Page 56 of Embracing Love

Tanya stole a glance over Nadine’s shoulder. “Oh,” Nadine turned and saw the table with Gabriel, “I get it. I totally get it.”

“I didn’t even know I felt that way about him—until yesterday. Is that crazy?”

In answer, she saw the excitement build up in Nadine’s eyes. “It’s not crazy at all. Sometimes you don’t know what you have right under your nose.” She gave Tanya another one of those I-told-you-so looks.

“He has baggage too.”

“Who doesn’t?” replied Nadine. “Only babies have no baggage. The rest of us…”

“His baggage is as crappy as mine.”

“Two big crappy bags of baggage. You’ll have so much in common.” Nadine scooped a spoon of yogurt into her mouth. Tanya had barely touched her plate, and yet she’d been so hungry until Gabriel had ignored her.

“He gave me the cold shoulder.”

“Why?”

And when Tanya said nothing, her friend persisted. “What did I miss?”

Knowing Nadine kept her secrets, she made her confession. “I never told you about Luc, did I?”

Nadine’s eyes widened in an oh-my-god-expression.

“No, nothing happened,” said Tanya leaning in, whispering quickly. “Nothing, I swear to you. I swear.”

“Okay, I believe you.”

“Nothing happened.” Tanya repeated, needing badly for her friend to get this message. “We kissed a couple of times—the second time it might have led to something…thank goodness it didn’t. The night of Thierry’s birthday meal.”

“You said nothing happened!”

“It didn’t. Just a kiss. And then I came home.”

It had been a lucky escape. If he’d let her go to his place, she’d have ended up in his bed.

“And Gabriel is avoiding you because?”

“Because ever since those two incidents, Luc seems to think he has a thing for me. He seems to think I’m interested in him and that if he just worked on me enough times, I might just give in.”

“Doesn’t it bother him that you’re higher up than him and that you’re from head office?”

Tanya shook her head. “I think he can only see the hasn’t-had-sex-in-a-year tag I’ve got branded on my forehead.”

Nadine almost choked on her yogurt. She coughed and thumped her chest, then took a sip of water. Tanya waited for her friend to recompose herself.

“Poor you. I had no idea.” Nadine sympathized. “Do you think maybe you were giving him the come on?”

Only Nadine would say that to her. “Maybe. I think…yes. I’ve not exactly pushed him away. He gave me attention. I took it. I needed to know I was attractive.”

“Oh, honey,” said Nadine. “You are attractive. You just need to get your groove back.”

Tanya smiled, already feeling a little better.

“But, gosh. No sex in over a year? Really? You poor thing.” Nadine spoke as thought she’d just caught the Ebola virus.

“Don’t pity me.”

“Not pitying you.” Nadine dove her spoon into her yogurt again. “So, go on, you shared a kiss…”

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