Grabbing a couple of swatches of each color I might be even remotely interested in, I shoved them into my purse. When I got home, I’d tape them to the wall and see what I liked best with the living room’s lighting.
I was heading to the door when I was stopped. A man in the blue polo shirt that all the employees wore stepped into my path. His name tag listed him as a manager, but all of that was secondary as I realized that I knew the man, sort of.
“David?” I felt a twinge of guilt as I remembered leaving him on the dance floor when Blade showed up, then blowing him off when I came back inside after having sex in the alley. I knew that I didn’t owe the guy anything, but I could tell that he was disappointed. I didn’t want to be a bitch, but I wasn’t really feeling itbeforeBlade showed up. After he made his appearance, it was unthinkable to go home with David.
“Kat, how…interestingto see you here.” There was something in his voice that I didn’t like. He seemed cold somehow. “Do you know why I’ve stopped you from leaving?”
“No?” I was confused by the question. Hadn’t he just stopped me to say hello?
“I saw you put something inside of your purse.”
“Yeah, paint samples.”
“I’m not so sure about that. You seem like the dishonest type.”
“Excuse me?” White-hot anger flared to life inside of me.
“I’m going to need to search your bag.”
“No way. What’s your problem?”
“You know, you seem like a woman that makes bad decisions. Like leaving a perfectly nice guy on the dance floor after leading him on, only to run off with a guy that looks like he belongs behind bars.”
“You know, men that refer to themselves asnice guysrarely are,” I told him, walking over to the unmanned customer service counter nearby and unceremoniously dumping the contents of my purse all over the place just to be petulant. His insults of both Blade and me pissed me off, so I didn’t care if I seemed childish.
My wallet, gum, and birth control pills went spilling out all over the place, as well as all the color swatches I’d put in there. David pursed his lips as he saw that I hadn’t stolen anything. Then, he smiled.
“You know, I should probably search you, just in case.”
My skin crawled. What. A. Creep.
“No fucking way,” I said loudly, drawing attention from the other customers nearby.
“Then, maybe I should call the police?”
Did he really think that would scare me? Pathetic.
“Go ahead, but you’ll also have to call an ambulance if you try to lay a finger on me.”
David laughed. “I knew you’d be fiesty. It was what drew me to you in the first place.” He took a step closer to me until he was so close that he could reach out and touch me. “All I want is to touch you, Kat. Get a little payback for those drinks I bought you.”
I clenched my teeth and met his eyes. “I don’t owe you anything.”
“Is there a problem here?” a voice asked from behind David, and he turned, revealing a pissed off looking Blade.
“Not at all,” David said, his voice oily as he stepped away from me.
Blade’s hands were fisted at his side, and his breathing was heavy. I had a feeling that he was trying to decide if he should pound David into a pulp or not.
“It’s fine, Blade,” I said, scooping up the contents of my purse and shoving them back inside. “I’m done with this place, anyway.”
As I side-stepped David, I thought for a moment that he might be dumb enough to try to stop me, but he didn’t. He just glowered at me as I went by. Blade kept his eyes pinned on the skeezy asshole until I had walked past them both, heading for the door.
“You keep your hands to yourself from now on,” I heard him say to David. The threat was so clear in his voice that I felt a shiver go down my spine, even though it wasn’t directed at me.
I pushed open the door to go outside and felt his presence behind me. As I got to the parking lot, I spun around to face him.
“You didn’t have to do that, you know. What were you even doing here? Did you follow me?”
