Page 69 of Miss Understanding

“Are you off?”

“Almost,” came her reply.

“Call me on your way home?” I lay in my bed waiting for her reply, hoping she would. It had been tempting to go to the club. However, I considered one night there stalkerish enough.

Still, I hated the thought of her being out at this hour. I’d seen the way she’d dressed last night. Like pure sin. Although she had a bouncer accompany her in the parking lot at the club, there was no one at her apartment building to watch over her.

When my phone rang with her number, I picked up immediately. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“How was work?”

“Busy. How was your day?”

I’d gone for a run. Worked on the deposition. Billed hours on two other cases as well. My day had been boring. Uninspiring. Uneventful until the moment I heard her voice. “Better now.”

“Me, too.”

I wanted to ask her to come over. For a guy accustomed to his solitude, it was a strange sensation to want her here with me. “You still there?”

“Yeah. I looked for you tonight. Is that weird?”

“Not any weirder than me being tempted to show up again.” It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her to drive here now, but the timing of her yawn reminded me she hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. “You seeing your family this afternoon?”

“Yeah. I’ll do dinner with them and head back up.”

“What time do you think it’ll be?” It was a vague way of asking if she might be open to coming over.

“Not sure.”

Either she was too tired to realize what I was asking or it was her way of avoiding an actual answer. “You almost home?”

“Mm. Almost.”

“Will you stay on the phone with me until you’re inside your apartment?”

“Do you have ten minutes of conversation in you at this hour?”

“I’m a litigator; I always have something I can say.” Of course that was in a court room, not with personal chitchat, but with her, I wanted to know more. “Tell me what you like to do for fun.”

“Hang out with my family. Cook. Bake. Binge the Food Network shows.”

She was definitely in the wrong field if her hobbies included her passions. “Sounds like you need to be a chef.”

“Someday, maybe.” My suggestion elicited a sigh. “How about you? What do you like to do for fun?”

“Work out.” I’d thought it was a fair answer until she laughed.

“Working out is your idea of fun?”

I was a bit defensive with my reply. “It’s necessary to stay in shape.”

“And I did appreciate that fact earlier this morning.”

She not only knew how to soothe an ego, but also how to make me blush. Now I was thinking about having her back in my bed.

“But what do you do to unwind? What were you doing this evening before you called?”