Read No Ordinary Bloke for Free Online

if she wasn’t interested in spending any more time with me. I steered the conversation to safer ground. “So what’s going on in your Singapore office?”
    For the next hour, we talked about our work over dessert and then an after dinner drink. When the meal had come to its natural end, she still seemed engaged enough to continue talking, but it was time for me to retreat again. If I was going to see her in Singapore, I needed her to be left hanging. Without much warning, I looked at my watch and said, “I need some sleep now. You probably do, too.”
    “Um. Sure. I should get going.”
    “I’m sure Natalie’s already turned down your bed.”
    “You think so?”
    “Natalie always does me right.”
    She let out a tiny gasp and laughed. “There you go again. You make the simplest thing sound…”
    “Never mind me. I’m just trying to get a rise out of you.” I smiled, gazing at her in the hopes to make a connection. When I spoke again, I was more serious. “Thank you for having dinner with me. You’re the prettiest and most charming dinner companion I’ve had in quite some time.”
    Her eyes twinkled at the compliment, but she shook her head. “That’s just because your normal dinner companion is a male investment banker.”
    I pushed back on the table and called her bluff. “I think if you learned anything about me tonight, you know that’s not true. I’m a good judge of women—and people in general for that matter. Take the compliment, princess.”
    A slow smile formed on her lips. “I’ll take it, if you don’t call me princess.”
    “All right.” I pointed down the aisle. “Go get some rest, love.”
    “Good night,” she said shyly and returned to her seat.
    For the rest of the plane ride, I left her alone. I’d smile if I passed her seat, but I didn’t stop to chat. My next conversation was going to have a purpose. After the plane landed, I caught up with her as she headed down the jet way. Tapping her shoulder, I said, “Excuse me.”
    “Oh, hi,” she said.
    She stopped to talk, which was a good sign. If she’d continued walking, I knew I didn’t have a chance at all with her. I smiled at my good fortune. “May I have your card? In case you might want to go to the casino with my clients and me.”
    I needed to stress that it was a group outing. If I was going to take a taken woman, I couldn’t move too quickly or I’d cock everything up.
    “Sure,” she said before digging in her bag. She handed me her card. “Maybe I’ll have time.”
    I gave her my own card in return and said, “I hope so.” Adding nothing more and not waiting for any response, I quickly walked ahead of her and soon out of sight.

T he following day I waited to call Allison. I needed to work, and no doubt, so did she. I also had that dinner with Gregory, which I couldn’t skip, so a dinner date with Allison was out of the question. The more that I thought about it the more I believed that was a good thing. Another soul-searching dinner wasn’t the best next move. We needed to have some fun first.
    After lunch, I gave her a ring. She seemed a little flustered when she heard it was me. “Um. Hi. How are you doing?” she asked in a staccato voice.
    “Brilliant. The day is going well. I’m a bit tired though.”
    “Me too. I need some sleep.”
    “But we have to fight the jetlag if we want to exist in this time zone.”
    “That is true.”
    “So I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight.”
    “Yeah…you know I can’t go out for dinner. It just really isn’t a possibility for me. I already—”
    This was the other reason not to ask her to dinner. The woman was primed to reject me. She was most likely already feeling guilty over our long conversation the night before, which was ironic because I was confident Trey-boy wouldn’t have thought twice about it if he’d had a similar conversation with a girl. But I had to offer Allison a guilt free evening and ratchet things down between us. “I