“Let’s cut the crap, shall we, and get real. We’re the last pick on the volleyball team, Pia. We get the leftovers. I can tell you don’t like to admit it, so I’ll prove it to you.” She scooted around in her chair, waving a hand toward the stage. “That guy, that one there—the blond guy with the receding hairline. You think he’d like you? Or how about that one, the man with the beard. He looks like an accountant. Maybe he’d go for you.”

My lips tightened. I refused to tell her that she was perfectly welcome to live in her misanthropic world, but I preferred a much happier place.

“Oh! Those two! Those two across the square, coming out of that building. Oh, my God, they’re gorgeous. That’s what I’m talking about—perfect eye-candy specimens. Both tall, both dark haired, although I don’t like long hair on a man, and both absolutely and completely out of our reach.”

“Women don’t always go for a handsome, incredibly sexy man,” I pointed out. “And some men like more than a body. It’s perfectly within the bounds of reality to have one of those eye-candy men.”

A hard look settled on her face. “You just refuse to face reality, don’t you? Well, let’s put our money where our mouth is, OK? You go talk to those two hunks and see what happens.”

“I didn’t mean those two specifically,” I said quickly, my palms suddenly sweating at the thought of the humiliation that would follow should I even think of approaching the two men in question. “I just meant eye candy in general.”

She flicked the wadded up paper straw wrapper at me. “That’s a cop-out, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. How about this—you walk past the two guys, just walk past them, and see if one of them is interested enough to watch you.”

I opened my mouth to protest that catching a man’s eye wasn’t going to prove anything, but the triumphant gleam in her eyes was too much for the tenuous grasp I had on my temper. If nothing else, I would be able to escape her presence. “All right, you’re on. I’ll walk past them.”

“I’ll be here, waiting, when you come back. Alone,” she said with a smile that made my palm itch with the need to smack her.

The square was still partially empty as people took the opportunity offered by the band switch to refresh themselves at the cafés and food stands that lined the area. I paused a moment at the edge of the square, having no trouble in finding my quarry.