wharf, or do you need to eat now?”
Yasmine must have been desperate for affection, because that one little gesture of concern for her well-being nearly melted her heart. “I guess I can hold out for clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.”
They made it back to her apartment, dropped off the tree and headed out for the streetcar stop a block away.
As an adult, Yasmine drove everywhere. She hadn’t taken a streetcar probably since her teen years. And standing at the corner, without warning, her chest filled up with a strange longing for something she couldn’t name.
Something about Kyle and the streetcars and this little escape from reality they seemed to have embarked upon made her think too much about the past, about the things she couldn’t change. But she couldn’t let that crap get her down now. She owed herself a weekend of pure escapist fantasy, and she was determined to enjoy every fleeting moment of it.
THE STREET CAR stopped on The Embarcadero not far from Fisherman’s Wharf, and Alex reminded himself for the hundredth time why he was with Yasmine. Not to have fun, and not to forget all his problems, but to find out if she was still a hacker. He’d suggested they go on their little tourist excursion as a way to gain her trust, to get her to let her guard down in a completely different environment than the one in which she usually lived. But it was just so damn easy to lose himself in her company, and he had to admit, he was thoroughly enjoying playing the tourist in his adopted city for the first time.
During the ride to the waterfront, they took in the scenery together, probably looking to all the world like a pair of happy lovers. He felt more comfortable with Yasmine than he should have, and he liked her more than he should have. She was more comfortable in her own skin than most of the women he’d ever known, and her comfort with herself made it easy for others to be at ease with her.
He couldn’t help thinking, in another time, another place, maybe they could have been a real couple. But as soon as the thought formed in his head, he banished it. He knew too well the dangers of wanting what he couldn’t have.
When they reached their final stop, Alex stepped off the street car and extended his hand to Yasmine as she stepped down, too. The weather here was a little windier than it had been at her place, and he was glad now that he’d worn a heavy leather jacket and his flannel-lined jeans. The scent of the ocean mingled with the less pleasant odor of sea lions, and as they crossed onto the sidewalk, they had to keep moving to avoid blocking the steady stream of tourists milling through.
“Where to?” he asked Yasmine once they had a chance to stop and get their bearings.
“Toward the smell of food.”
They wandered a row of seafood vendors until they found one with the best looking bowls, then crossed the street with their sourdough bowls and colds cans of Coke and sat on a concrete platform where people, seagulls and pigeons gathered for lunch. A particularly large seagull landed a few feet away from them and stood eyeing their food, while the less aggressive birds nervously edged closer a few inches at a time.
“You think he’ll attack?” Alex asked.
“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ so much as ‘when.’ We’d better eat fast.”
He looked over and caught Yasmine tossing the seagull a piece of bread. “Isn’t that illegal or something?”
“Shh. I’m buying us time.”
He stole another glimpse of her and his heart swelled in his chest. He’d never wanted a woman so much as he wanted her then, sitting beside him on this cool, damp day. And he’d never been a bigger fool in his life. How had he turned physical desire into emotional desire overnight?
Okay, so it was a natural progression, but he’d been a fool not to anticipate it, not to realize he wasn’t the kind of guy who slept with women indiscriminately. He’d always considered sex a small part of the big picture in relationships.
He focused on the hot chowder and tried to let the more troubling thoughts vacate his mind, but no luck. By the time he’d emptied the bread bowl and started breaking off pieces of it to eat, the thought that he was getting too emotionally involved with Yasmine could not be ignored.
“You