“But you’ve probably never been with a black man before,” I instigated.

Victoria paused and was tickled by it. She laughed and said, “You’re not getting me to go there again.”

I could feel her smiling through the phone. She was just melting away.

She said, “But…what if I have?”

I was waiting for that. She was making it too easy for me.

I said, “Then he was a very lucky man.”

She paused and laughed some more.

“Okay, next subject,” she told me. I had damaged her armor enough.

“Yeah, so what were we talking about again? Travel?”

“Yeah, travel, that’s it. You were telling me about all the wonderful places you’ve been to.”

“And you were telling me how you could just grab your bags and tag along with me, because you just go for it.”

I had her where she couldn’t stop laughing.

“Ahh, did I say that?”

“I think you did. Do I need to rewind my tape recorder?”

“Yeah, I think you do, because I didn’t say—”

“You didn’t say, ‘If you tell me to be there, and I wanna go, then I’m there’?”

Those were her exact words, or close enough to it. I knew what she meant by it, but I was only teasing.

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean like, you you, I just meant like…you know.”

“You meant you as a whole, like in anyone,” I explained it for her.

“Yeah, but not, like, anyone. I wouldn’t go with just anyone, but…”

I had her falling all over herself, and I doubt that she was that way with most guys. I seriously doubted it. I could feel the pressure she could put on a guy when I had first met her. I was just being a great phone conversationalist.

I said, “I understand. You were just explaining your philosophy of life.”

“Yeah, and I wouldn’t want you to think that I was just trying to…”

“Come on to me,” I filled in for her. But once I said it, it made it a reality. She did like me. That much was obvious.

She said, “I’m not like that.”

“But you are attracted to me,” I commented.

I was killing the girl. She had no idea who she was up against.

She paused again to make sure she could gather her correct words.

“Well, I have to see,” she told me.

That was fair enough. It was a start, and I had successfully moved her away from a strictly business conversation. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t introduce her to a few people.

In fact, I told her, “Look, we have a lung cancer banquet I can invite you and a friend to where you can show off a bit, and I’ll see if I can introduce you to a few people who may want to work with you.”

I didn’t want to make the conversation all personal either. She was still career-minded, so I needed to respect that.

“You would do that?” she asked me.