Honest? There wasn’t anything to be honest about. At least that’s what she thought before Tom. And before he told her about this dinner thing.

"Come on. What is it?" He tightened the grip he had around her waist.

She wiggled a little. "I don’t know – it’ll just be – well odd."

Being a cop was strange enough but dating was something else all together. Keeping it between them was fun and relaxing. Taking it to the next level might not be.

She shrugged. "Maybe we should just play it by ear."

"Play it by ear? And what exactly does that mean?"

She smiled weakly. "Tom…"

"You can tell me anything, you know." He leaned close and put his lips just below her ear. "We’re friends, Jude. Before anything else, you know?"

She took in a breath. Friends. Okay. So a friend might not get upset to find out that she almost had sex with another friend of theirs. But Tom isn’t just a friend now. He might not take it too well. On the other hand if she didn’t tell him now it could be worse if it came out later.

She stood up and moved to sit on the bed, turning so she faced him. "Okay. Here it is. A while back Penhall and I, well we’d been working together for a while. And one night he came by and we had pizza and talked and – well he kissed me. And I kissed him back. And we fooled around a little. No, a lot. But we didn’t sleep together. I mean we went to sleep but we didn’t have sex. And I – well I – I never thought it would matter to anyone but now here we are and I don’t know if it matters or not but it’s making me feel very odd and now I’m sitting here and you’re not saying anything and that’s not making me feel good either. So say something. Please?"

Tom blinked a few times. "I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say."