Page 4 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

It was the only thing that appealed to her. It’d give her a bit more time to decide. In less than five minutes, anyone could come off decent.

Though Jared was provingthatwrong.

Might as well humor the guy for a few more laughs. “I’ve got expensive taste,” she said.

“I’m good for twenty bucks a bottle when it comes to wine. But for you, I could up it to twenty-five.”

Oh, good lord.

“Wow, twenty-five,” she said. “I feel so special.”

“Sweetie, I aim to please.” He had his phone out. “Can I get your number?”

The bell rang. “Sorry. Time’s up.” She stood and moved to the next table before he could call her back.

He did anyway. She heard Gabby shouted, but since it wasn’t her name, she wasn’t answering.

“I’m Brian.”

“Gabriela,” she said, reaching for the new guy’s hand.

“Looks like you barely escaped the last one. There are some weird people here tonight.”

Okay. This was promising. “Tell me about it. I guess we are all weird in our own right since we’re here.”

“Good point. Why are you here?” Brian asked.

“It’s not that it sounded fun,” she said, laughing. “I’ve done it before where we have three minutes to talk to someone.”

“That’s not a lot of time. I did the same. Ten minutes helps some more,” Brian said. “But now it also drags it out to move away from someone.”

She laughed. At least they were on the same wavelength there. “That too. So yeah, it’s not that it was fun as much as, it’s my last shot to see how crazy I am. It’s not much different from meeting someone out in a bar. How about you? What brings you to this circus?”

“I needed a few laughs,” Brian said. “But I do try to take it seriously. I’m upfront about things.”

“That’s good. What is it you want to know?”

“Do you like kids?”

“I love kids,” she said. She wouldn’t volunteer that she was a pediatrician, just like she didn’t give her last name.

“Good to know. I’ve got three of them,” Brian said.

He looked a little older than her. She expected that once you were dating in your thirties, that there was bound to be baggage.

Her baggage? A demanding career most men couldn’t handle. Making more money than them. Coming from an older, established, wealthy family. So not just making more, buthavingmore. And, sure, add in a sharp tongue wrapped in overconfident charm to the top three on the list.

Yeah, some men were turned off by that.

She knew it, but she wasn’t changing who she was.

Why should she have to?

So she wasn’t always single!

Still not doing it.

“Three kids,” she said. “Boys? Girls?”