“Well, at least you know I'm probably not after your money.”

“Most people highly motivated by money don't become public defenders.”

“My parents like to point that out too, but not for the same reason.”

“Are you close to your mom and dad?” he asked.

“Yes, very. They’ve been happily married for twenty-eight years and they’re very loving parents. Is your family close?”

“Yes, exceptionally,” he answered. “My parents have been happily married for thirty years. And my brother and sister and I are close even though Drew and I rag on each other.”

“You went to Georgetown Law and you’re twenty-seven like Mark?”

“Right. You went to Penn Law and you’re twenty-six?”

“Yep. So now we know the details,” I said with a smile.

“Now we know the details,” he agreed.

“Ah, here we are,” I said as we approached the restaurant. “I warned you that it's not fancy.”

“I don't care about fancy as long as it tastes good. I'll try the lamb even though I'm afraid that now I'm going to think about how cute my dinner once was.”

“Sorry about that.” We went down the steps from the sidewalk to the entrance below and entered into the quaint interior filled with delicious smells and Turkish music. I saw my friend Ahmet rushing to greet us.

“Gabrielle! It's good to see you! Come in! Sit down! Damla will be happy you are here! And you brought someone with you!” He gave me an inquisitive smile.

“I've been telling him how great the food is here.”

“Ah, yes thank you!” He beamed. He handed us menus and then hurried off. He was back in a moment with his wife Damla.

“Gabrielle! You are looking so beautiful! And who is your friend?” Damla asked with a huge smile. Damla was so warm she glowed.

“This is Braden. He's a lawyer too.”

“And are you on a date?”

“We are actually, yes.”

“That is good news!” she said, clapping her hands excitedly. Great, even the people at the kabob place were thrilled to see me with a date. “She is very lovely!” Damla said to Braden. “She will have beautiful children someday.” I wanted to slide out of my chair and crawl under the table to hide. I started to read the menu with the focus of a Talmudic scholar.

“I haven't had that yogurt soup in a while. That was really good.” Thankfully they took the hint.

“I'll send Fatma over to take your order. Have a very nice date!” Damla said sweetly.

“We hope we will see you many times,” Ahmet added. They kept smiling and waving as they backed up toward the kitchen. When they got there I saw them peek their heads back out again. They had huge smiles and waves for us. I waved and spoke to Braden as I smiled back at them.

“I helped them with some immigration stuff once. They're very thankful people. And I haven't really dated anyone in a while so I guess they're happy that my attractive ovaries might not go to waste.”

“Why haven't you been dating?” he asked.

“My opportunities are mostly for inner-office romances or one night hook-ups with strangers but neither one of those really appeals to me much. So, why have you been… um?”

“Having casual sexual encounters with no emotional investment or commitment?”

“I was just going to say not dating, but okay, if you prefer.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been interested enough to want to know more about a woman than whether she preferred to be on the top or the bottom.”

“Oh. Well, I’m flattered, I guess, and for the record, I like both. It just depends on my mood.” He grinned and I saw his eyes start to heat up. Fatma came over and took our order. When she left Braden picked up where we left off.

“I should warn you that I’m very out of practice with the dating thing and it might take me a little while to get back into that mindset. For example, although part of me is sitting here thinking, wow here’s this amazingly smart and sexy woman and I really want to get to know her better, there’s still that other part of me that’s thinking I want to take her back to my place and bang her until she can’t walk straight.”

I felt a little lightheaded for a second but then I imagined a little Jess hovering over the table saying “Confidence, Gabrielle! It’s okay to want to be banged until you can’t walk straight, honey!” I wasn’t exactly sure why Jess was dressed like Yoda but I was just going to go with it.

“Ah, well. They don’t really have to be mutually exclusive goals do they?” I started, and his grin slowly got bigger as his gaze got hotter. I was feeling very baby gazelle-like at the moment.

“Not at all,” he said in a low sultry voice.

“Not tonight! I mean, because, well you have to go somewhere tomorrow.” I swallowed.

“Okay? So, you don’t want to hook up with me?” He looked confused. Oh f**k! I was totally messing this up! I didn’t want him to think that I didn’t want to!

“I’m not saying that I don’t want to have sex with you! Believe me! I do! In fact, I want to have hot sweaty monkey sex with you! Okay, maybe that was a bit too candid. I’m just saying that I want it to be different than if you just picked me up in a bar. I wouldn’t want you to just leave and thank me on the way out the door. I’m not expecting some kind of huge emotional connection right away. I just want it to be different than going to bed with my vibrator. Do you know what I mean?”

“You have a vibrator?” he asked with a smile and I rolled my eyes. “I’m just kidding! I know what you mean, Gabrielle. Would it shock you if I told you that I felt that way too?”

“You do?”

“I’m sitting here on a date with you, aren’t I? I invited you over to my place to spend time with my friends. I invited you to my family’s fundraiser at my parents’ home. Obviously, I don’t view you in the same way as some person I hooked up with at a club last weekend and whose name I forgot. Or never knew. What I meant was that I’m trying to do this right but I’m distracted by how much I want you physically. That’s all.”

“Oh. Oh!” I smiled. “Well, um, I feel that way too. You distract me a lot. ”

“I kind of got that from the hot, sweaty, monkey sex comment.”

“Oh Jesus. I really said that, didn’t I?” I felt my face getting hot.