I said, “That’s the man’s dilemma. He knows that if he tells the truth, and that truth is not what the woman wants to hear, then he could be out of a woman.”

I was speaking from experience. If I had bullshitted Andrea and told her to give me some more time, or that I had to think it over, or anything that gave her false hope, I could have held on to her. But how long would the bullshit last? Until she won, or I lost. That was exactly what had happened. I had stopped lying to her, and I lost her. Had I hung in there and fallen for her, I could have been in the stands with the kids and popcorn, and hating it.

Nevertheless, there I was in Miami at four in the morning, single, free, still on the hunt, and hating it. In fact, you only love the single life when you win. How childish is that?

Rachel was still looking into my face.

She said, “It looks like I done opened up a can of something. What’s wrong, you don’t want to talk about it anymore?”

She was smiling in her victory. I guess she could see that she had whipped me. I had surely underestimated her. So I went ahead and changed the subject.

“So you have nothing to get up for tomorrow?”

“Nope. I can stay in bed all day long if I want. But I’m not.”

“Well, I have an early day tomorrow at a photo shoot on the beach.”

“You better get yourself some rest then.”

After she cut me off, it was pretty much a done deal that no magic would happen between us. At least not on that night.

She stood up and said, “So I’ll see you around. How long are you here for?”

I only had another day, but one extra day was enough.

“I’m out of here tomorrow,” I told her.

“Well, maybe we can go out or something when you’re finished with your photo shoot.”

I wasn’t really up for going out. That seemed like too much work again. And I still had Judi to deal with.

I said, “I can’t make any promises on that. But I’ll call your room and let you know.”

“You don’t even know my room number,” she commented.

I figured she would give it to me though. “Okay, what is it?” I was still seated at the booth while Rachel stood over me, ready to make her exit for bed.

“I’ll tell you what, why don’t I give you my cell phone number and let you call me that way.”

“Okay, let’s do it that way then,” I agreed.

I took the number but that didn’t mean I would call her. It only meant that I acknowledged her desire to go out with me.

Before she walked away, I grinned and asked her, “So does this mean that you’re making an exception for me?”

She grinned back. “We’ll have to wait and see.”