posture changing as a bright smile spread over her face.
“I am looking for Evie Marsh. Is she in?”
“She is. Should I have her come here?”
“Can I go to her office?”
She grinned. “Absolutely. I’ll show you the way.”
“Thank you.”
The woman knocked on a door before pushing it open. Evie was sitting at her desk that was very organized and tidy. Her eyes lit up. “Hi!” she said and jumped to her feet.
“Hi,” I said before turning to look at the pretty receptionist. She smiled and quickly excused herself.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with surprise.
I handed her the flowers. “I thought I would surprise you.”
“These are beautiful. Thank you.”
“You are welcome. Do you have anything going on tonight?”
“Nope.”
“Would you like to have dinner with me?”
She nodded. “I would.”
“My turn to pick the place.”
“That works for me. You know, it’s very good timing you showed up today.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“Because my car is in the shop. I was going to have to take a taxi home.”
I grinned and stepped closer. “Does that mean you need a ride?” We both knew what I was asking. A little sexual innuendo became part of our normal conversation.
“I do,” she whispered.
“I will be your chariot.”
“Let me get my purse.”
I took a second to look around her office that was sparsely decorated and very neat. A couple of minutes later, she was ready to go. Once in the car, I drove her to the grocery store. She made no move to get out of the car. She looked at me with confusion on her face. “Uh, what are we doing here?”
“Grocery shopping.”
She slowly nodded. “Okay.”
“Let’s go.”
I grabbed a cart and began pushing it up and down the aisles, picking the ingredients I needed to make her dinner.
“I think I’m confused,” she said.
“I’m making you dinner,” I told her.
“You’re going to cook me dinner?”
“Yes. I want you all to myself tonight. I don’t want to be in a public setting. I want to leer at you and be completely inappropriate with you while enjoying a nice meal. I can’t do that at a fancy restaurant, at least not without embarrassing both of us.”
She laughed softly. “You make a good point.”
With our groceries bought, I drove us to my place. I was hoping the night went well and I could convince her to sleep over again.
“Sit,” I ordered once we deposited the bags on the kitchen counter.
“I can help,” she offered.
“Nope. I’m making you dinner. I’ll pour you a glass of wine while you watch me cook.”
“You are going to spoil me.”
“I want to spoil you.”
“I think I like the sound of that. Spoil away.”
She sat on one of the barstools while I poured us two glasses of wine. “How was your week?”
“Short,” she said with a smile. “Taking Monday off made for a nice short week.”
“I agree.”
“What about you? Last I talked to you, you were working on some big idea.”
I liked that she was interested in my work. “I’m still working on it.”
“Do you want to share?”
I spread some olive oil in a pan. “I don’t know. I don’t want to sound crazy. This idea is very reminiscent of what happened to me in college.”
“How so?”
I turned to face her. I felt like I could trust her. She wasn’t going to laugh me out of my own kitchen. “When I had a wild idea in college, another Marsh was very unreceptive.”
She winced. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It isn’t your fault. It’s an old beef and I shouldn’t hold it against you.”
“Speaking of Daddy Dearest,” she started, and I flinched. This was the part where she told me we couldn’t see each other anymore.
“I can’t wait to hear this,” I said with a sigh.
“He’s being honored by his school. I guess he’s receiving some big achievement award.”
I nodded and went back to cooking the chicken. “That’s cool,” I said without any emotion. I wasn’t going to say he deserved it. I didn’t think he did. I didn’t think he was a good professor. If anything, he was squashing more dreams than he was helping come to life.
She laughed and I turned to look at her over my shoulder. “I’m sorry. You don’t care about that. Tell me your idea.”
“It isn’t that I don’t care,” I said, trying to think of a way to soothe things.
“It’s fine,” she said. “He wasn’t nice to you.”
“It isn’t that he wasn’t nice. It was more about me being young and looking for a little reassuring. I don’t