He’d only seen her twice since that night and both times, he’d made it a point to be sitting in the kitchen when she left for work. But they had only engaged in brief conversation, mainly about the weather and work. What he’d really wanted to talk about was their kiss, how much he had enjoyed it. And he really needed to find out what she wanted to do about the sexual chemistry that kept getting stronger every time they saw each other.
“Hello, Dr. Stanhope.”
He looked over to see Dr. Nestor walking beside him. She’d avoided him since the day he had shown her the door and was surprised she had sought him out now. “Hello, Dr. Nestor. How are you?”
She smiled over at him. “I’m fine, but I would be doing even better if I could entice you into joining me for dinner tomorrow. I’m a pretty good cook.”
Fat chance getting him over to her place, he thought. “Sorry, but I have plans,” he said, although he was playing fast and loose with the word plan.
He decided it was time to be upfront with her, so he pulled her aside. “Listen, I respect you as a colleague, Rosemary, but that’s as far as it goes.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re still upset with me.”
He nodded to a doctor who passed them and then glanced back at her. “I am not upset with you, but I am disappointed. Character is important to me, and the best way to determine a person’s character is to watch how they treat others. I have a real problem with anyone thinking they are better than someone else, just because of their occupation, educational status or race. In fact, it’s something I won’t tolerate in anyone I consider a friend.”
She didn’t say anything. Instead, she nibbled on her bottom lip. Seeing her do that had no effect on him at all, not like it did when he saw Sebrina doing it. “If I change my ways, will you reconsider going out with me?” she asked.
“You shouldn’t want to improve just to go out with me. I’d think you would want to improve because it is the right and decent thing to do. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go check on my patients.”
Then he walked off, hoping he’d given her something to think about.
Sebrina grinned as she sat down at the table where two other women were already seated. “You guys are so wrong for doing this.”
“Why?” Victoria asked, returning the grin. “Don’t you like surprises?”
“Yes, but when I talked to you a few nights ago, you didn’t mention anything about coming to St. Paul.”
Then she turned to Kennedy. “And when I talked to you yesterday about meeting you for lunch today, you didn’t say anything about Victoria being in town.”
Kennedy laughed. “Like Victoria said, it was meant to be a surprise and one I figured you would like. Besides, I thought you could use a little fun. The last few times we spoke, you sounded pretty uptight. Not like yourself.”
Sebrina could believe that. She really needed to talk to someone about what was going on with Parker. And these two, along with Monica, were not only her relatives but her closest friends. Confiding in them would be like old times. “Well, if a handsome hunk kissed you until your panties were wet and then proceeded to give you an open invitation to his bedroom but so far you haven’t taken him up on his offer, you would be uptight, too.”
Kennedy nearly choked on the water she’d been drinking. Victoria, on the other hand, just sat there with an even wider grin on her face. “Do tell,” she said. “And you’d better not leave out anything, Bree.”
Before Sebrina could get started, the waiter came to take their order. But as soon as he left, her cousins looked at her expectantly.
“There’s not a lot to tell, really. Parker and I tried dating someone else, although not really. He only went out with this one woman, and I went to dinner with Bob.”
“Is Bob still boring?” Kennedy asked.
Sebrina smiled. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“And he still doesn’t like any conversation while he eats?” Victoria added.
“Yes. He still has that quirk. He doesn’t like it when people talk when they have food in their mouths. He feels conversation should be withheld until after the meal.”
“Well, next time you need to tell good ole Bob that some people know how to talk in between bites,” Victoria said.
“There’s no need—we won’t be seeing each other again.” She explained how the evening had ended.
“Good riddance, if he thought a meal entitled him to a place in your bed,” Kennedy said frowning. “I’m glad you’ve finally kicked him to the curb.”
Sebrina took a sip of her wine. “I left out something about my dinner date with Bob.”
“What?”
“We weren’t the only ones dining at the restaurant that night.”
Kennedy raised a brow. “Who else was there?”
“Parker and his date.”
Victoria’s eyes widened. “Get out of here. Did you know he would be there?”
“No. I knew he was going out with someone that same night, but I didn’t ask where he was going, and he didn’t ask me. It was a complete surprise.”
“Did he see you?”
Sebrina nodded. “Yes. In fact, he and I paid more attention to each other than we did to our dates. You wouldn’t believe how strong the sexual tension was between us.”
“I can imagine,” Victoria said. “How did his date look?”
“She was pretty but talked a lot. Like, a lot. Basically, she was a female version of Bob.”
“Poor Parker,” Kennedy said, chuckling.
“It worked out in his favor. In both our favors, actually. Since our dates were so wrapped up in themselves, neither one noticed Parker and I had a side thing going.”
“So what happened when the two of you got home?” Victoria asked.
“I honestly thought he wasn’t home. I figured he would spend the night with his date.”
“Even after making eyes at each other all night at the restaurant?” Victoria asked.
Sebrina shrugged. “He is a man and men are capable of turning an attraction for one woman into foreplay for the next.”
“Spoken like a truly jaded woman. But obviously, that’s not what he did,” Kennedy added.
“You’re right. He was home, and when I arrived, he came out of his room. We kissed and it was everything I thought it would be. That’s when he said that dating other people wasn’t working, then suggested we do something about the chemistry between us. He said that maybe, if we slept together, we could work it out of our system.”
“I guess you didn’t go along with it.”
“No, I didn’t. I pointed out to him that we’d only had one date, not nearly enough to make a difference. But he’s convinced it wouldn’t matter, and until we do something about the attraction between us, we’ll have to find a way to deal with it.”
“I agree, but then I told you why,” Victoria said. “Every time Cortez and I would see each other at some family function, we were like a live wire. I don’t regret my decision to go back to Paris with him. Look where it got me. Married to the man I love.”