Lilah's List. Robyn Amos

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      Tyler stared unseeing at his computer screen. It was nearly noon on Saturday and he hadn’t gotten much, if any, work done. Weekdays were for meetings and phone calls, but Saturday mornings, he liked to try to catch up on e-mails and light paperwork. Then he could have the rest of the weekend to himself.

      But today he couldn’t concentrate at all. His mind kept drifting back to Lilah. He felt like a jerk for taking advantage of a woman who had clearly been intoxicated. He should have pulled away from the kiss immediately, but she’d caught him off guard. But that didn’t give him an excuse.

      Tyler smacked his forehead as he did every time the embarrassment came flooding back to him. He could only imagine how she was feeling today.

      There was only one way for him to make things up to her. He had to give her what she wanted. A date with Reggie.

      If he knew his brother, and he did, Reggie would be in bed until something approaching three o’clock. Then, since he didn’t have any other appearances scheduled for the weekend, he’d hang out in his apartment playing video games until he went out clubbing with his boys around midnight.

      That would leave him plenty of room to have dinner with his old, high-school tutor. Tyler expected there would be some protesting, but now the kid owed him one.

      Feeling much better now that he had something proactive to do besides mentally replay last night’s embarrassment, Tyler typed the words Casablanca Hotel into his Internet browser.

      Tyler had heard Angie name the hotel when he’d hailed a cab for them last night. After dialing the number, he asked to be connected to Lilah’s room.

      “Hello?” a sexy, sleep-roughened voiced purred into the phone.

      “Lilah? I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

      “T-Tyler?”

      “Yes.” His stomach muscles clenched at the way she breathed his name.

      She cleared her throat, but she still sounded like a phone-sex operator. “No, we were up, but I admit, we haven’t been up long.”

      We? Before he could ask the question out loud, she continued.

      “Angie and I ended up ordering out in the middle of the night and didn’t get back to bed until after 5:00 a.m.”

      “Oh, I didn’t mean to disturb your rest, I was just calling to see if the two of you were free for dinner.”

      “Dinner? Um…”

      “With Reggie,” he added before the silence could stretch on, then tried not to be offended by her quick recovery.

      “Actually, yes, we are free.”

      “Great. I’ll try to get some reservations at Sapa for seven. Should we pick you two up at the hotel?”

      “No, I’m not sure what our agenda is for the day, but we’ll probably be out and about. It might be easier if we meet you there.”

      “Then it’s a date.”

      There was an awkward moment of silence, until they both tried to fill it at once.

      “Look, about last night—”

      “I want to apologize for my behavior—”

      They laughed.

      “I’m sorry—”

      “No, I’m sorry—”

      They laughed again.

      “It’s clear that both of us weren’t quite ourselves last night,” Tyler finally said. “Why don’t we just leave it at that?”

      “That sounds like a good idea.”

      Tyler hung up the phone wondering why he actually felt worse than he had before he placed the call. But he didn’t want to dwell on it. Lilah was only in town for a couple of weeks, and after he got her together with Reggie, he wouldn’t have to see her again.

      Maybe then he’d be able to stop thinking about her.