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“What isn’t?”
“I can’t like him like this. My brain… it can’t handle it,” I cry, pointing to my head.
“You just need to get him out of your system,” Liz offers, as if I don’t already know that. “Or hook up with someone else, scratch that itch.” Her blue eyes scan the room. “There’s a lot of good meat here. But I’d run it by me first.”
“She doesn’t need to ask your permission before she hooks up with someone,” Sher interjects.
“It has nothing to do with permission, Sher. We don’t like sharing men, that’s all,” Liz defends herself.
“Oh.” Sher says, still looking confused.
“We can’t date our clients,” I tell Liz. “At least of that much I’m sure.”
Jose comes up to us just then. “Ladies,” he greets. “So, Cat, I wanted to get us all together tonight for dinner. A goodbye without knowing who we’re saying goodbye to sort of thing before Monday’s elimination. You up for it?”
Dean walks by, giving me a sly smile I’m convinced says he knows that I’ve done nothing but think about him for days. It’s asking me if I’m ready to take him seriously now.
“Um, yeah, dinner tonight sounds good. Who else is going?” I ask Jose.
“So far I’ve asked you and…” he’s talking, but I’m not listening to a word he’s saying.
A woman I’ve never seen before, much too curvy, much too sensual, is talking to Dean now. I can’t read lips, but if I could, I’d bet she’s asking him, “What’s your favorite position? Workout position, that is.”
And he’d say something like, “I like all positions,” because at the end of the day, the remark would go over his head. Most men like to think they have dirty minds, but in my personal opinion, women’s thoughts aren’t just always in the gutter. They ARE the gutter.
Reese’s words suddenly come back to haunt me. If I didn’t want him, some other woman would be happy to come along and gobble him up. And this woman seems up for it. She looks like some sort of predator, too, with her claws painted red and a slick tongue.
She laughs at something he says and presses her hand to his chest. He doesn’t protest either. My head feels near the point of combustion.
“Are you okay, Cat?” Jose asks me.
At that precise moment, Dean turns to us. I don’t know what happens; maybe I black out a little. It’s almost an out of body experience. A smile pulls my lips, and I’m suddenly channeling that woman, giggling at something that really isn’t funny. I bat my lashes up at Jose. Poor, stunned, Jose.
“Maybe we should do dinner just the two of us,” I say huskily, and touch his forearm.
Sheridan and Liz, who are standing next to me, suddenly disappear.
“I… You do remember I don’t date…” Jose starts, but I cut him off.
“Sh. Let’s not make this about gender.”
“But it is,” Jose states.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Dean watching us intensely.
“Can you just go with it?” I ask through a fake smile.
Jose turns to see what has me so out of sorts. When he looks back to me, I can see he finally gets it. He leans in and whispers, “Only because you brought me lunch yesterday.” When he pulls away, he’s giving me one of his million dollar deep dimpled smiles. I’m not so sure I buy it, but it doesn’t matter. Dean has.
For the first time since I’ve met him, the ever-constant smile has vanished from his face.
“Hope you get what you wanted with that,” Jose says as he walks away.
Me, too, except that I really didn’t know what I was going for. Did I want to make Dean jealous because I felt that way? Did I want him to react to the possibility of me with another man if he doesn’t step up to the plate?
Well, I guess there’s no going back now. I join the girls, sitting beside them to stretch nonchalant.
“What was that all about?” Liz asks.
