She looked closely at him, still not believing that a man who looked the way he did could find her appealing. "I don't know, Seth. That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, the way we went to the concert."

"You should come out for good," he said, "when you're finished with college and you become a nurse."

"I don't know about that. It's a long way off."

"It'll happen sooner than you think." He pushed himself out of the booth and stood up, reaching for her hands. She reached for him and found his hands to be tough and callused yet still somehow warm and tender. Despite the other diners in the restaurant, despite the waitresses and the cooks in the back, she still felt as if they were the only two people in the world at that moment. With a gentle tug he guided her to him and while she instinctively fluttered upward, he leaned down to give her a warm, electrifying kiss.

Out in the parking lot, they kissed again, quickly, before he re-mounted his motorcycle and jump-started the engine. Seth and his friends thundered off toward the entrance ramp. Linda wondered whether she would ever see him again.




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