Express Male by Elizabeth Bevarly Page B

geekdom during that time.
    But he wasn’t that geek anymore, and he would never be that geek again. He had a bitchin’ Harley now, not a Chevette. He had his own cool bachelor digs, not his parents’ basement. He’d gone through a most excellent second puberty in college that had cleared up his skin, pushed him past six-two in height and enabled him to bench-press his own body weight. And he had made the most of all three developments. Now, he dated the most luscious babes, and not nobody, who had been his constant female companion in youth.
    As if conjured by the thought, just as Daniel was inserting his key into his front door lock, the front door to the apartment next to his flew open to reveal Ellie Chandler standing on the other side. He grinned when he saw her.
    “Hey, Ellie to the rescue,” he said, withdrawing his key again. “You can take me to dinner.”
    Instead of the smile he’d been expecting, her eyes widened in what looked very much like panic. Immediately, Daniel glanced back over his shoulder, to see if someone was about to jump him, but the hallway was empty. When he turned to look at Ellie again, the panic on her face has morphed into something else, but she still didn’t look like her usual self.
    “You okay?” he asked. “You look like you don’t feel too good.”
    “Uh…” she replied eloquently.
    “Ellie?” he tried again. “Is something wrong?”
    “Um…” she said.
    Alarm bells began to rattle inside Daniel’s brain. Ellie at a loss for words? Something pretty horrible must have happened to cause that. “What is it? What’s happened?”
    “Ah…rough day,” she finally said. But the words came out rushed and breathy, as if she were just pulling them off the top of her head. “Really, really rough day.”
    He regarded her curiously. Something was going on, and she didn’t want to tell him what it was. Which was weird, because the two of them talked about everything. It was one of the things Daniel liked so much about Ellie. He could talk to her as easily as he could one of the guys. So he asked, “You want to talk about it?”
    “No,” she said adamantly, her eyes going wide.
    “Might help.”
    She shook her head quickly. “No. Trust me. It wouldn’t.”
    “Then let me take you to dinner,” he offered. “We haven’t had Indian for a while, and I’ve been craving some lamb vindaloo. But you have to buy. I’m busted till my next paycheck.”
    She hesitated before replying, as if she were giving serious thought to her answer. Then she smiled. Not her usual Ellie smile, the one that lit up her whole face, but she at least seemed to relax a bit. As if to reinforce that, she took a couple of steps toward him and came to a halt.
    “How can you always be so broke?” she asked. “I thought research chemists made pretty decent money.”
    “Not this one,” he said. “I’m too low on the food chain at ChemiTech right now.”
    She nodded slowly and studied him with the same kind of consideration she might give to an upholstery selection. “All right,” she finally agreed. “I’ll buy you dinner tonight. I was just headed out to get something myself. But you’re buying dinner next time.”
    He smiled. “As long as you eat light.”
    She smiled back. “You already know I eat like a horse.”
    “Perfect. You’ll be happy to make do with oatmeal.”
    They kidded each other all the way to a diner near their apartment building, and Daniel’s concern for Ellie gradually ebbed. Whatever had happened today, she seemed to be less bothered by it now. And if she did want to talk about it at some point, he’d be there to listen.
    The diner was virtually deserted when they entered, thanks to it being well past the usual dinner hour. Two men seated at the counter looked like they were on their way to a bowling tournament, and a young couple in a back booth looked like they were all ready for bed—though not necessarily to sleep. Either the place had gone totally retro in