The matire'd turned back. "Are you okay, miss?" he asked. Elizabeth was suddenly very pale. Her hand clutching her bag like a lifeline was trembling. She took another deep breath and nodded.
"I'm fine," Elizabeth assured him, flashing him a reporter's smile."Just nerves. He's a really hot player right now, and I don't want to screw this up," she rambled, lying through her teeth.
The matire'd led the way to small table in the back of the room. The room was gorgeous, decorated with flowers and old Italian art, and very well lit. Beautiful, but hardly romantic. "I can be professional about this," she reminded herself.
"Miss Wakefield, sir," the matire'd presented her, pulling out a chair. Todd looked up from the menu he had been studying. There were no words as he leapt out of his chair, embracing her in a tight hug.
"Liz, how are you?" he said, still holding on.
"I'm your reporter," she explained. "Jerry got sidetracked, you might say."
"I knew you worked for the Times, I can take care of this one," Todd assured the matire'd as he held out the chair for Elizabeth.
""Wait," Elizabeth said as she sat, and Todd returned to his side of the table, "you knew I worked for the Times. How?"
"Jessica mentioned it when I saw her at a party," Todd explained, looking a little stunned.
"Would you like anything to drink?" the matire'd asked.
"Just a beer please," Todd asked.
"Lemonade please," Elizabeth ordered. She was dying for a drink that would relax her and get her sailing through this night, but she had to keep her head about her to keep her job.
"I have to admit you know much more about my life now then I ever would have guessed.," Elizabeth said. "Jessica never told me about that."
"I asked her about you. I only saw her for a few minutes at a studio party," he said casually.
"Well, enough about me, we need to talk about you," Elizabeth stated firmly, stashing aside a mental note to kill her twin. "So what would you say is your biggest challenge playing professional basketball?"
Elizabeth learned Tood hadn't even graduated college when he had entered the NBA draft. He had bounced around between a few teams on the East Coast before finding what he hoped to be a home on the Lakers. No girlfriend, Elizabeth noted in bold letters and underlined. That would make a good reading point for females, she determined. He still liked watching sports in his spare time, along with travel. Underneath,Todd was still the same down to earth guy that had won Elizabeth over so long ago.
"So Liz..." Todd hedged once they had finished with the interview.
"Yes...?" she asked.
"What would you say to spending some time together... off the record?"
"I'd love to," she smiled.
They paid for their drinks and left the restaurant. Now they were on their own, and Elizabeth had no idea what to do without her notebook to hide behind.
"So, what would you say we drive down the coast for a little bit in my Jag?"
"You drive a Jaguar?" she asked in amazement. Then kicked herself. 'He's a big star. Of course he's going to drive something nice you nit," she scolded herself.
"I would but my Jeep..."
"It'll be okay. Let's go," he said, handing his ticket to the valet.
"You look beautiful by the way," he said, as his hand squeezed hers.
"I bet you say that to all the journalists," she said.
"Liz, none of the ESPN guys could wear that outfit like you do," he teased.
They got in the car and drove away.
For awhile there was silence. The moonlight and streetlamps briefly illuminating the inside as they drove.
"So when did you run into Jessica?" Elizabeth finally asked.
"The producer of her soap, Mark Patrick, is a fan of the Lakers, so he had a party for the team and invited half of Hollywood."
"I still can't believe she never told me."
It was probably becuase of Robbie. How is he by the way?"
Elizabeth felt as though somebody had suddenly dumped a cold bucket of water on her head.
"Jessica told you about Robbie?" Liz gasped.
"Liz, are you okay?" Todd asked. In the dim light of the moving car, she looked very pale. He pulled over and parked on the beach, like they did when they were dating.
"Robbie is a long and complicated story," Liz said.
"Well, I gather you didn't marry him. They called you Miss Wakefield at the restaurant."
Liz tried to smile. "I'm sorry, I just haven't thought about him in a while. The end of the story was that I did marry him, only to walk in on him with one of the interns at the paper the day after we got back from our honeymoon. I had it annuled - four months ago."
"Ouch, that must hurt," he said rubbing her back.
"I had never thought of divorce as an option," she admitted, "then after I walked in on them, I found their used needles. That was enough."
"Oh Liz. I'm glad you left that jerk. You deserve so much better!" Tood exclaimed.
"It was for the best. Now I bury myself in my work."
"You know, this is the absolute worst time to mention it, but we've always been honest with each other right?"
"Sure."
"When I ran into Jessica at that party, my world stopped, becuase, for a moment, I thought she was you."