My mother said, “Well, you be careful out there. Some of these women can be devious.”

“I know. That’s why I got my guard up at all times.”

My mother paused. I wondered what was on her mind. She was still a woman herself.

“Okay,” she finally answered. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

She made it sound as if it was a foregone conclusion. But I wasn’t going to argue about it. If she called and I answered the phone, then I’d talk to her.

I left my apartment dressed in beige Dockers slacks, soft brown leather shoes, a lime green T-shirt, and a lightweight Bill Blass sports jacket, wearing Escape cologne by Calvin Klein. I didn’t know how Nicole was going to be dressed that night, but I remember her being pretty stylish. I figured I needed to at least match her, but I didn’t want to go overboard with it.

I caught the elevator down to the garage to my car, and my cell phone went off again. I looked down and read the number. It was Danni calling again.

I didn’t want to answer her calls yet, but then I got to thinking about whether I might bump into her while out on the town with Nicole. Generally, I didn’t care that much about being caught with other women. I was a single man in a business dominated by gorgeous females. I had easily claimed it was business talk in the past. Whether the women believed me or not was up to them. Of course, Andrea never believed me.

Anyway, I started having recollections of Danni saying that she would miss me right before I flew to Miami. Could she have meant it? It seemed like she did. That gave me more reason not to want to call her back. I might have gotten on the phone with her and couldn’t get off. So I ignored her call again.

I found my car, hopped in, and drove toward downtown Atlanta. When I arrived outside of the Hard Rock Cafe before nine, I found Nicole standing with her girlfriend and a guy near the curb.

I rolled down the passenger-side window. Nicole noticed me behind the wheel and screamed through the open window. “I just wanted them to meet you.”

I nodded my head to her friends. “All right, how y’all doin’?” I didn’t want to be rude to them. It wasn’t their fault I didn’t do the team date thing.

Nicole stated all of our names in an introduction, but I was only paying attention to when she would climb into the car. I was ready to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Danni was familiar with my car.

Why am I even worried about her? I asked myself. But I was worried.

Nicole finally climbed in and got comfortable. She was wearing Apple Bottom blue jeans with a netted, light brown blouse with gold-sequined heels and a matching purse. Her hair had been cut short with a slight highlight of violet. She was looking stylish and cute again.