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we’re
dating or not, I’m here to listen.”
    “You
make it very hard to say no.”
    Once
again, he decided not to point out the obvious. Instead he went for humorous.
“I’ve been told that before.” He winked at her, hoping like hell that quip didn’t
backfire.
    When
she laughed softly, he placed a hand on each shoulder. “Blair, I really like
you a lot. Let’s go out again and see what happens. No expectations. This has
been one of the most enjoyable dates I’ve had in a very long time. I mean that.”
    She
looked at him with skepticism in those dark eyes, but he also saw hope. “It’s
the most fun I’ve ever had on any date. Not kidding.”
    “Then
let’s try it again. You know. Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.”
    “For
research purposes.”
    “Exactly.
We are engineers, after all. We never leave anything to chance.”
    She
gazed at him for a long time, and then finally he watched the acquiescence in
her eyes, but resisted the urge to pump his fist in the air.
    “All
right. Let’s go out again. Next Friday.”
    He
didn’t want to wait a week, but he wasn’t going to turn down the offer. “Thank
you. Where would you like to go this time?”
    “Promise
you won’t laugh?”
    “Of
course not.”
    “Have
you been to the Stratford Theater?”
    “Never.”
He knew of it, though. They were self-funded and put on strictly amateur plays.
“But I’d love to go. What’s playing next weekend?”
    “‘The
Flick’. Do you know it?”
    He
shook his head.
    “A
woman named Annie Baker wrote it in the early twenty-first century. It’s a long
play, about three hours, but with clever dialogue and interesting characters.
It’s a comedy but also has tender and poignant moments. I think you’d enjoy it.
It received several awards in its day.”
    “It
sounds perfect. I’d love to go.”
    “Great.
Thanks.” She took his hand again as he walked her home, and this time her touch
was warm. He didn’t ask to come upstairs although he wanted to in the worst
way.
    Before
she opened the door to the building, she kissed him quickly on the lips,
chastely, but her gaze lingered on his face afterward, and he glimpsed what he
swore was smoldering lust in those dark eyes. “Good night, Oliver. Thank you
again.”
    He
cupped her face and initiated the kiss this time, stopping short of teasing her
lips with his tongue because he knew if she let it inside, he was going upstairs
with her. When he released the kiss, the lust in her eyes was unmistakable. He
forced the words out of his mouth.
    “Thank
you, Blair. I had a wonderful time. Sleep well.”
    Oliver
waited until she was inside the door, then turned and headed for home before he
changed his mind and begged her to let him come up to her apartment. He knew
there would be no sleep for him tonight. The best part was that he didn’t even
mind. Blair was worth the wait. He knew it as certainly as he knew the stars
above his head were as fake as the black sky.
     

Chapter
Five
     
    Blair
tried to remember the last date she’d had where the guy had not tried to get
her into bed, but she couldn’t. Actually, most of her dates hadn’t really been dates at all. They’d been more like
encounters where it had soon become clear what the true intentions were. Then
again, she hadn’t exactly had luck where men were concerned.
    Shit attracts flies, flowers
attract bees.
    That
had been one of her mother’s more annoying sayings. Blair assumed it meant she
was the kind of girl who would never attract a decent man, but she couldn’t be
sure. Her mother might have been talking about herself, for all Blair knew. She
had often gone off on tangents that Blair could barely follow.
    Oliver
wasn’t like any of the men she’d known, but she had never assumed he would be.
She’d followed his dating habits online for seven years, and one thing he’d
said tonight was the absolute truth. She was unlike anyone he’d ever gone out
with.
    She
didn’t care about his money or