“Well, I got the chaos part right,” I grumbled. I just hadn’t imagined that the chaos would involveme.
“Ooookay, then.” Tyler cleared his throat. He looked like he didn’t know whether to be offended or amused by Micah. Join the club. “Constantine, are we going?”
“Youcan run along,” Micah said dismissively. He didn’t turn to look at Tyler either. “I have something to tell Mr. Ross that he’s going to want to stay and hear.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him there wasnothingI wanted to hear from him, but… I was only human, you know? As far as I could remember—and believe me, I’d have remembered—he’d never sought me out, never voluntarily evenspokento me. Was he gonna yell at me for my dumb joke earlier? Make me feel like even more of an incompetent kid? Prove himself to be even more unlikeable than I already knew him to be? He was welcome to try.
“Tyler, can I get a raincheck on that drink?”
“Uh. Yeah. Of course,” Tyler said. “Give me your phone and I’ll give you my number. You can text me when you get home safely.”
Thatmade me break eye contact with Micah long enough to shoot Tyler a smile. “I’ve known you for ten whole minutes, Tyler,” I reminded him. “I’ve known this guy for a while.” But I unlocked my phone and handed it over anyway.
“Uh huh. But I’m not looking at you like he is either.” Tyler tilted his head toward Micah as he plugged in his number.
“Like I’m a mosquito bite in an unmentionable place?” I suggested.
“No. More like it’s feeding time at the zoo.” He handed me back my phone.
I laughed out loud at the idea. “I’ll be fine. Micah’s no threat to me. Are you Micah?”
Micah ignored me.
“You boys play nice,” Tyler said as he walked away.
Micah dropped onto his stool immediately, but somehow it still felt like the guy was looming over me. It made me uncomfortable—my throat tight, my stomach jumping. Just being in his presence was like a shot of adrenaline, and the fatigue that had swamped me all night was nowhere to be found.
“Okay,” I said, turning on my stool to face him, trying desperately to regain the control I lost in his proximity. “Now that you’ve run off my new friend,proposition me.”
Micah smiled knowingly. “Your new friend? The flavor of the week, you mean.”
“What?”
He sipped his drink. “Don’t pretend like yourfriendshipwith that twink would have lasted for longer than the half hour it took you both to get off.”
“The fuck? Judging me for the number and frequency of my sex partners says more aboutyoubeing a judgmental asshole than it does aboutme. You don’t know shit about my sex life.”
Micah shrugged, a half-assed apology. “Fair.”
“But for the record,” I leaned closer for just a second and he leaned in, too, almost like he couldn’t help it. “I never stop atoneorgasm,” I whispered. “And it takes way longer than half an hour.”
I winked, satisfied that I’d provoked him.
But Micah didn’t just look annoyed, he lookedangry.He glared at me, all heat and fire and intensity, like what I’d said was personally offensive to him or something.
I would never understand the man.Hehad no problem being rude and insulting, but whenIteasedhim,even in a friendly way, he acted like I’d insulted his mom. Just like everyone else, he seemed to expect me to be someone I wasn’t, and all I could ever do was fail, and fail, and fail.
This was nothing new. I was always too loud, too brash, too excited, too emotional, too quick to find the humor in a situation, too slow to think of the consequences, too much of everything bad, and too little of everything good. I was a recipe that never turned outrightno matter how many times I’d tried to change myself, so I’dstoppedtrying to change myself years ago. I wasn’t responsible for the way other people reacted to me, and most of the time, I didn’t care what they thought.
It killed me that, of all the people in this bar, of all the people in thistown, the one person determined to hate me seemed to be the one person whose opinion I cared about.
It was inexplicable.
And, did I mention, fuckingannoying?
I pursed my lips. “M’kay, so this little glaring contest is super fun and all, but I have two brothersandan Italian mother. My skin is Teflon, and your death rays can’t touch me. Last chance, big man. Say whatever you need to say to me, yell as loud as you want, and then leave me alone.”
“Yell?” He looked honestly confused. “Why would I want to yell at you right now?”
