Sex on Summer Sabbatical by Stacey Lynn Rhodes Page B

tonight. What time?”
    “I would love you forever if you could make it.” Terrence sounded pathetically relieved. “There’s no one who can speak about our progress and goals like you can. It’s at the banquet room at Tini’s Bistro at Cambridge Crossing at twelve-thirty. I can pick you up at noon?”
    “I’ll just meet you there. No need for you to get me,” she protested.
    “Are you sure? I think I should—”
    “You just don’t want me to change my mind. Don’t worry, I’ll be there. Besides, I probably won’t be coming from home, but the gym.” She was set to resume her regular schedule with Adam tomorrow. She smiled his way, but he was busy studying his boarding pass.
    “I really want to update you on what’s been going on so that you’re prepared,” Terrence persisted. “I’ll pick you up at your gym then. Del Sol, that really big, expensive one, right? At noon.”
    Tori bit back a sigh since she knew from experience there was no sense in arguing once he’d decided on a course of action. His stubbornness was one of the reasons they’d not worked well as a couple, though his persistence came in handy at work.
    “Fine—meet me at the gym at noon, and we can talk on the way to the restaurant.” The gate attendant was making another garbled announcement and some people around them started standing up. “I really have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    “Okay, Victoria. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”
    They said their goodbyes and Tori hung up her phone and turned to Adam. “Was that our boarding call?”
    He gave her a quick sideways glance and shook his head.
    “It was something about our flight, though, right?”
    “Pre-boarding. Anxious to get home?” Adam’s question had an edge to it and she turned to fully face him.
    “In a way, yes,” she answered slowly, trying to figure out what was behind his abrupt change in mood. Had it been Terrence’s call? “I mean, all else being equal, I’d rather be back at the beach and not have to leave Hawaii, but I also don’t want to sit around in the airport all day.”
    “And you have an important lunch date to get back for tomorrow. If that guy’s picking you up tomorrow at noon, you know we’re going to have to cut back some things we usually do, like spending my lunch together after our workout.”
    Oh . “That’s true. I’m sorry about making other plans without talking to you first, but Terrence was practically begging and—”
    “That’s okay,” Adam interrupted. “It’s not like we had anything formal planned. Just a habit. And you couldn’t turn down someone begging you for your time.” He shrugged, obviously trying to pull off nonchalance, but Tori could tell that he was upset.
    She tucked her hand through the crook of his elbow where it lay on the armrest between their seats. “What’s wrong? Is it that I’ve scheduled something during the time we usually spend together? Or,” she added with a growing sense of what the problem was, “is it because I’m being picked up by Terrence and having lunch with him?”
    He didn’t answer right away, so she continued, “Because if that’s what’s got you in this mood, you need to understand that this is purely a work thing.” She explained about the lunch and the connection to her funding. “And Terrence is one of the other research scientists in the loop on what I had to put on hold, so he needs to update me on what’s been happening since I left work.”
    “So you guys are just co-workers? Because the way you talked to him sounded like you have some kind of history or something.”
    Tori gaped at him for a second. “You’re really jealous.” She couldn’t believe it.
    “I’m not jealous, I just…want to know where we stand.”
    The call for boarding for their section came then and Tori let that slide for the moment while they gathered their belongings then boarded the plane. She knew that she would have a captive audience for the five-plus