Watchin' The Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance by Louise Hathaway

pretty weird
hours and the job’s not so family friendly.”
    “Maybe if you found the right girl who that
knew going in? Maybe that could work out.”
    “I don’t know if they exist.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure,” she says, as the
waiter returns at the absolute wrong time to bring the check.
Sterling takes the check and despite Isabella’s protestations, pays
for their dinner.
    “This is my treat, Isabella.”
    “But I asked you out.”
    “It’s not very often I get a chance to have
dinner with a beautiful woman. I’ve got to make sure she’d want to
have a reason to go out again.”
    Now, Isabella is blushing and is stuck for
words.
    Sterling stands and puts his napkin on the
table.
    “This has been wonderful. I just wish I could
stay longer. I’m afraid I’ve got to go,” he says looking at his
watch.
    “You said you have to meet someone
tonight?”
    “Yes, a young woman.”
    “Oh,” Isabella says.
    “We found a body this morning on the beach. A
young woman. I’ve got to meet with the coroner at the morgue and
take a look. Not exactly what I’d like to be doing tonight.”
    “Oh, I’m so sorry. I had no idea,” she
answers with a mix of immense relief that he’s seeing a dead young
woman but also feeling horrible about what happened to the poor
thing.
    “Don’t worry. It comes with the job.” Holding
out his hand to shake, he says, “Thank you again. I really had a
great time. You have to promise me we’ll go out again when I don’t
have to end it this way.”
    “I do. I mean, yes I will. Please be careful,
Detective,” she says, as if he is going off to do battle with some
enemy.
    “Please call me Don.”
    “Please be careful, Don,” she says and feels
a shiver come over her. He turns and leaves, while she sits back
down to take it all in.

Chapter Twenty
     
     
    The following morning, Isabella walks to work
feeling like she’s floating on a cloud. She repeats the words he
said, “I’ve been thinking about you, too,” over and over again. This is good, really good. Don’t blow it, Isabella! she
tells herself.
    She is unusually helpful to the jurors as she
points out where they need to go and asks the newspaper hawker,
“Isn’t it a beautiful day?”
    She sees the coffee cart. Well, it’s time
to face Joshua again. I can’t keep dodging him. She stands in
line, waiting to order her latte.
    As Joshua is brewing it, he says, “I really
had a good time at the golf course the other day.”
    “Yeah. You and Nicole looked like you were
having a lot of fun together.”
    “Isabella,” he says with trepidation, “I
don’t know how to say this.”
    “Go ahead. I won’t bite.”
    “It’s just that I was wondering if it would
be okay if I asked Nicole out sometime.”
    “Just the two of you?” She teases him,
“Without me?” I’ll make him feel a little guilty. After all, we
did have that pretty hot night at his apartment before his roommate
interrupted us.
    “I like you a lot, Isabella. I don’t want to
hurt you.”
    “I like you a lot, too. But go ahead, ask her
out. I’m sure she’d say, ‘Yes’. Besides, you two make such a cute
couple.”
    “Would you two hurry it along,” the customer
in back of Isabella complains. “I’m supposed to be in court at
9:00.”
    “Sorry,” Joshua says to the man.
    He tells Isabella, “I’ll talk to you
later.”
    “Okay. I’ll tell Nicole what you said.”
     
    *******
     
    “Well, it looks like it might be time to
start putting together your hope chest, Nicole,” she says, sitting
next to her friend at the reference desk.
    “Huh?”
    “Joshua likes you. He really likes you,” she mimics Sally Field’s
best-actress-acceptance-speech at The Oscars.
    “Why do you say that?”
    “He just asked my permission if he could ask
you out.”
    “Really?”
    “Yes, really.”
    “Would you be mad at me if I did?”
    “No. You two have my blessing. I think he’s
the perfect guy for you.”
    “Phew! That’s a