“I must apologize, I can’t do this tonight.” Steve said.

“You can’t go out? What you are skipping dinner.” Tina responded.

“You know I just have so much on my mind right now, with the Vanderholt project and with all the mess going on in my life right now, I shouldn’t have accepted the date.”

“So you are too busy to eat?” Tina asked in a slight whine.

“Well, not too busy to eat, just too busy to start any kind of relationship.”

“Relationship? Who said anything about a relationship. How about we just go out and see what happens.” Tina responded.

“Well, how about next week, maybe Thursday.” Steve said.

“Steve, there is something I need to tell you right now.” Tina said.

“And what is that.”

“Men don’t break dates with me. Men break their necks to get a date with me.” Tina joked.

Steve laughed.

“See, now it seems to me that you need to get out of the office, get your head out of all the stuff you going through, get away from anything that Janet has done to your head.”

“Janet…why you talking about Janet?”

“Janet is playing you. She don’t want to work with you, then she wants to work with you. I can’t help but see that the stress of that is wearing on you, why don’t you just come out, one time, one date.” Tina gently pleaded. “And like I said, nobody breaks a date with Tina Simmons.” Tina continued.

Steve laughed again. “OK, OK, but not at the kitchen, how about somewhere else.” Steve said.

“I know just the place…” Tina flirted.

“You know just the place, OK, where?”

The front door rang.

Steve said, “Hold on, I have someone at the door.” Steve put the phone down and walked over to the door. A quick thought in his mind was another one of the one night stands, but he had told her that he was not interested anymore.

He opened the door and there stood Tina dressed to kill with what appeared to be takeout from a Chinese restaurant in left hand and a bottle of Moscato in her right hand.

Steve stood there as his smile turned into a laugh, “What are you doing here?”

“I canceled our reservation at the Kitchen and was on the way over when you called.” Tina said, “Since I made the date, I figured that I could change both the date and the location of the date.” Tina continued.

“I am not even ready yet.”

“What you have on is fine, hopefully you won’t be worried about what you or I have on in a little while.” Tina said as she walked into his apartment.

***

Where is he? Janet said to herself as she walked into The Kitchen restaurant. She jerked her head back and forth.

“May I help you? Do you have a reservation.” The woman behind the counter asked.

“No, I’m just waiting for somebody.”

The woman smiled, “Should I seat you? I can tell your guest where you are seated later. Under what name is the reservation?”

Before Janet could think she found herself saying Steve’s name. “Bray…Steve Bray.”

The woman smiled at Janet as she ran her finger down the book looking for the name.

“I can’t seem to find it.” The cheerful woman continued to look. “Are you sure it is Steve Bray?”

“Yes…I um…I can just wait here.” Janet said recognizing that it probably wasn’t a good look anyway to go get seated at Steve’s table before he and a date got there.

She thought about the fireworks that would ensue if someone pulled that kind of mess on her.

“You know what, I think I can just wait in the bar until he gets here.” Janet said.

“Well the bar is only about ten feet that way,” the woman said while pointing in the direction to the bar. “I will talk to my supervisor to see if I can find the reservation.”

“Uh, OK.” Janet said. She then walked to the bar.

Janet sat down and crossed her legs while continuing the survey the restaurant. She had been there many times, but never had sat at the bar.

“Do you want a drink?” The bartender asked.

“Give me an amaretto sour.” Janet said.

The bartender walked away and worked his magic creating the drink.

Right when the bartender put the drink down in front of her Janet saw Penny walking in the front door dressed to the hilt as she always was. Janet snickered remembering how she would even be dressed like she was trying to attract brothers at the church events.

Then it hit her. What is Penny doing at the restaurant. She thought to herself, “Hell naw, I know she ain’t trying to move in on Steve.” She took a sip from her drink and sat it back down on the table. She then stood up.

At that point Dr. Stevens walked in and hugged Penny from behind.

Janet sat back down. “Oh yeah, Laura said it was Tina that is on the date.” She said to herself.

The two were hugged up pretty cosy, like something was definitely going on between the two. The cheerful woman looked up their reservation and took them straight to a table.

Janet thought about going over just so that they would know that she knows what is going on, but then she remembered that it was none of her business and that she needed to make her move on her man.

She thought about those words as she said them to herself, “my man.” Was she ready to stop playing? She smiled. She resolved that now was the time and she was going to let Steve know what she wanted irregardless of what would happen.

“Hello…” The cheerful woman from the front desk said to Janet shaking her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, I didn’t see you walk over, Yes, did you find the reservation?” Janet asked.

“I hate to tell you this, but it appears that he called to cancel the reservation. He didn’t tell you? We can get you a table for one if…” The woman asked with a sympathetic frown.

“Oh yes, I remember now. Janet interrupted. “…he wanted me to meet him at his house. I forgot.” Janet lied.

The woman’s demeanor changed back to cheerful. “Well we can still give you a table for one.”

“No…No, that will not be necessary. Thank you for reminding me he canceled, I need to catch him at home…” Janet said. She then rushed out of the restaurant towards her car.

Janet then made plans to rush to Steve’s house. Maybe he canceled the date Tina. Maybe he couldn’t go through with it. Maybe… Janet thought as she drove her car just a bit too fast on her way to Steve’s place.

When she got to his town-home she saw Tina’s Jet Black Lexus parked right behind Steve’s car.