Aw, shit. He was gonna make her watch him turn his sweet smile on that beautiful woman?
She sniffed, to make it supremely clear she did not give a fuck about anything he did or who he talked to, and hit play on the video. “She’s gorgeous,” she admitted in as flat a tone as possible. Just because she didn’t dress up didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate style. The woman exuded glamour, from the tips of her fiery hair to her high strappy sandals.
“Hmm,” Samson agreed. “Keep watching.”
Rhiannon refocused on the meeting, hitting the volume button up so she could properly hear their exchange. After a minute, her eyes went wide. After three minutes, she looked up at him. “Did you seriously ask her if she was wearing hair extensions?”
He rolled his lips in. “Keep watching,” he repeated.
Rhiannon couldn’t help but do just that, and her envy vanished as she watched the couple on the screen with all the horrified fascination of someone watching a train wreck. She winced when Samson choked on a french fry. He took a sip of water, which he then spit on the tablecloth when he was racked by a coughing fit.
She inhaled when Samson oh-so-casually asked his date if she liked to “Netflix and chill” with hernephewand his reaction when the far-too-patient woman explained what he was asking. “What did you think Netflix and chill meant?” Rhiannon demanded, pausing the video.
“Exactly what it says! Watch television and relax.” He shook his head, bewildered. “I didn’t know it was about sex. Why can’t people say what they want to say?”
“Because we live in a puritanical society that can’t use the S word out loud.” Rhiannon shook her head. “You’re notthatold, how do you not know slang?”
He sniffed. “It doesn’t have anything to do with age. I haven’t been plugged in for a while. This is the internet’s fault, going around changing words and meanings.”
Rhiannon rubbed her hand over her mouth to hide her smile. But she had to bite her lip not to laugh when Samson’sbig hand knocked the girl’s large glass of wine over. Right into her lap.
Samson cleared his throat. “Let’s shut it down there. That’s enough for you to get the gist of what happened.”
She turned the video off in the middle of Samson’s frantic attempts to dry the girl’s dress, and put the phone on her desk. Then she looked up at Samson, whose face was a deep red under his brown skin.
Maybe it was because she’d been talking to her mother, but all she could do was channel Sonya. “Oh,honey.”
He groaned. “I know. It was bad.”
“Not bad necessarily—no, you’re right.” Rhiannon handed him his phone back. “You were a fucking hot mess.” She shouldn’t feel good about that. It was mean to feel good about it.
Ah, but she did. Not only because he definitely hadn’t been this graceless on their one and only date, but because she wanted him to have some flaws. The man was too perfect and shiny otherwise.
“I’m aware.” He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “That’s why I’m here.”
“I don’t know how I can help you with your gracelessness.”
“Aunt Belle’s assistant, Tina, said something interesting. About how you and I have much better chemistry than this poor woman and I did.”
Rhiannon narrowed her eyes, even as her heart skipped a beat or two. “I don’t follow.”
Samson rose from his seat and walked around the desk.She scooted back, to give him more room, because he required so much room. He perched on the desk and smiled down at her. “I have an idea for a better campaign. You and me.”
“We date?” Her voice squeaked.
“Not exactly. The idea we came up with was airing this debacle”—he gestured to the phone—“online. I originally didn’t want to do that, because I feel bad for Rachel, but I’ve talked to her since. She’s an actress, and eager for publicity, and she said it was clear I was the fuckup, not her.” His faint smile made it clear he didn’t mind that description.
“She’s not wrong. You will look bad, if that gets released to the public.”
“I’ll look foolish.”
“Doesn’t that upset you?” It would upset a lot of men she knew, to give the world the impression that they were anything but smooth as butter.
“Looking foolish? It wouldn’t be the first time. And it’s a pretty benign form of foolishness. After I got over my horror and embarrassment, even I found it funny.”
People would eat it up with a spoon. There was something utterly charming about a handsome, attractive, otherwise together man fumbling when it came to women. “What’s my role in all this?”
“All my matches are placed on hold. Instead, you and I go out to cool places around the city and chat about dating. We can say that you’re teaching me, helping me get back into the game. No cameramen, no closed set, we shoot it on our phones.”
