Something in the Wine Read Online Free PDF Page A

me I couldn’t say no, because his friend Drew bent over backwards to get out of some work obligations to go out on a date with me.”
    “I hate to admit it,” Drew rubbed her neck, “but that might not be all that far from the truth. I was really looking forward to meeting you tonight.”
    Heat rose up Annie’s neck. “Yes, but Jake let me assume his friend Drew was a man.”
    “Oh.” Drew’s shoulders slumped.
    The waiter chose that moment to approach the table and address Drew. “Can I get you—?”
    “Would you give us a minute, please?” Drew said. As soon as he disappeared, she leaned forward and regarded Annie. “So you’re straight?”
    Annie nodded.
    “Great. I should have known he would set me up with one of his straight friends,” Drew grumbled.
    “Straight sister, actually,” Annie said.
    “What?” Drew’s eyes widened. She shook her head as if to clear it. “You’re Annie, Jake’s sister? Jake told me your name is Caroline.”
    “It is,” Annie said. “My middle name.” After a moment, she added with a small smile, “Annie Caroline Prideaux. Hello.”
    Squeezing her eyes shut, Drew slapped her own forehead. “Oh, man. I should have known Jake was up to no good.” She sighed but then straightened, returned Annie’s smile, and reached out her hand. “Pleased to meet you anyway.”
    Annie slid her hand into Drew’s and shook it. Drew’s grip was steady and warm. “What now?” Annie asked with a glance at the waiter who lingered nearby. “Do we stay or go?”
    “Why don’t we stay? We’re both here, dressed to the nines,” Drew’s appreciative glance slid over Annie’s elegant silk top, but there was nothing leering about her gaze, “and I don’t know about you, but I haven’t eaten all day and I would appreciate the company. Would you mind?”
    For a moment, Annie was tempted to just go home, but she felt bad about someone else being the victim of Jake’s practical joke. The least she could do was stay and have dinner with Drew. In a way, it was a relief to have dinner with a woman instead of a date with Jake’s male friend. At least Drew has already seen me at my worst, so I can relax. “No,” Annie said, “I don’t mind.”
    Smiling, Drew opened her menu.
    The waiter approached again. “Have you decided on something to drink?”
    “Just a glass of water for now,” Drew said.
    After the waiter walked away, they went back to studying the menus. Silence settled between them.
    Annie searched for something to say, but now that she couldn’t rely on her first-date script, she struggled to find a safe topic of conversation. “I think I’ll get the vegetarian lasagna.”
    Drew glanced up from her menu. “You’re a vegetarian?”
    “Yes,” Annie said but didn’t explain. She had gotten into enough heated debates with her meat-loving family, and she didn’t want to justify herself to a total stranger.
    “Can I ask why you made that choice? Is it for ethical reasons, or do you just not like the taste of meat?”
    Annie hesitated, not eager to talk about herself, but Drew looked at her with a friendly expression, just curious, not judging. And they had to talk about something after all to make it through this dinner. “When I was fourteen, I saw a documentary about how chickens are raised. I won’t go into detail, or I’ll spoil your dinner. Needless to say it’s beyond cruel.” The memory of those scenes made Annie shudder. “I don’t want to contribute to that.”
    Drew nodded. “It couldn’t have been easy to stand by that decision at fourteen.”
    The respect in Drew’s voice made Annie relax a little. She shrugged. Drew was right. Her parents had tried several times to smuggle meat onto her plate—putting ground meat on her veggie burger, for example—because they thought she needed meat for a healthy diet. She bit her lip at her family’s continued disrespect of her choices.
    “I don’t eat much meat either,” Drew said, “but tonight I