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with pleasure. If they exchange a copulatory gaze."
    David choked on his drink.
    "It's a look that's held a few seconds too long," Cynthie said. "It's a clear sexual signal. All species do it."
    David nodded and reminded himself not to stare in the future.
    "If their conversation picks up a rhythm with no long silences, that will be attractive. If they develop enough of a relationship to use nicknames."
    "Min hates nicknames," David said, remembering a disastrous "honey bun" incident.
    "If they have the same tastes in music or film. If they establish shared secrets or private jokes. If they value the same things. Is Min self-employed?"
    "No," David said. "She works for Alliance Insurance. Her father is a vice president there."
    Cynthie's smile curved across her beautiful face. "Excellent.
Cal
likes to gamble, so he admires people who take risks. That's why he refused to go into his father's business and started his own company instead. He's not going to be impressed by somebody who's riding her father's coattails. He'll think she's dull."
    "That's good," David said.
The superficial bastard
.
    Cynthie nodded over her glass. "Even her attitude will make a difference. Someone who likes you and likes being with you is attractive." She looked woebegone for a moment. "And of course your Min will be delighted to be with him."
    "No, she isn't," David said, feeling better. "She's mad at all men right now because I broke things off with her. And she's got a sharp tongue."
    Cynthie brightened. "So he'll combine her bad temper with his analysis of her as someone who's too conservative. This is sounding very good, David. Will she let him pay for dinner?"
    David shook his head. "Min insists on going Dutch. She's a very fair woman."
    "Every species has a dinner date as part of courting ritual," Cynthie said. "A woman who won't let you pay for dinner is rejecting your courtship. She may think she's playing fair, or that she's being a feminist, but at a very deep level, she knows that she's crossing you off her list of possibilities."
    "She won't let him pay," David said, rethinking his stance on that. When Min came back, he was going to pay for dinner.
    "So they'll fight over the check. That's wonderful." She sat back, her face relaxed for the first time. "From what you've told me about her,
Cal
is already regretting asking her to leave with him."
    "That's good," David said, cheering up at the thought.
    Cynthie's smile wavered. "So did you want to go to dinner, or did you ask me out just to make
Cal
mad?"
    Dinner. If he took Cynthie to dinner, Tony and Roger would tell
Cal
he and Cynthie had hooked up. That would serve
Cal
right. He could walk off with the hot brunette who'd dumped the legendary Calvin Morrisey. He'd win.
    He put his drink down. "I asked because I wanted to have dinner with you."
    Cynthie smiled and he was dazzled.
Cal
was a fool for letting this woman go.
    "And you can tell me more about Min," Cynthie said.
    "Of course," David said.
    All about Min. Nothing about the bet.
    ***
    Min had waited outside while the beast went back in to retrieve whatever he'd forgotten—his morals, maybe—and the cool air of the June night cleared her head and her anger a little. The bar was on one of her favorite streets, full of funky little shops and restaurants and a great revival theater, and a gentle breeze blew through the skinny trees that struggled to grow in their iron cages along the street edge. For a moment, Min watched the trees and thought, /
know just how you feel.
Well, she didn't know the skinny part. But the trapped? Yep.
    Because she was stuck, no doubt about it. Stuck dateless in a stupid bridesmaid's dress for her sister's wedding to a dweeb with her mother sighing at her. Because the truth was, she wasn't going to be able to play somebody like Cal Morrisey for three weeks. It had been a dumb, dumb idea, fueled by rum and rage. For a moment, she wished that she was back in her attic apartment, curled up on her