Flaw

Flaw - Chapter 3: Playing with Fire

Chapter 3

Playing with Fire

I was downing my third apple martini when an amused male voice behind me made me spin around in my seat. "Don't I know you?"

Will wonders ever cease? "Oh, hey, the supermarket guy!" I blurted out. Oh, by the way, can you help me find where my jaw just landed?

It was the Saturday night after our supermarket tryst. I had successfully brushed off meeting this Rob character as a one-time, never-to-happen-again chance, a nice little fantasy tucked away in the deep recesses of my brain.

But fate just had a fantastic way of teasing sexually starved women.

So there I was, in the middle of this bar in Bonifacio High Street, after I had successfully convinced myself he was to remain but a dream, staring into this pair of beautiful brown eyes.

Oh, and did I mention a lusciously full lower lip, a tawny complexion that spoke of lazy, sunny days at the beach and a confident, almost-cocky air? Deep blue collared shirt, cream flat-front pants and a cigarette?

My excessively imaginative mind apparently had not just conjured him out of thin air.

"It's Rob," he offered lightly. But the knowing smile that lingered on his lips indicated that I did know his name and wasn't likely to forget it. "Kara, right?"

I rose from my seat and excused myself, taking my half-finished cigarette with me. From the corner of my eye, I saw the two coworkers I was having dinner with, Leslie Pineda and Philip Marcial, raise their eyebrows and look at each other meaningfully.

"Of course, of course! Oh my God! I thought I'd never see you again! So why are you here?" I asked happily. A voice in my head gasped in horror at the crass words that just tumbled out of my mouth. I apparently forgot to bring my manners with me, still not over the mix of shock and pure joy of seeing him again.

"It's a free country, isn't it?" he laughed. "Just beer with a couple of my friends." He jerked his thumb to point at a group of twenty-somethings at the next restaurant. "And you? I seriously doubt that one of them is Athlete's Foot."

I laughed as his eyes strayed to Leslie and Philip, who both had perfectly styled hair, Louis Vuitton bags sitting prominently on their laps and evident Adam's apples. "Nah, some of my friends from work," I corrected him. Then I remembered his no-girlfriend-no-night-out curse. My smile turned sardonic. "Your girlfriend with you?"

He removed his gaze from mine and shifted his weight a little bit uneasily. I automatically looked over his shoulder and met the eyes of a girl with long, light brown hair.

A sudden flicker of jealousy enveloped me.

The girl was slim, almost skin and bones. But her face was pretty – light-skinned with a rosy hue surrounding her high cheekbones, framed with shampoo commercial-grade hair, complete with large, expressive eyes.

Those eyes were now wide with surprise, having been caught checking out what her boyfriend was up to. I instantly curled my fingers up to give her a little wave and a hopefully friendly, if slightly unsure smile. She flashed a weak grin in return and looked away as one of their friends asked her something.

I looked back at Rob. "You're really something else, aren't you?" I said under my breath, taking a puff of my cigarette.

"I'm just saying hi to a friend," he protested. His face was a perfect picture of innocence, wide-eyed and smiling.