"Yes it was," Derek agreed as he headed out of the theater and back to the
parking garage "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

He opened the car and helped her in, then they headed to the water front
restaurant.  It was on the 30th floor and revolved slowly giving you a view
of both the bay and city.

Julia's eyes widened, having not expected this - well not any of it but
certainly not this on top of the ballet - and she smiled again as she
started to open the door and Derek was already there, completing the task
and then helping her down.

"Okay," she admitted, teasing him "Who did you use your accent on this time?
This place is practically always booked months in advance."

She had been gone a while but the parking lot more than spoke that this
particular place was the same as it had been.

"No wonder you feel lucky." she added as she chuckled and, arms around each
other's waist and Julia laying her head on his shoulder for a moment as they
approached the door, admitted that he had pulled off a pretty good last
minute surprise date.

The doorman opened the door while the SUV was parked and they entered, the
matre'd smiling in greeting before addressing Derek "Mister Rayne, I'm glad
you could make it.  This must be your wife?"

Julia smiled in greeting and nodded.

"Is it possible to have a word alone with you, Mister Rayne?" the gentlemen
then asked with an apologetic look at Julia.

She patted Derek's arm and pointed to the nearby bar "I'm going to get an
iced tea."

She left the two to talk, hearing the man saying something about a slight
delay in seating but that a private room was available if Mister Rayne would
that like.....


"Iced tea please," Julia asked the bartender when she reached it "Decaf."

The bartender nodded and set about getting it, just as someone spotted her,
also at the bar and with a couple of women friends, and called out
curiously.

"Julia? Julia Walker?"

Julia turned to see who had called her with a polite half smile.

"Connie Matthews." she spotted a woman, who moved over to her with a pleased
grin "College dorm...?"

"Oh," Julia's smile turned more friendly, remembering her now "How've you
been doing?"

"As well as can be expected, where have you been keeping yourself? Haven't
seen you in -"

"Oh wow, check out the number at the door." one of her friends said, drawing
both women's attention at the tone of voice used.  Feminine appreciation.

The woman nodded in the direction she was speaking and Julia started to turn
out of curiosity when the bartender came with her drink, Julia turning to
him instead as Connie gave a low whistle of appreciation and agreement to
her friend's unspoken opinion.

Julia took a sip of the drink and turned then, only to almost chuckle when
it became obvious the women were talking about Derek.  Her gaze took in his
form and again she had to agree that he did look especially good in a suit.

"Us single females mourned the day that one got hitched." Connie shook her
head.

"He's married?" the third of Connie's trio asked, surprised.

Connie nodded and started to include Julia in as she answered "Read it in
the papers the other day.  San Francisco's most eligible bachelor marries.
I wonder who was able to dupe him after all this time."

Julia raised an eyebrow "Dupe?"

"Well okay," Connie relented "Not dupe persay.. but whoever caught that
man's attention caught it good.  I think every single woman has tried to
catch it and he was totally oblivious to it."

"So, Walker," Connie then asked, gaze mischievous as she nodded once in
Derek's direction "On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate that one?"

Julia fought a grin and took another sip, deliberately keeping her ring hand
angled away as she looked in Derek's direction again  "Off the scales."

"Good taste." Connie chuckled "I wonder if he's here with that wife."


_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Reply via email to