Ollie laughed. "I wasn't trying to, I promise. What is it, anyway? Your project?" As he asked, a young woman stopped by their table to take their orders, and Ollie, still smiling at Tiffany, said, "Two lemonades, please."
"I'm sorry, what?" The young woman blinked at him, and Ollie's smile fell away.
"Two lemonades, please?"
"Two… limon oids? Oh! Lemonades. Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Your accent threw me for a second there. Are you Australian?"
"I am." Ollie spoke as politely as he could without encouraging the young woman. He'd only been in the States for a day, and it was already clear that his accent appealed to a large percentage of the population. He only wanted it to appeal to Tiffany. Nobody else mattered as much as she did.
"Oh my God, that's so cool. How long have you been here? What brought you to Virtue?" The waitress put her hand on his shoulder.
His koala, which honestly didn't like being touched, yelled,Bite her!
Ollie did not bite her. He did shift his shoulder uncomfortably, and when she didn't move her hand, said, "I'm sorry, but I don't care for strangers touching me."
It took several seconds for her to work her way through his accent. In that time, he watched Tiffany's eyes narrow and her shoulders set. She was just drawing a breath to speak when the waitress, with a yelp of apology, snatched her hand off Ollie's shoulder. "Oh my gosh, I'm super sorry."
"No worries. Lemonades," he said to Tiffany. "Anything else?"
Tiffany's eyes were still narrowed as she transferred her gaze to the waitress. "No." After a moment in which it appeared she was trying to remember how to be polite, she added, "Thanks."
She totally woulda taken her,the koala announced.She threw us right on the ground and we're eighty times bigger than the waitress. Let's her and them fight!
Ollie said, "No!" as forcefully as he ever said anything, startling both the waitress and Tiffany.Oh, God, look what I've done now. Just be quiet, please!"Sorry," he said in his more usual soft tone. "Would you believe I was arguing with myself?"
"Over what?" the waitress asked, wide-eyed, but scurried away from the table to get their lemonades instead of waiting for an answer.
"Over what?" Tiffany echoed when she was gone.
"…whether you could take her in a fight?" It was more or less true, although it was also absurd, because who sat around a cafe wondering if his sort-of date could beat up the waitress?
Me,the koala said gleefully.
Yes, but you're a?—
Belligerent drop bear, I know.The koala bared its teeth in something like a smile. It had remarkably fierce fangs for such a placid-looking creature.
Tiffany, eyebrows elevated, turned to watch the waitress go. "Probably? She's younger than I am, but I'm probably meaner than she is."
"You don't seem mean at all," Ollie said over the sound of his koala goingYessssss! She's mean! She's fierce! She'll kick ARSE!
She's going to kickyourarse if you don't shut up!
The koala was positively delighted at the prospect, but to Oliver's relief, it did at least settle down.
Tiffany was shrugging. "I don't really think I am mean, to be honest. I just don't take much shit. People waste enough of my time already, and if I put up with any guff, it gets way worse, way fast."
"Whatareyou building out there? Why can't it wait until Monday?"
"Because I've got another job lined up starting twenty days from now," she said with the exaggerated patience of a woman who didn't think she needed to explain herself.
Oliver, hearing that tone, nodded slowly. "You're right. You don't owe me an explanation. And I should have understood without asking that you probably had something else starting shortly after that. Sorry."
"Wow." Tiffany brought her full, bright-eyed attention to him. "Wow, are all Australian guys this cool, or are you a special breed?"
A startled, quiet laugh escaped him. "I don't know if I'm a special breed?—"
His koalalookedat him.
