Previously…
– When Diane brought Isaac a thank-you gift, he realized that she wanted to ask him out. The pair finally agreed to go on a date.
– Sabrina attended a photography exhibit with her classmate, Robbie, but she cut the evening short when Robbie tried to convince her to go home with him.
– Christian met up with a guy from Grindr, who turned out to be Robbie.

At the back of Cassie’s Coffee House, a woman with her hair in two blonde braids plays her acoustic guitar and sings about the rain. Amongst the bric-a-brac and vintage furniture, patrons enjoy their beverages and chit-chat while listening to the music. Christian Taylor sits with a cup of tea at a small table by the windows, set slightly apart from the performance area; he is still processing the fact that he recognizes the blind date who just took a seat across from him.

“It’s nice to meet you, too. I’m Robbie,” the tall, thin man with brown hair says.

Christian smiles, hoping to mask the nervousness coursing through his body. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you around campus.”

Robbie shrugs. “You probably have. Do you live on campus?”

“Yeah, I’m–” Christian stops short of naming the dorm where he lives, not sure if that is the safest idea with a stranger he just met off an app. “I’m in the dorms, yeah.”

“What year are you?”

“I’m a freshman,” Christian tells him, and he immediately wonders if he should have lied to make himself seem older. After all, Robbie is clearly in his late 20s or early 30s, and he might not even be interested in someone so young.

“Cool,” Robbie responds with a grin. 

Then, out of nowhere, it hits Christian. He remembers seeing Robbie from a distance on campus, talking with Sabrina Gage and appearing to trade numbers with her. He sits back in his chair.

“Something wrong?” Robbie asks.

Christian studies the man across from him. He is cute, with full lips and big, expressive eyes. And if he’s on Grindr and willing to meet up, then he obviously isn’t straight. Still, Christian can’t help but wonder…

“No,” Christian finally says. “But I saw you trading numbers with– with a girl on campus, so I thought you were–“

“Hitting on her?” Robbie laughs. “I probably was.”

“Huh?”

“I’m bi,” Robbie says, leaning forward. “As a matter of fact, I was on a date with a woman earlier tonight.”

“Oh.” Christian feels himself deflate a little, even though he understands on a rational level that they aren’t committed or anything of the sort. “How’d it go?”

“Would I be sitting here if it had ended the way I was hoping it would?”

Christian shakes his head and picks up his tea.

“Sometimes, you have an itch that only another guy can scratch,” Robbie says with a certain twinkle in his eye. “So what do you say? Want to ditch this bad Lilith Fair cover act and go back to my place?”

“Excellent choice. I’ll be right back with that bottle,” the sommelier, a woman in her 40s with a blunt platinum bob, says.

Diane Bishop and Isaac Banks thank her before she steps away. The duo are seated at a square table covered in a white tablecloth in the main dining room of Windmills; the flame of a votive candle flickers in the center of their table. 

“I didn’t know you were such a wine connoisseur,” Diane says.

“Wanna know a secret?” Isaac replies.

“Obviously, yes.”

He straightens the lapels of his checked blue blazer, which he wears over a crisp white shirt. “I don’t know a damn thing about wine, other than the cheap crap I was drinking in college and med school gave me headaches and I’m sure as hell not going back to those days.”

“So you just guessed?” Diane asks with a smirk. “Maybe I should be worried.”

“Nah. I’m an excellent student. So I did what any excellent student would do.”

“What’s that?”

“Looked at their wine list on the website and then researched the hell out of every bottle available,” he says. 

“So when we were looking over the wine list…”

Isaac laughs. “All I was doing was deciding between the two I’d already picked out and waiting to see if you had a recommendation. Does that make me lame?”

“A little bit,” Diane says. “But you’re in luck.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’m impressed that a man would go to all that trouble to prepare for a date with me. You have no idea how long it’s been.” She grimaces. “I’m a little rusty on the dating thing, as you can probably tell.”

“Well,” he says, reaching across the table to touch her hand, “I’m happy we’re finally doing this.”

Diane gazes back at him in wonder. None of this seems particularly real: being on a date at all, but especially with this handsome, kind, younger doctor who, for whatever reason, continues to be interested in her. 

“Me, too,” she tells them.

“I thought that was you!” a voice announces, and even before Diane’s head swivels left, she knows to whom it belongs. Reflexively she pulls her hand away from Isaac as her sister sashays up to the table.

“I just had dinner with a few of the skating moms from the rink,” Natalie says. “Anything to get away from my miserable mother-in-law for a night.” 

“Touching,” Diane says with a sigh. 

Natalie turns her attention toward Isaac. “And who is this, Diane?”

Isaac sticks out his hand. “Isaac Banks.”

“Banks,” Natalie says, chewing on the name while she shakes his hand. “Are you…?”

“Tempest‘s brother,” Diane says. “Isaac is also a doctor at King’s Bay Memorial. He was a big help while Samantha was in the coma last year.”

“Ah. I’m Diane’s beloved sister, Natalie.” Natalie’s red lips twist up in a way that Diane recognizes all too well; she can tell that her sister is about to do something annoying. 

“So is this some kind of thank-you dinner? Or more?” Natalie asks.

—–

Thrown by Robbie’s proposal, Christian takes a sip from his tea. The hot liquid nearly scalds his mouth.

“Agh!” he blurts out as he quickly sets the cup back down.

“You okay?” Robbie asks from across the table.

Christian nods, sucking cool air into his mouth in hopes of curbing the burning. “I’m fine. Yeah. Just… hot.”

Robbie lifts his eyebrows. “You are hot. I bet you don’t even realize it yet.”

