Page 17 of Lush Curves

“I – well…” she floundered. “You’renot? Not backing out?”

“Of course I’m not.”

“Oh.” Annie wanted to ram both feet into her stupid mouth. “Oh… so then… erm. How are you?”

He laughed, and she melted a bit more. “I’m a bit confused, but besidesthat, I’m good. How’s your day?”

“Good.” She cleared her throat. “So – what do you need to apologize for?”

“Well…” Again with the hesitation, but this time she waited patiently. “Well, I wonder how you feel about Chorus? Like, do you want to go there?”

“Uh,” she said, now totally befuddled about just what the actual hell this phone call was all about. “Well, sure. I mean, unless there’s some reason thatyoudon’t want to go there? Did it get shut down for a food poisoning violation, or something?”

“God, never. But… well.” Sam sighed a bit. “It’s very – it’s crazy high-end.”

“Oh. Right.” Annie narrowed her eyes. Was he saying that he didn’t want to splash out on her? “You want to take me for pizza instead?”

“I want to take you someplace fit for a princess, Annie, because you deserve to be spoiled and pampered. But –” He stopped again.

“But what?”

“But – I didn’t think for one minute that maybe you’d be worried about your clothes. And I wanted to apologize for that, because I don’t want to cause you one damn second of stress, not ever. So are you? Worried?”

“Oh, Sam.” Annie felt tears prickle her eyes, and Talia frowned. Annie shook her head at her friend, quickly wiped her eyes. “Well… yes. Yes, I was worried about that. I don’t – I don’t have many nice things. Nothing that would be OK to go to Chorus, for sure.”

“And I should have thought. I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s OK.” Annie was back in control of herself now, and her voice had resumed its usual briskness. “I mean, I’m sure that you’re used to being able to ask women to go there, no problems. I’m sure the women you usually take out to dinner have a few designer gowns hanging in their closets.”

“I don’t usually takeanyoneout for dinner,” he said dryly. “I don’t really date.”

“No?” Her heart leapt in her chest.

“No. So… maybe we can do something that makes you comfortable? Why don’t you propose a place for me to take you?”

“Anyplace?” she said, a teasing note creeping into her voice. “Any place at all?”

“Yep. Hit me with it, princess.”

She paused, startled at the way her stomach clenched at the soft, sweet names that he called her. She’d like ‘honey’ just fine, but ‘princess’ was a whole different thing. It made her feel… special. Really special. But more than that, it made her feel – elegant. Sophisticated. Beautiful.

Glamorous.

“Maybe we can go for Chinese food?” she asked, a bit hesitantly, trying to think of something unusual and almost treat-like for her; God knows when she’d get a decent meal bought for her, ever again, and certainly never again by a hot young doctor. “There’s a good place not far from the hospital.”

“God, I want to get asfarfrom the hospital as I humanly can without leaving the city,” Sam said. “Let’s find another Chinese place, OK? Clear on the other side of Denver, if at all possible? Is there one way the hell up in the Rockies, by any chance?”

“But… aren’t you on call on Friday?” she asked, remembering him saying something three years ago aboutalwaysbeing on call, since he was an E.R. doctor. “Don’t you have to stay close, just in case?”

“No. I took a day off work.”

“Like… an official day?”

“Yep. Took one of my vacation days.”

“You – you did?”

“Yep. I wasn’t about to be interrupted on my date with you.” She heard his smile even through the phone, and she found herself smiling too. “Besides, I have about a year’s worth of vacation days banked up, and the hospital administrator keeps bugging me to take some of them already. But I have no good reason to take any, so I just keep racking ‘em up.”

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