Free Getting Gabriel by Cathy Quinn Page B

finished her appetizer and pushed the plate away. Gabriel and "Bella, darling" seemed to be having a lot more fun than she was having. The waiters were so busy hovering around Gabriel’s table that it took forever for Alex to get their attention.
    Alice frowned some more. She’d have to talk to the restaurant critic at the magazine. Gabriel and "Bella-darling" had waiters dancing around them, while she and Alex hadn’t even been served their food yet. It had to be at least half an hour since their orders had been taken.
    "Excuse me for asking this, Alice, but do you have epilepsy by any chance?"
    "Huh?" She stared at Alex. Had she just had the first seizure of her life and missed it?
    "You seem to space off a lot. My sister’s kid does it all the time, and it’s supposed to be some sort of epilepsy."
    "Uh. No. I’m fine. No epilepsy. Just a bit absentminded..."
    Alex gestured towards her. "You haven’t touched your food."
    Alice blinked. Indeed, she discovered, looking down, there was a plate of delicious looking food right there in front of her, and she hadn’t even noticed that they’d brought it.
    She forced a smile and put on imaginary blinders. She would ignore Gabriel and Bella-darling for the rest of the evening. She would.
     
    "We’ll keep in touch," Alex said with a forced smile as he waved and left for his car. Terrific. She didn’t even warrant a standard "I’ll call you" lie. And she was definitely not in the mood for being a 21st century woman and asking for his phone number.
    Alice sighed as she entered the taxi, dutifully adhering to Gabriel’s "precautions" and asking the driver to wait until Alex’s car had vanished. She’d been too busy paying attention to the next table to get to know Alex. And, not surprisingly, he was thinking she was more than a little strange.
    Alice thanked heavens for the dulling effects of that one glass of wine she’d drunk. Tomorrow she would look back on this date and cringe in embarrassment at her own behavior, but right now she was too dizzy to care.
    But all in all, this was a wasted evening. At least for her. There was no telling what Gabriel and Bella-darling were up to. They had left after Alice. Together. They had taken the next cab. Together.
    She was dying to call and check up on him, but that wouldn’t be right.
    Would it?
    Of course, she had the perfect right to call and ask what he thought about Alex. She’d consented to let him come along as a bodyguard -- she had every right to ask him about the long report no doubt written down in his notebook.
    Somehow, her hand was on the phone as soon as she got inside her apartment. She opened her mouth at the sound of Gabriel’s voice, but realized it was his answering machine. She slammed the phone down.
    So he wasn’t picking up.
    He was probably still with that bimbo.
    After all, he hadn’t taught that one to ride a bike and scarred her knee for life. He was allowed to flirt and do whatever he liked with Bella-darling because she wasn’t his best friend’s sister, and she wasn’t looking for a perfect guy to share a burial plot with.
    Fine. His loss.
    Alice threw a cushion on top of the phone and stomped to her bedroom. She yanked her clothes off and threw them over the foot of the bed, and replaced them with thick white socks and her favorite cotton pajamas with a print of a smiling pair of polar bears.
    She’d grab some canned peaches, squirt chocolate over them and eat them all syrupy and gooey from the can while drowning her sorrows under a blanket in front of the television.
    Luxury of the single woman, she told herself as she plopped down on the sofa and speared a peach with her fork. Nobody to have her committed when she shoveled in the most disgusting comfort food imaginable.
    She switched the TV on and searched for a mindless sit-com.
    Tomorrow might be another day, but it was a long lonely night away.
    Chapter 7
    "Rise and shine!"
    Gabriel blinked against the light and reminded himself yet