Page 43 of Breaking the Ice

“Just had a couple of beers with some friends at a nearby bar.”

His voice was deep and he looked all scruffy and casual and something pulled hot and taut, deep and low.Hmm. Maybe her eggs weren’t lesbian. Maybe they were just confused.

Or bisexual?

“Are you on your way home?”

Samantha nodded. “I was going to grab an Uber.”

“Fancy walking instead? It’s a nice night.”

It was a twenty-minute walk but probably just what she needed to clear her head. “Sure.”

They fell into step, walking in silence for a few minutes as they navigated the usual Saturday night street scene, clumps of people loitering around clubs and restaurants, laughing and chatting and enjoying themselves.

“Nick,” Samantha said as the revelers thinned out and they left the party zone behind, heading into a less than salubrious area of the city. “Kelly kissed me.”

“I figured.”

Samantha stopped and turned toward him. “You knew?”

Nick also stopped. “Yes.”

“How?”

“Because I’ve been watching her hit on you all week?”

Wait, really? “Was she?”

He chuckled as he slid an arm around her shoulder and started walking again. “Right from the beginning she only had eyes for you. I mean, I don’t want to sound conceited here, but women do tend to find me attractive and she didn’t try to hit on me once.”

Samantha knewallabout that attraction. “I’venever hit on you. Does that make me a lesbian?”

He laughed but quickly sobered when she said, “I’m serious, Nick.”

A crowd of pre-charged merrymakers heading in the direction of the clubs swarmed around them and he moved them out of the way, sidestepping into the entrance of a nearby alley, the brick wall to her back.

“Okay… what’s this about?” he asked as the laughter and raucous chatter faded.

Samantha shrugged, looking at a spot over his shoulder. “What if… Kelly picked up on some… tendency in me that I’m not even aware of? I mean, maybe I can’t find the right guy because deep down I’m actually attracted to women? Which isperfectly finejust… a bit of a surprise after thirty years on this planet.”

“You are not a lesbian, Sam.”

His rebuttal was so swift and sure. “How do you know? How can you be so sure when suddenly even I’m not so certain?”

“Because I know.”

Samantha studied him intently. In the half-light of the alley he looked more like one of Rita’s pirates than he ever had. “What? Like a gut feeling or something?”

“If you like, yes.”

“The problem with that was my gut thought I was straight till tonight as well.” Deflated, she leaned into the wall, her palms flattening on the rough brickwork.

“Okay, look. The kiss. How was it? You told me not long ago about Bec’s theory on the whole kiss thing. So, did the earth move? Did you suddenly think, oh my God I can’t live another day without her kiss in my life? How did it compare to your last hetero kiss?”

She thought about it for a moment. “It was soft and nice but I didn’tfeelanything. But then I hardly remember the last time a man kissed me and I felt anything, either. And at least it wasn’t awful, which is more than can be said for nearly all my kisses lately.”

He sighed. “Okay, fine. You are not gay and I’m going to prove it to you.”

---