Free Anyone but You by Jennifer Crusie Page A

looked in dress pants and a tailored shirt again, even with his shirtsleeves rolled up and his tie loose. Really, he cleaned up very nicely.
    Alex glared at her. "I didn't do anything to her. I took her to dinner. I showed her a video.'' Nina narrowed her eyes and he added, "Young Frankenstein. Get your mind out of the gutter. Then I kissed her. That's it. I swear to God." He crossed his arms in front of him, looking disgusted with her and Tricia, and his forearms flexed, and Nina lost her train of thought. He had great arms. He had great everything.
    And all of it was too young for her.
    "He's never going to marry me," Tricia wailed.
    "Marry you?" Nina blinked at Alex. "How long have you been dating?"
    Alex checked his watch. "We're at the three-hour mark now."
    "This is your first date?" Nina stopped patting Tricia. "I'm missing something here."
    Tricia looked up at her, her face a sodden mask of misery under her riot of blond curls. "It's all my fault. I told him I wanted to sleep with him. And now he'll never marry me."
    Nina raised an eyebrow at Tricia, trying to ignore the spurt of dislike she felt for her. "Gee, I'd think that'd be a good line to take with him."
    Tricia shook her head, snuffling. "He said no. He said no!"
    Irrationally cheered, Nina looked at Alex who looked as if he wished he were dead. "Tricia enjoyed the wine at dinner," he said in a pathetic attempt at tact.
    "And now he thinks I'm a drunk, too," Tricia wailed.
    "Well," Nina said, patting faster as she tried to think of a way to convince Tricia to stop crying.
    "And I really want to marry a doctor," Tricia finished quietly.
    Nina stopped patting again and glared at her. How could anybody look at Alex and just see his medical degree? Even aside from the fact that he was gorgeous, he was also sweet and funny and... Shut up, she told herself. Don't do this to yourself. She stood up. "Well, I think it's time we all called it a night.
    Alex is going to take you home now. Go get the car, Alex."
    "We'll all go," Alex said. "Fred needs the fresh air."
    "Who's Fred?" Tricia said. "Is he a doctor?"
    Half an hour later, with Tricia deposited at her door, Nina was still fuming. "I can't believe she was going out with you because she wants to marry a doctor."
    Alex grinned at her, relaxed behind the wheel now that Tricia was just a soggy memory. "Well, face it—
    the women I date are not going out with me because of the fancy places I can take them to. I'm an ER specialist with about ten years of loans to pay off. I'm poor. So they plan for the future."
    Nina frowned at him, trying not to appreciate the careless way his fingers draped over the wheel, and the way his long body lounged in the seat. Carelessly confident, that was Alex. Not a focused bone in his body. Don't think about his body. She tried to find her place in the conversation. "Women should be going out with you because you're terrific."
    "Thank you," Alex said. "I'll tell them you said so."
    In the back seat, his head hanging out the window, Fred snorted the wind out of his nose.
    "Who asked you?" Alex said to him.
    "I can't believe she'd be so mercenary," Nina fumed on, grateful to have something to distract her.
    "Oh, come on," Alex said. "Why'dyou marry Guy the Stiff? Because he was a rich lawyer, right?"
    "No, because he was the first man I ever slept with," Nina said. "I was raised strict."
    Alex was silent for a moment. "So, how many guys have you slept with?"
    "One. Guy." Nina laughed shortly, embarrassed by her lack of an interesting past.
    "Okay, smartass, how many men have you slept with?"
    "I told you," Nina said. "One. Guy. I met him in college and slept with him, and as far as I was concerned, that was it."
    Alex turned to stare at her in the dim light of the front seat. "You're kidding."
    "No." Nina frowned at his incredulity. He probably thought she was dull and frumpy. Well, the hell with him. So she didn't have much of a past. That didn't mean she wasn't going to have a terrific