Nova suppressed a snort of amusement. By the gods and goddesses, this guy was a colossal jerk. No wonder he needed a matchmaking service to find dates.
“How so?” she asked, her eyes lifting to the waitress who brought another margarita to the table and set it in front of her. “Thanks,” she murmured to the woman.
The waitress glanced at Torin, then glanced at Nova. “Anything else?” she asked.
“Yeah, seeing as I’m about to pound this one, please bring me another margarita.”
The waitress’s expression was sympathetic and she said, “No problem, hon.”
Nova took a deep drink of her margarita and looked across the table at Torin. She lowered the glass, licked a stray grain of salt from her lips, and said, “Sorry about that. Now, you were going to tell me why the concept of me being independently wealthy explained a lot.”
She almost grinned when his fierce blue eyes dropped to her lips before they came back up to her eyes. Yeah, he thought she was attractive, at least physically, but he didn’t care for her personality either.
“Why? You don’t seem to care.”
“About what?”
“Anything.”
Okay, enough was enough. Nova drained her margarita and sat the glass on the table with a thump and rattle of ice.
“All right, I’d say this has been fun, but you’ve made it clear you don’t agree,” she began. “So, instead, I’ll say this.” She leaned forward, catching his eyes with her own. “You don’t know me. This is the first time we’ve met and, I have to say, my first impression of you is just as bad as your first impression of me. Now, if you seemed like a different kind of guy, I’d be interested in seeing if the first impression was accurate or not, but considering how inflexible you seem to be, I doubt you’d be open to that.”
The waitress came back, another margarita on the rocks in her hand. She seemed to sense the tension surrounding the table and set the glass down without a word.
Before she could walk away, Nova said, “Could you bring me the check, please?”
The other woman glanced at Torin, who was still glaring at Nova, and then she asked, “Together or separate?”
“Separate,” Nova said at the same time Torin said, “Together.”
He glared harder.
Nova smiled at the server. “Separate please. Put my drinks on my tab.”
Torin opened his mouth to say something else but the other woman scurried away before he could speak.
“I’ll take care of the check,” he finally said to Nova.
“Thanks for the offer, but I prefer to go Dutch on the first date. Keeps the pressure off.”
Torin studied her, his brows still close together.
“I’m not inflexible,” he finally said.
Nova sighed. “If you say so.”
He frowned harder.
“Look, let’s chalk this up as a learning experience,” Nova said. She smiled a little.
“Learning experience?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “New experiences are good for you, Torin. There are too many places and people in this world to keep a closed mind.”
“That explains a lot, too,” he muttered.
“You’re kinda judgmental,” she said, picking up her fresh margarita.
