Page 5 of Tiger on the Prowl

“So what did you do the last two weeks since you couldn’t work?” Olivia asked. She knew that men liked to talk about themselves, and it was a way for her to show him that she was interested in his life.

“Lots of physical therapy,” he replied, casting her a smile. “Which gets boring day after day. I’m sure your last two weeks were more interesting than mine. I don’t think you ever mentioned what you do for a living.”

Surprised that Jay didn’t launch into a long monologue about his life, but rather asked her questions about her own, Olivia added a few more plus-points to her mental evaluation of the handsome yoga instructor, who apparently didn’t think of himself as the center of the world.

“I’m an editor,” Olivia lied, regretting that she couldn’t tell him what she really did. At least not yet. If things got serious, then of course she’d tell him that she was a sci-fi novelist, but so early in a relationship she couldn’t reveal this secret. Relationship? She was really getting ahead of herself. What if he wasn’t really interested in her?

“For a newspaper or a magazine?”

“Uh, neither. I edit novels, you know, for a publisher.”

“That sounds like a fun job. You get to read novels before they’re even published. You must have gotten to work on a lot of interesting books.”

“Yes, I have. It’s definitely a passion of mine.”

“Do you work in one specific genre?”

“Yes,” she said, deciding to stick to the truth as much as possible. “Sci-fi.”

“Oh, I—”

“I know what you want to say… that it’s something teenage boys read, but—”

He laughed. “No, I wasn’t gonna say that. I was gonna say that I love reading sci-fi.”

“You do? You’re not just saying that?”

“No, of course not. Sci-fi is an amazing genre. It provides a great escape from all the problems in real life.”

She smiled at him, pleased that he didn’t dismiss her favorite genre, because it wasn’t literary fiction. “I watched lots of Star Trek as a child.”

“You were a Trekkie?” He chuckled. “I bet you’d look cute in one of Lieutenant Uhura’s outfits.”

Laughing, she gave him a light slap on his upper arm, and he snatched her hand and held it. “I guess I’d better keep your hand otherwise occupied, before you hit my injured shoulder again.”

She stopped walking. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Jay, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

He shook his head, still holding her hand. “You didn’t, but better safe than sorry, right?” He motioned to their joined hands.

“I agree.” Her heart beat excitedly. Jay was holding her hand! And it had been his move, not hers.

When they reached the restaurant, they managed to get a table on the patio, which overlooked the calm waters of the Potomac.

“I’ve been here a few times, mostly with my family,” Olivia said after they ordered, and the waiter had brought their cocktails.

“Do they live around here, your parents and siblings?” Jay asked, and his eyes portrayed genuine interest.

“My sister does. Grace and her fiancé live in a townhouse in D.C. But my parents moved back to Hawaii a few years ago. Dad missed the island too much.”

“So your father is a native Hawaiian?”

“Yes, of Japanese descent. My mom is from Virginia. She’s white.”

“I’m sure there’s an interesting story about how your parents met.”

Olivia smiled and took a sip from her cocktail. “Mom was on vacation with her college roommates. She watched my dad surf on Waikiki beach, and I guess he swept her off her feet. It was a whirlwind romance. My sister came along less than a year later. She was actually born in Honolulu, but then Dad lost his job, and they decided to move to the mainland. Just for a while, they figured, so my grandparents could help raise us, and both my parents could work. A few years turned into twenty-five.”

“They say time flies when you’re happy,” Jay said just as the food arrived. “Hmm, this looks fantastic.”