Page 18 of Fierce-Hyde

“I have no excuse for my behavior the night in the bar other than I had too much to drink. I wasn’t drunk enough that I don’t remember what I did, but enough for me to not think over my words clearly. I might have had a problem with that in the past, but there were extenuating circumstances.”

“And alcohol only loosens the tongue more,” she said. “I know. I educate students on that too.”

He laughed. She was being a better sport about this than he thought.

“I don’t have a drinking problem and have no excuses either. I was having a bad day and stopped for a drink. I should know better than to drown my sorrows, but knowing and doing are two different things.”

“They are,” she said. “I noticed you seemed a bit off. I might have wanted to ask if you were okay, but then you snorted at me when I ordered my drink.”

“Sex on the beach,” he said. “See. I remember. I thought you and the bartender were flirting with each other.”

She laughed. “We were in our way. I go in there often. During the workweek for a drink and an appetizer as my dinner. We know each other well. And when you made that comment about the guy who moved next to me who could have dropped something in my drink, I looked at Bryon right away. He’s on top of everything in the bar.”

“I hadn’t realized that.”

“You were too busy giving me crap and judging me,” she said. “But I’m very aware of that happening in life and maybe I made a mistake turning my back, but again, didn’t worry so much because of where I was.”

“Raina told me about what happened to her in college and you finding her.”

“Oh,” she said. “She hadn’t told me that.”

He could tell her reaction was genuine. “She also told me she wasn’t getting in the middle and I didn’t want her to, so I’m not surprised she didn’t relay that.”

The truth was, he was surprised but wouldn’t say that either.

“She wants to be supportive but stay out of drama too. I understand that. I told her I’d handle it.”

“Which we are right now,” he said. “So there you go. I owe you two apologies and hope you accept them.”

“I do,” she said. “If you hadn’t bitten my head off when trying to warn me, I’m positive we would have talked more. I’m a very open person and have no problem striking up conversations with people.”

Raina had said the same thing. “We can’t go back in time. Believe me, I wish we could. If there was a way, I’d be dropping all sorts of money on it for the first one to be in line to correct things in our past.”

She frowned when he said it. Almost concerned. “I might agree with you at times.”

He nodded. “I’d like to make it up to you. We can just say we cleared the air and go about our lives. I’ll see you coming and going here, I’m sure. Or we can go out for a drink and dinner and see if we can not bite each other’s head off for an hour or so.”

She laughed. “I’m not sure about that.”

Guess he wasn’t getting much more than his apology accepted and that was fine too. It was better than where he was standing a few hours ago.

“If you change your mind, you know where I am.”

“I didn’t say no,” she said. “Just that I’m not sure we can go an hour without biting the other’s head off. Which I find ironic because I don’t do that with anyone and Raina said she was stunned by your behavior with me too.”

He smiled. “What is that old saying? Something about a fine line between love and hate.”

“I’m not sure I’d use either of those words with us,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure you were thinking the hate one prior,” he said, laughing.

“Maybe a little,” she said but held her arms out wide.

His smile didn’t leave his face and he wondered when the last time was he had this much fun for a brief conversation with a woman.

“So is that a yes or a no to dinner and a drink?”

“Like a date?” she asked. “Or part of the apology?”

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