The door flew open, then there she stood. Her hair was loose and even though it was no longer out of the ordinary to see Lou out of her yoga gear, Mia still did a double take, because Lou was wearing the sort of dressy tank top that was designed for one purpose only: seduction.

They kissed on the cheeks, but Mia couldn’t resist keeping her hands on Lou’s bare shoulders for a fraction of a second longer than necessary.

“Smells nice in here,” Mia said when Lou escorted her into the kitchen. She remembered how her stomach had growled that day she had come here with Lou, and how Lou had offered to make her a sandwich. She’d never thought she’d come here for an actual dinner—just the two of them—one day.

“It’s only pasta,” Lou said. “Tell you the truth, I haven’t done a lot of cooking since I moved back home. Both my mother and father love to cook, and they also very much love to feed me. This is one of my dad’s recipes. Very easy to make and, hopefully, equally yummy when made by his daughter.” Lou sounded as though she was blabbering a bit.

“I look forward to it.” Mia’s nerves were making themselves known in her stomach, so she wasn’t very hungry. She handed Lou the bottle of Pinot Gris she had brought. “I hope this goes with your dish.”

“Perfect, and cold as well. The glasses are in that cupboard over there.”

Lou had set two places at the dining table and they sat with their glasses of wine.

“I don’t know about you,” Lou said, “but I’m feeling a little awkward. How shall we get past this initial awkwardness then?” She held up her glass. “Do you think this will do the trick?”

“It might be a little awkward, but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it. I’d like to guess that the reason why it’s a little unnatural is because we both very much want to be here.” She held up her glass as well. “I hope you haven’t had second thoughts.”

Lou shook her head and clinked her glass against Mia’s.

“Good, because you were the one who started flirting with me on Sunday afternoon, despite first telling me not to flirt with you.”

Lou just gave a small smile. “I’m truly sorry I had to rush off like that. Especially because of the nature of our conversation. I’ve thought about it a lot since then.”

“You mean my inability to keep women?” Mia smiled. “It was very strange to be asked on a date after admitting to that. As if you were trying to prove a point.”