Page 7 of Believe in Me

I placed my fork on the edge of my plate and stared at him. “I should?” Was I flirting back? Did I even still know how to flirt?

“Yes, whenever you want.”

“A date?”

He nodded.

“Mr. Higgs, do you—”

“Think you’re attractive, want to go out with you, want to get to know you better? Absolutely, positively, hellyes.”

My mouth hung open for a moment. He was so handsome, which in the past would’ve been strikes one through three for me, but I couldn’t use looks as criteria anymore since Robert had debunked my whole ugly-men-won’t-cheat theory. And besides, I was in no emotional or matrimonial state to even be considering dating this or any other man. Hell, I was still married. And I told him so.

His face fell, and I wished I could take the words back or make them untrue. “Oh…you’re not wearing a ring. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have—”

“We’re separated, have been for a while now, so no ring.”

“Separated?” His voice perked up a bit.

“And getting divorced. But right now, we’re still married.”

“I see.” He smiled. “Then you can let me cook for you.”

“I could, but I shouldn’t, so I won’t.”

He chuckled. “Doc, you’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

“I told you to stop calling me Doc.”

“If you want me to stop calling you that, then you’re going to have to give me something else to call you.”

“Call me Ms. Mattison, then.”

“That your married name?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not calling you that.”

“Why?”

“Because if I do, it’s only going to remind you of the fool that’s letting you get away from him, and he’s already making things hard enough for me. What’s your maiden name?”

“Strickland.”

“I’ll call you Ms. Strickland. I like the sound of that better anyway.”

I tried not to smile, but I did. “Fine.”

“But, you have to call me Zo.”

“You assume we’ll be calling each other anything after today.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You think we won’t?”

“What if we never see each other again?”

“We will, Ms. Strickland. We definitely will.”

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