Christian feels his cheeks growing as warm as the inside of his mouth.

“That tea is too hot to drink, anyway,” Robbie says, “and this music isn’t the best. So… my place? Sound good?”

“I, um…” Now Christian feels a flush pouring over his entire body. This is exactly what he intended to use Grindr for, and he finds Robbie attractive. Still, the whole thing feels really fast. “I’m not sure.”

“Why not? Are you worried I’m a serial killer? I promise, I’m not.”

“That is kind of what a serial killer would say.”

“You can text my name and address to a friend. I wouldn’t hurt someone if I knew it could be traced right back to me, would I?”

“I guess not,” Christian says, and he reflexively picks up the tea again, although his sense prevails and he only blows on it this time. “I just… I don’t know.”

Then he feels something on his knee. He realizes, by the way Robbie is leaning toward him, that it must be Robbie’s hand, touching him beneath the table.

“Come on,” Robbie says. His hand slides up Christian’s thigh, and even with a layer of denim separating his skin from Robbie’s, the touch is positively electric. Christian feels an undeniable charge racing through himself.

Robbie looks him dead in the eyes. “Let’s get out of here and have some real fun, Christian.”

—–

Diane’s blood boils at Natalie’s intrusion, but when Isaac responds to Natalie, he sounds as calm as can be.

“We’re actually on a date,” he says with such breezy confidence that it almost makes Diane swoon, if swooning were a thing that Diane Bishop did.

“Wow.” Natalie nods with approval. “Nice work, Diane.”

“Thank you,” Diane says brusquely. “And I think our wine is on its way–“

“Oh!” Natalie interrupts her. “I remember hearing about you, Isaac. When our mother was visiting, she said something about an attractive doctor–“

“Your mother,” Diane says. Then she looks at Isaac. “Long story.”

“You haven’t told him about all that?” Natalie asks. “Buckle up, Doc. It’s a juicy one.”

“Our family’s sordid history isn’t exactly relaxed dinner conversation,” Diane says. “Natalie, it’s been a real treat to see you, but Isaac and I are going to get back to our date, okay?”

Natalie folds her arms and gives the duo a long once-over. Finally she exhales.

“Fine. Enjoy dinner. And dessert, if you know what I mean,” Natalie says.

“Go,” Diane replies.

Natalie mimes holding a phone up to her face. “Call me. I want details.”

“I will absolutely not be doing that,” Diane mutters as she watches her sister mercifully saunter away from their table and out of the dining room.

“I’m sorry about that,” she tells Isaac. “To be clear, she’s my half-sister. We don’t come from the exact same gene pool.”

Isaac laughs. “It’s cool. She seems nice.”

“Does she?” 

“I said seems. And no, you don’t have to tell me about your family drama unless you want to.”

“I don’t want to,” Diane says flatly. “There are a thousand other things I’d love to talk about, though. I can tell you about my entire career in publishing before I wound up on the radio. I’d love to hear about med school and your residency and how you wound up on that cruise ship where we met. Literally anything but Natalie.”

“I can do that,” Isaac says, grinning. 

Diane glances around them. “Now where’s that sommelier? I could use a glass of your expert selection to forget all about my sister’s miraculous apparition.”

“Looks like you’re in luck,” he says, pointing as the sommelier returns to the dining room with their bottle and a smile.

—–

The sensation of Robbie’s hand on his thigh awakens every nerve ending in Christian’s body. He has never been touched in this way by anyone before, and the feeling is so exciting that he almost leaps out of his seat so that he and Robbie can escape to somewhere more private. 

“Does that sound good?” Robbie asks in a deeper, enticing voice as he continues to stroke Christian’s leg.

“I…” Uncertainty swirls in Christian’s gut. He has never even kissed another guy before, let alone hooked up with one, and he still isn’t sure that it would be a smart idea to go back to the home of someone he met ten minutes ago.

“I can’t tonight,” he finally spits out. As soon as the words emerge from his mouth, he feels a black cloud of shame settling over him. He wants to slide out of his chair and disappear, knowing that he has probably blown his chance with this cute older guy who not only wanted to meet him but actually wanted to hook up with him.

Robbie removes his hand. “You sure?”

It takes another moment, but Christian nods. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Okay,” Robbie says. He sits back in his chair.

The woman onstage finishes playing her song, and the spectators applaud politely. Christian is grateful to have something fill the silence between him and Robbie, although it isn’t nearly enough to override how awkward he feels.

“I would go back with you sometime,” he says. “Sometime soon. Just not tonight. I’m not — I’m not ready.”

“Okay. No pressure.” Robbie holds up both palms and then winks. “I would like to get you alone sometime, though.” 

“I’d like that, too.”

They watch as a man with a goatee and a beanie takes the stage with his own guitar. Then Robbie pushes out his chair.

“You have to go?” Christian asks.

“I’m gonna get something to drink. Do you want anything?”

Surprised, it takes Christian a second to pick up his own tea. “No, I’ve got this. But thanks.”

Robbie winks again. “Be right back, stud.”

Stud. The word lingers in Christian’s mind as he watches Robbie’s lean frame walk toward the counter. The man onstage begins to play a song, and although it sounds familiar, it takes Christian a few seconds to recognize the song. Finally he places it: it’s a cover of “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

Wise men say

Only fools rush in…

Christian looks at the counter, where Robbie is ordering his drink. A sense of warmth fills him up as he wonders what the future could have in store for the two of them. 

END OF EPISODE 1174

Will Christian’s naïveté get him in trouble?
Will the Bishop family prove too much for Isaac?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

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