Page 46 of January

“Jill!” Melinda nearly yelled.

“What? You said she wasn’t supposed to believe me.”

“Oh, my God!”

“It’s okay. I can handle her. Get changed,” Kyle said, laughing softly.

Melinda practically ran up the stairs to her apartment and into her bedroom and pulled out a sweater and a pair ofjeans. She’d expected to have more time to get ready, so she hadn’t thought about what she’d wear yet, and now, she was really regretting not setting something out earlier when they’d gotten back from lunch. By the time Melinda made it back downstairs, only seven minutes had passed, and she was sure she looked like a mess, but Kyle and Jill were still standing there, talking.

“Hey. Are you ready?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she said, walking by Jill and moving to stand next to Kyle. “Good night, Jill.”

“Oh, Kyle invited me to hang with you two. I was kind of hoping I could borrow a shirt or something.”

“She invited–” Melinda turned to Kyle.

Jill laughed and replied, “Have a good night, you two.” Then, she leaned over a little and whispered to Melinda, “You looked so disappointed. That means something. Go with it.” When she stood up straight again, Jill added, “Nice to meet you, Kyle.”

“You too,” Kyle replied.

A minute later, Melinda and Kyle finally left the tour office and entered the semi-busy street.

“So, she’s fun.”

“Did she say something to you?”

“About what, exactly?”

“I don’t know. Just curious what you talked about while I was upstairs.”

“Nothing, really. She asked about my trip so far, where I was from, and then asked for my entire relationship history and professional and personal references. No big deal.”

“She didwhat?” Melinda stopped walking.

Kyle laughed and said, “I’m kidding, Melinda.”

“Oh,” she replied, looking down at the street.

“Listen, I know we’re going to grab dinner right now, but I wanted to ask you something, if that’s okay.” Kyle walked the two steps back to stand next to her.

“Okay.”

“I was wondering if tonight can be a date. If not,because I just showed up so you had to run upstairs while your friend grilled me, and it’s not the right time, I wanted to ask you out for another night. We could do dinner and a movie or something. Maybe outside of the Quarter, or you can show me another part of the city. Not as a tour guide, obviously, but as someone who knows this place better than I do. I’m rambling. Sorry, I’m nervous.”

Melinda watched as Kyle put her hands back into her pockets again and waited for her to say something. The only problem was that Melinda didn’t know what to say. She wanted to say yes. She knew that much. She wanted to go on a date with this ridiculously adorable woman who’d just admitted that she was nervous asking her out.

“Kyle, I don’t–”

“Okay. That’s cool. No big deal. I just had to try. We can pretend like I never said anything, though, right?”

“I want to, Kyle. I really want to. But you’re leaving.”

“Oh,” Kyle uttered.

“I don’t know that we should start something up.”

“Jolie suggested that we didn’t have to make a big deal out of it. It can be a date, you know?”

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