Free Falling for Your Madness by Katharine Grubb Page A

again. I brushed him off. “Merle told me about your concussion. You had me worried.” I turned to Trey. “Last night we were mugged and --”
     
    “Excuse me for correcting you, Laura; we were not mugged. Perhaps it is a point of vanity on my part, but you must understand, the mugger was not successful, so therefore we were not mugged.”
     
    “You were mugged ?” Trey was surprised.
     
    “ Not mugged.”
     
    “Because David scared him away! You should have seen it. He kicked him in the leg, head-butted him, and punched him in the face. All of that was after he got stabbed! It was amazing! The mugger went off running off with a limp.”
     
    David winked at me. “Did he? I don’t remember that part. I do remember the sidewalk spinning.”
     
    I caught myself glowing at David. I was still angry with him. And someday perhaps I’d look up Emily Post and find out how a real lady is supposed to handle awkward conversations between a girl, a guy, and another bigger-than-life-lunatic-guy-that-you-can’t-stop-thinking-about-and-yet-you-hope-leaves-you-alone.
     
    David extended his hand to Trey. “Forgive me, I’ve kept you from your meal. This a lovely restaurant, but don’t get the halibut—it’s never lived up to the hype. I must go. Fencing, you know. It is nice to meet you, sir.” He shook Trey’s hand. When he reached for mine, I wanted him to kiss it.
     
    Instead he looked at me, in that warm, tender way that often made me catch my breath. He gently squeezed my hand and let me go. “It’s good to see you again, Laura. Have a good evening.” David turned and walked into the building.
     
    I trembled all over.
     
    “Laura-loo? Are you misty-eyed over Mr. Chuck Norris there? Someone else is taking you to dinner.”
     
    “Oh. Sorry.”
     
    “So, that’s your friend ? How long have you known that guy?”
     
    “Let’s see. We had tea, lunch, dinner. Then tea, lunch, and dinner. Two weeks.” Has it really only been two weeks?
     
    “That’s not friends. You’ve gone out six times in two weeks. He’s really into you.”
     
    “No, we’re just friends. This relationship is very clear. Just friends.”
     
    Trey opened the door and walked in ahead of me. “I could take him.”
     
    “I don’t know about that.”
     
    “Come on, a little confidence in me, will you?”
     
    “He takes Bartitsu and fencing and horseback riding. He’s built.”
     
    “Built? How do you know? You just had tea, lunch, and dinner.”
     
    “He was stabbed, remember? After the mugging, he came in my house, and we had to take off his shirt to see how bad it was.”
     
    “What an idiot. He should have given the guy his wallet and been done with it.”
     
    “He was protecting me. He was very brave.”
     
    “Let’s change the subject.”
     
    I sat down at the table, but I was annoyed with Trey. I looked at him, and I wondered, for the hundredth time, where this relationship was going. Would he ask me out again? Would he call me? I really didn’t like not having control. Who had the power here?
     
    I decided to find out. “I’d like to have your opinion on something. Who do you think has the most power in a relationship, the man or the woman?”
     
    “I don’t like the sound of this. What is this, an ambush? Look, I’m hungry. I want to talk to you about anything but this. Please.”
     
    “No. Please answer the question. You should defer to the lady.”
     
    “Women. Women do. Happy?”
     
    “Why do you say that?”
     
    “I don’t know. All right, then, men do. Let’s order.”
     
    “You have to have reasons.” Didn’t you do the reading?
     
    “No, I don’t. You’re baiting me. We haven’t seen each other in weeks, and you begged me to call you and find you and get back together, and now we do, and this is what I get for my trouble? A confrontation and a detailed account of how built this David guy is. What do you want?”
     
    I knew what I wanted. I wanted more power. David told