more I tell him, the deeper the crease gets. If he were Garrett, he would give me the caveman speech about putting myself at risk. How I wasn’t a Marine. And it was the job of men like him to keep women safe. Yada, yada, yada.
Joseph’s callous words about his coworker’s chronic pain lurch into my thoughts. Would he have stepped in to protect me? Would he have stepped in to protect the girl?
I brush the doubt aside. Of course he would have. You don’t have to be a Marine to do something like that, as I’ve proved. It’s just human decency.
“Was anyone hurt?” His frown eases.
“Just a chair. The police came before things could get uglier.”Thank the Lord for that.
Joseph releases a hard breath. “That’s good.”
The waitress puts my wineglass on the table.
Joseph picks up his beer. “So…”
Uncertainty rubs along my flesh at the odd way the word trails off. I don’t respond, waiting to see where the sentence meanders to. It’s not like Joseph to be without words.
Don’t jump to conclusions. You don’t know what’s going on in his head.
It could be he’s still processing what happened to me this afternoon. Lord knows I’m reliving the moment in my head, thinking of better ways I could have dealt with the situation. Wondering what will become of the girl and her family.
“So,” he repeats, tone more determined this time, and somethingabout his voice has my heart sinking. “I’ve been thinking about us. You and Me. And where I see us going…”
Freaking wonderful.This conversation could go one of two ways. He’s on the same wavelength as me and thinks we should get down and dirty.
Or…
“It’s been fun. But this thing between us has been moving too fast. I think we need to end it.”
Too fast?If we went any slower, we’d be going backward.
“Too fast? I’m a little lost here. Is this because I want to have…” I glance to the nearest table, gauging how much the man and woman seated at it can hear. “Sex?”
The word is whispered but at the same time it feels like I’ve screamed it. The attention of the older woman sitting near Joseph darts my way. Her eyebrows disappear behind black-rim glasses and gray-curtain bangs.
Absolutely freaking wonderful. I’m about to be dumped in a restaurant in front of witnesses. Couldn’t he have just dumped me via text? Crass? Yes. But a lot less humiliating than this.
He clears his throat and shifts on his chair. “No. Not at all. It’s just I bumped into my ex-wife the other day…”
I blink, positive I’m in a twisted, modern-day episode ofThe Twilight Zone. “Ex. Wife? What ex-wife? You never mentioned you used to be married.” Hell, he didn’t even have a tan line on his finger from his wedding band.
“We’ve been divorced two years.” There’s a sadness about him I hadn’t noticed until now.
“But you’ve never gotten over her,” I finish for him, kicking myself for not seeing it sooner.
Shit, why do I fall for emotionally unavailable men…the ones still in love with their exes?
I hadn’t fallen yet for Joseph, but the reality of what he just told me still stings. Stings with the force of a dozen wasp bites.
After what I overheard him say about his colleague, I shouldn’t be all that disappointed. Maybe he did me a favor, saving me from greater heartbreak when he tells me the pain in my body is all in my head.
The woman at the next table sends me a look of pity, getting a side order of entertainment with her pasta dish.
Right.I fan out my options. I can sit here and eat dinner as if I don’t have a care in the world. I can storm out, cursing men. Not a bad option given the day I’ve had.
Or I can…
I catch our waitress’s eye and wave her over. “Hi. I’m not staying after all. So please pack my dinner to go. And add a slice of the chocolate ganache cake to my order. Thanks.” I point to Joseph. “But he’s paying for it.” It’s the least he can do.
