“I’d like to.” Connor touched his back pocket. “One moment. Stay here, please.” As if I might try to follow him back inside or something. Whatever. He returned a moment later with his wallet and keys and motioned to his truck. “Ready?”
I folded my arms and stared him down. “Where are we going?”
“Are you picky or something?”
“No. I’m confused.”
“Are you confused because you’re not sure if you’re hungry or not?”
“I’m confused because I don’t know why we’re going somewhere together. You told Rob I was not attractive.”
He opened his mouth to rebut, but I cut him off. “Don’t.”
“But, I—”
“Nope. I’m good. It’s not an ego thing. It’s just rude to rate your neighbor on a hotness scale. And I don’t want your pity lunch after you took off the second everyone left today. I get it. We’re not going to be friends.”
Connor looked at the ground. “So, I’m not allowed to defend myself?” He mumbled something right after it that sounded a lot like, “Not that I should.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” He looked up at me, and I could see the fear. He knew exactly what I was asking about.
“Why don’t you want me to like you?”
He put his hands up in a plea. “Lunch first?”
“You must be really hungry. Hang on a second.” I went into my place and grabbed my purse. There was no way I’d be letting Connor pay for me. This was not a date, just a fact-finding mission with food.
12
________
Connor
This was not a date, and I knew Melissa felt the same way, because she’d elbowed me out of the way to pay for her sandwich and chips herself. I should have been relieved by that, but all I felt was guilt over her accusation about us not being friends. Yes, I had my reasons for keeping my prickly distance, but she didn’t know that. And worse, I was starting to wonder if my reasoning had ever been valid. I needed to know things.
“Tell me about your witness protection fiancé.”
“No.” Melissa returned her sandwich to her tray and stared me down. “I had a question for you, and you’ll answer it first before you get anything from me.” The staring contest ended when she snuck a glance at her sandwich and couldn’t resist picking it up for another bite. She liked her sandwich a lot more than me at the moment, even though I’d brought her to my favorite deli, which was now clearly her favorite deli. I knew she’d like the checkered table cloths and the baby farm animal décor. I just liked it for the amazing food.
“I didn’t tell Rob you weren’t attractive because I thought you… weren’t attractive.” I cleared my throat as my face heated. Now I had her attention. “I told him that because most women find him a little forward. I was trying to spare you an uncomfortable come-on from him. So, when he asked about you, I threw him off the scent, so to speak.”
Melissa studied me. Several reactions crossed her face, but she didn’t say anything.
“Had I known you would insult his bongo skills in front of all his friends on first meeting him, I wouldn’t have bothered.”
Melissa laughed. “Yeah… He’s still a little ticked off about that. But he did invite me in for a smoothie right before you came to the door.”
“His smoothies are the worst. You definitely dodged a bullet there.”
“By going out with you instead?”
“Yeah, I guess it is sad when I’m your best option.” I stole the last potato chip out of her bag, just to clinch my point.
“You don’t scare me, Connor Harwood.”
“I was afraid of that.”
