Love's Dilemma (Sixty Minute Romance) Read Free

not far
short of six foot tall.
    So she expected all men who approached her to be in
attack mode. Men were after whatever they could get. This rather negative
opinion of men was drawn from her admittedly limited experience of meeting men
in pubs and nightclubs. Most of them were sleazy and creepy in her opinion. This
Max chap was all politeness and generosity. It was different to say the least.
She liked it that he was actually almost drooling over her and making easy
conversation. He was not quite as confident as he first appeared.
    “He ran off quickly because of that thing you do.” Jo
had spoken to Clair about this before. Clair would stand silently and allow
everyone else to do the talking. She did this out of politeness and deference.
It came across to many people as a bit scary. You could never work out what she
was thinking. At least, this was Jo’s theory.
    “I don’t do that thing. You are making it up again.”
Clair was quite sure that she didn’t do anything to scare men off. She was also
sure that she had behaved quite properly with Max. She was intrigued as to why he
would buy them a drink and then disappear so quickly.
    Clair turned her mind to listening to the bands that
were playing this evening. She loved the thrill of live music. It was dangerous
because things could go wrong. It was fantastic because when things went right,
you couldn’t experience a better buzz. Some band members were finishing setting
their gear up and tuning their guitars.
    It looked like a five piece guitar band was playing
first. The drummer was already in place and waiting for the others to catch up
and be ready. He did that thing that all drummers do when they have nothing
better to do. He hit all his drums and cymbals constantly while waiting for the
rest of the band to be ready. Drummers have no idea just how annoying this is!
Clair had noticed this character flaw with all drummers many times before, and
smiled knowingly to herself.
    The door marked ‘Private’ opened and another
band member appeared. Behind him their new friend Max followed, with a good
looking blond girl in tow. Max kissed the girl briefly on both cheeks before
taking the stage and picking up his microphone. The girl was a bit older than
him. For some reason her presence disappointed Clair and she looked at Jo with
a glare. Obviously Max was spoken for. A bit disappointing, but never mind.
    “I will never understand guys.” She almost snarled at
Jo. At the same time she couldn’t work out why it mattered to her.
    As she got used to the fact that Max was the lead
singer in the first band, she noticed his blond girl walking around the back of
the room. She was getting closer and closer to Clair and Jo. It was like she
was deliberately trying to come and stand right next to them. ‘This could be
embarrassing’ , thought Clair for a moment. There was no real reason to be
embarrassed at all, or was there?
    The band launched into their first number and the blond
girl started talking to Jo and Clair. She shook hands with them both and spoke
like they could hear what she was saying. They couldn’t hear a word as the
music was drowning the blond girl out. So they stood three in a line and waited
for the first song to finish. Clair couldn’t remember ever feeling so awkward
about any social situation, as she did about the apparently random meeting with
this blond girl. She decided that they wouldn’t stay very long. Clair looked at
Jo standing next to her and tried to speak with her eyes. The message she tried
to convey was ‘Help, we should go now, because there is a strange blond
woman standing next to me who won’t stop talking.’
    Unfortunately Clair’s eye language was not that good,
and Jo replied with a clear, ’What are you talking about’ expression.
The band stopped playing and started the set up for the next tune. This was the
moment that the blond girl could be heard.
    “Hi I’m Sandy. I’m Max’s sister. He told me to come
over and