Leaving them to chat, Maria hurried back to her office, noticing the two paralegals who eyed her with a touch of envy as she passed them. She tried to remember the last time someone had bought her flowers. Aside from a single rose that Luis had given her on Valentine’s Day after they’d been dating for a year, she couldn’t remember a single instance.
Setting the vase in a prominent place in her office, she returned to the lobby just in time to catch the tail end of Jill and Colin’s conversation.
Jill turned. “I hear you’re a much better photographer than you let on. Colin says you took an amazing shot of some porpoises?”
“He’s being overly kind,” Maria said. “I get lucky every now and then.”
“I’d still like to see it.”
“I’ll e-mail it,” she said. Then, to Colin: “Are you ready?”
Colin nodded, and after saying good-bye to Jill, they headed down to the parking lot.
“Your friend is nice,” Colin remarked.
“She’s great,” Maria agreed. “If it wasn’t for her, I would have eaten alone at my desk since I’ve been here.”
“Until today,” Colin said with a smile. “How are things at work?”
“I’m buried,” she admitted. “But I’m hoping things will slow down. My boss is going to be out of the office this afternoon and tomorrow”
“If that’s the case, I wouldn’t recommend throwing a massive party and trashing the office in his absence. I’ve learned that it tends to irritate people.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said as he opened the car door for her.
She slid into the Camaro. Once Colin was behind the wheel, he leaned toward her, keys in hand. “I was thinking we could head over to one of the restaurants downtown? We’d probably be able to get a table outside with a great view.”
Oh yeah, she thought. About that. Maria fiddled with the seatbelt, wondering how best to explain it.
“It sounds wonderful,” she ventured, “and ordinarily, I’d love to go. But the thing is, I was over at my parents’ house last night when you called, and I happened to mention that we were going to lunch, and…” She exhaled, deciding to simply come out with it. “They’re expecting us to have lunch at the restaurant.”
Colin tapped his car key on the seat. “You want me to meet your parents?”
Not really. Not yet, anyway. But… She wrinkled her nose, unsure how he would react, hoping he wouldn’t be angry. “Kind of.”
He slipped the keys into the ignition. “Okay,” he said.
“Really? It doesn’t bother you? Even though we just met?”
“No.”
“Just so you know, it would bother a lot of guys.”
“Okay.”
“Well… good,” she said.
He said nothing right away. Finally: “You’re nervous.”
“They don’t know you like I do.” She inhaled slowly, thinking, Now for the hard part. “When you meet them, you have to understand that they’re old-fashioned. My dad has always been protective and my mom worries, and I’m afraid that if they start asking questions…”
When she trailed off, Colin finished for her.
“You’re worried what I’ll say to them. And how they’ll react.”
Though she didn’t answer, she suspected that he already knew what she was thinking.
“I won’t lie to them,” he said.
“I know,” she said. That’s the problem. “And I won’t ask you to lie. I don’t want you to lie, but it still makes me nervous.”
“Because of my past,” he said.
“I wish I wouldn’t have had to say anything to you, and I’m sorry. Logically, I know that I’m an adult and I should be able to date whomever I want and it shouldn’t matter what they think. But it does. Because I still want their approval. And believe me, I know how awful that sounds.”
“It doesn’t sound awful. It sounds normal.”
“You don’t need approval.”
“Evan would probably say that I’m not normal.”
Despite the tension, she laughed before getting quiet again. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” he answered.
“But you’re probably offended.”
“No,” he said again.
“What are you feeling, then?”
He didn’t answer right away. “I feel… flattered,” he finally offered.
She blinked. “Flattered? How on earth could you feel flattered?”
“It’s complicated.”