“It’s hot in here.”

“I can turn up the air conditioning. It’s not a big deal.”

“If you want. But I’m fine now.”

This was a joke. It had to be a joke. “Isabel,” I said painfully. “I’m trying to not be a dude here and molest you with my eyes, but you’re not making it easy. I really need you to put on your clothes.”

“I really need you to stop calling me Isabel.” Her voice wavered. “It’s freaking me out.”

Everything was freaking me out but I needed to take charge of this situation, once and for all. “I’ll stop calling you Isabel if you put your clothes back on. That’s my offer, take it or leave it.” I injected firmness into my voice, something that I was fairly certain she would respond to. Whatever the hell was going on at the moment, she had definitely struck me as someone who was a rule follower.

There was a brief silence then she said, “Fine.” I heard shuffling around.

“Are you dressed?”

“Yes.” Her voice was petulant.

I didn’t care. Looking up, I was reassured to see that while she still didn’t have pants, at least the shirt and panties were back in place. We’d have to work on the pants. Maybe I could offer her loose fitting shorts if she didn’t want to pour herself back into those skinny jeans. “Thank you.” I went for a piece of pizza and shoved half of it into my mouth, chewing hard, thinking even harder. Swallowing I eyed her. “Do you understand why you’re here?”

There was that momentary panic in her eyes again. “I… I don’t know. Because we…” She hesitated, her nose wrinkling.

“Because we what?” I asked warily.

“We like each other?” It was posed to me as a question.

One I didn’t know what to make of it. “Well. Yes. Sure. I mean, of course we like each other. But we don’t like each other, if you know what I’m saying.”

Her eyes widened. “You don’t like me?” Her lip started to tremble.

Ah, hell. “No, that’s not what I meant. Of course I like you. But we’re not naked friends. You need to keep your clothes on.” I almost called her Isabel but stopped myself in the nick of time.

“Why aren’t we naked friends?” She picked up a napkin from the stack the deliveryman had brought and wiped her mouth. “I don’t mind.”

If you wanted to get technical, I didn’t mind either, but I couldn’t do that. Isabel was not the kind of girl I could just hook up with and move on from. I wasn’t really a hit it and quit it kind of guy anyways, but when I did have sex, it was not with girls I might have to see at some family outing later on down the road, or girls who were as innocent as Isabel. Not that she was acting particularly innocent at the moment. But my usual type was strong, loud-mouthed women who got in my face and got pissed for no reason and threw all my clothes out onto the front lawn when we broke up. I didn’t date women who cried and I didn’t date women I would ever want to commit to long term or have as the mother of my future demon spawn.

Nope, I purposefully chose women that would never tempt me to fall in love and get married, because then you got hurt. You got your face ground down into the dirt. You were vulnerable and whipped and when you least expected it, she rolled out on you, like you were nothing, leaving you standing in the drive, beaten down. Not going to happen to me. Ever.

So Isabel could put her little come-hither face away because I wasn’t going there with her, not ever. She was too sweet, and apparently, seductive too, which was well and truly the most deadly combination ever.

“Because I respect you,” I said flatly. But I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out and wiping the corner of her mouth where some errant pizza sauce was stuck, then bringing my thumb to my lips to lick it off. “Now I’m going to get you some pants, then you’re going to try to remember what happened earlier today. Let’s start with when you woke up and what you did first.”

She eyed me, silently. I couldn’t gauge how she was feeling and since she didn’t leap to answer me about her movements for the day, I went into my bedroom and yanked open a drawer, pulling out some basketball shorts. I returned and handed them to her. She took them and put them on, but gave me a look that about froze my balls off. Icy. No other word for it.

What the hell did I deserve that for? You try to be a nice guy, and look what it got you. The silent treatment.

But at least she was covered up, if I ignored her nipples poking through the cotton of her shirt. And I was going to get answers, because this was not how I’d planned to spend my Tuesday night and it was time to get to the bottom of this, and I didn’t mean that as a sexual innuendo. “So you don’t remember anything? Is that why you’re not speaking?”

I reached for another piece of pizza and gave her a long look, trying to make it clear I meant business. This wasn’t a game.

She looked beyond me. “I’ve never been here, have I? Your apartment isn’t what I expected.”

That was not an explanation for jack shit. I was starting to get frustrated. “What did you expect?” I asked, then wasn’t sure why. What did I care what she thought my apartment would look like? And why would she have given any thought to my apartment anyway? I hadn’t given any thought to where she lived most of her life. Not once. Not because I was a dick, but because Isabel and I weren’t in the same world, no matter that my father and her mother had been naïve enough to tie the knot. I admit, I had given thought to her in the house in Coral Gables, but that had nothing to do with her, and everything to do with the fact that I was pissed at my dad for signing the house over without even discussing it or telling me.

I wasn’t ashamed of my apartment, because it was mine, all mine. Not bought with my father’s dirty money. If Isabel and her college taste didn’t like that, oh, well. It was what it was.

“I expected… I don’t know. Something more personal.” She handed me my beer and I took it absently. “This is a lonely apartment.”

Did Isabel feel sorry for me? I was both touched and annoyed. “My apartment is not lonely. It’s a crash pad. I like to decompress here. I work a lot of hours.”