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us with much enthusiasm. “M.J.! Steven! So good to see you two again!”
    I felt my cheeks color. This used to be our favorite hangout, and I didn’t think Estevan knew that Steven and I weren’t together anymore. In fact, I knew he didn’t when he stepped in front of us and glanced at the woman clearly on Steven’s arm and my hand clasped in Heath’s. Estevan’s smile became a little forced and his eyes blinked furiously as I could practically see the wheels turning in his head to put it all together. “Hi, Estevan,” Gil said merrily. “There will be five of us for dinner tonight.”
    Estevan nodded, that forced smile never losing wattage, and turned swiftly to gather menus. “This way, this way,” he sang. We followed him to the table and took our seats. Courtney and Steven sat opposite Heath and me, and Gil landed to my right and Steven’s left. “I love your dress,” Courtney said as I sat in the chair Heath had pulled out for me.
    “Thank you!” I replied, with maybe a
little
too much enthusiasm. “Yours is supercute!”
    Gil cleared his throat and gave me a look that begged me to chill out. I got busy unrolling my utensils from the napkin. Estevan then rattled off the specials of the day before making haste to hurry off and wipe his now sweaty brow.
    The table fell into a bit of uncomfortable silence and it was Gil who broke the tension by introducing himself. “Hello,” he said, offering Courtney his hand. “I’m Gilley. You must be Courtney.”
    She smiled shyly at him. “Hello,” she said. “I’ve heard all about you, Gilley.”
    Gil turned his head slightly and pretended to blush. “Oh, my. All good, I hope?”
    “All good,” she assured him.
    “It’s good to see you,” Steven said to Gilley, and there was genuine warmth in the statement. “I’ve missed you.”
    This time Gilley really did blush. He then proceeded to tell Steven all about his new, “devastatingly good-looking” boyfriend and this description and a few of the more humorous tales of Michel and Gilley’s adventures since meeting in Wales lasted well into the ordering of our drinks. At last Gil sat back and winked at me. His tactic had worked. We’d all shared a laugh and the tension at the table had eased.
    I then felt obliged to make an effort to be nice and asked, “So, where did you two meet?”
    “The hospital,” Courtney said, smiling brightly at Steven. She reached for her utensils at the same time and I had a chance to see the
enormous
rock on her finger. Gilley hadn’t guessed wrong. Steven had gone all out. “We did a consult on a patient who’d suffered a mild heart attack while driving, and he’d had an accident that resulted in a closed head injury.”
    “Ouch,” Heath said. “Did he make it?”
    Courtney nodded. “He did. He’s had a rough time of it, but he’s alive and doing better every day.”
    The waiter came by to take our orders and we all realized we hadn’t looked at the menu. Promising that we’d be ready in just a minute, we all began to skim over the menu. I looked for any vegetarian offerings and found a stuffed ravioli dish with homemade creamy tomato sauce that looked right up my alley. When I placed my order, Steven looked quizzically at me. “You always go for the filet.”
    “I’ve given up meat,” I told him. That was a very recent decision, because lately, every time I ate meat, I swore I could feel a hint of the fear and pain the animal had endured before it died. It was something I hadn’t known would affect me, and I was learning that many, many psychics ultimately became vegetarians for that very reason.
    Next to me Heath ordered the cheese-filled crepes—also meat free—and he nudged me with his shoulder a little. Meanwhile, Steven had rolled his eyes a little at me and ordered the filet for himself and also for his fiancée, and that was more telling to me than anything, I suppose. We really wouldn’t have lasted as a couple, even if Heath hadn’t