"What are you doing?" Dave became alert at once. He abandoned the coffee he was holding in one of his hands to crash lightly, on the table. He stood to his feet and demanded, "Could you please, tell me what's going on with you?" He frowned.

Feeling embarrassed by his unprecedented response, she tried to douse the situation. "Nothing!...Uumm! I'm sorry about that." She stood almost at the same time as Dave.

"You can't tell me nothing happened, Julia! You just tried to hold my hands intimately. I thought we were just casual friends. Why then are you taken this far?" he countered.

She had a rare motivation to defend...