The Man Who Saved Me

Chapter 7

“What do I say?” hissed Shonali to Malia.

Malia shrugged and took a deep swallow of her pint of beer.

Malia was obviously not going to be very helpful.

Damn it.

“Hi!” said Shonali, trying to sound extremely breezy and casual.

She was afraid the impression she ended up conveying might have leaned towards ‘deranged’ rather than the cheerful effect she’d been going for.

“Who is this?”

Well, that deflated her immediately. He hadn’t even recognized her voice.

To be fair to him, she had only said the one word.

She rallied herself.

“It’s me, Shonali.”

Should she have said ‘It’s I’? That sounded pretentious, but…

“Oh. Shonali.”

Well, damn. He didn’t sound very enthusiastic.

“Am I interrupting you?”

She couldn’t and wouldn’t have helped the frost that crept into her voice for anything.

“Oh. Oh, well, I guess not.”

Could he sound any less enthusiastic?

“Sorry. It sounds like you didn’t want to hear from me. I guess I should’ve thought this through.”

If there had been frost before, now her voice was a glacier.

She could solve global warming all by herself.

“No, Shonali, wait. I’m sorry. I’m just not having a very good day. I’m glad to hear from you, of course I am.”

Bloody liar, thought Shonali, justifiably fuming.

“Are you sure? We don’t have to talk. I just wanted to ask you how the tattoo is. And if you’d like to meet again. If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I’d rather know, instead of wondering, that’s all.”

It sounded to her like Adam had kicked something, and was swearing while trying not to.

Under any other circumstances, that would’ve been both funny and cute.

“No! I mean yes!”

Shonali raised an eyebrow, though he couldn’t see it.

It was a pity, because that was a skill she liked in herself. She’d learned it after watching The Rock on WWE.

Or WWF as it had been back then. She felt old.

“What exactly do you mean?”

There was silence. Shonali wondered if she should hang up.

“The tattoo is fine. I would love to meet you again. I do want to meet you again. I’ve been thinking of you for the last week. I want to see you again.”

Shonali felt the intimacy underneath those words as if it was a caress.

Well, maybe she could consider forgiving him, if he was going to be that nice about it.

“Then how come you didn’t call me?”

The words were out before she could tell herself not to sound petulant.

Too late for that now.

“You can ask me that and give me a good talking to when we meet. How about that?”

Shonali chuckled.

Oh, the man had a way about him, all right.

“Maybe I will,” said Shonali, playing coy, because why not?

“Ah, you’re not going to make me beg, are you?”

Was he teasing? He wouldn’t have called her at all!

“And how were you going to beg without calling me at all?”

“For heaven’s sake, just make a date and hang up, Shon!” complained Malia, obviously irritated.

Shonali grinned.

“Fine, tomorrow. Dinner. A proper restaurant. Don’t think you can get away with taking me to a fair or anything. And after dinner… Well, it’s my choice. To make it up to me, you can do exactly what I like after dinner.”

“That’s promising,” said Adam, and she could hear the leer in his voice.

Shonali laughed.

“Well, now you have my number. Let me know when and where.”

But apparently, Adam was finally going to step up and be a real gentleman.

“I’ll pick you up. At eight.”

Shonali shrugged, forgetting that he couldn’t see it.

“All right, works for me. See you tomorrow, Adam.”

It did give her a tiny bit of petty satisfaction to hang up on him. Well, not really on him. She just hung up first.

And boy, she needed to get out more if that’s what she got her satisfaction from.

Shonali turned to Malia.

“He asked me out,” she announced.

Malia shrugged.

“You called him. I don’t think that counts as him asking you out. Where is he taking you?”

Shonali shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she confessed.

“Then how are you supposed to know how to dress for the date?” demanded Malia.

Shonali shrugged.

“I’ll just wear something nice,” she said vaguely.

Malia shook her head in disbelief and advanced on Shonali.

Oh no.

She knew what that look meant.

Shonali backed away, but there was no escape.

“We are going to find you the perfect outfit for anything,” declared Malia and dragged Shonali along to her bedroom.

For a tiny woman, Malia had a surprisingly strong grip. Shonali had no choice but to trot meekly along like a lamb.

But she soon cheered up. Shonali had to admit, at least to herself, that left on her own, she would’ve wondered and agonized over it by herself.

Now she could just let Malia deal with it.

It wasn’t a bad idea, really.

She could live with it.

*****

Shonali couldn’t believe she was nervous.

All right, she admitted to herself, she could believe that very well. This was the first time she’d gone out on an actual date since she and Fred had broken up.

Where had all that confidence she’d taken for granted gone?

Worried, she went down to the shop and wandered around, running her fingers over Leonidas.

She was wearing a ruby red dress that showed off the curves she loved and hid the ones she wasn’t all that fond of. Malia had worked her magic with her makeup. Her hair was wild and free.

If she wasn’t riding, she liked her hair to be wild and free.

Besides, she hoped it would remind him of how she had looked that night.

She looked up, shocked, when somebody tapped on the door. Her heels clicked as she walked to the door and opened it.

Her mouth went dry.

Adam was there, and he looked…

Oh, she didn’t have words to describe how absolutely delicious he looked! All she wanted was to jump him, feel his hands on her, feel him rip her clothes off and take her because he couldn’t wait to have her.