“Hey,” I greeted as she took a seat next to me, and because I was an idiot, I was secretly pleased that there were two empty barstools between us and the rest of the bar.
“Hey,” she greeted back.“Fancy seeing you here again.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to make up some stupid excuse of why I was here, but then I remembered that I was a grown ass man.I was here to ask her out, and it’d be stupid to pretend otherwise.Besides, most relationships that began with lies-even if they were little ones-weren’t destined to make the distance.Plus, if she suspected that I was lying, then it’d be over before it even started, and that was not a road that I was willing to go down.
“Not really,” I replied.“I heard that you stopped by some Wednesdays, so I’ve been coming by in hopes of seeing you again.”
Her brows shot upward in surprise.“Leandra told you that?”
I immediately shook my head.“No, she didn’t.I asked the bartender from that night about you, and all he’d cop to was that you stop by on Wednesdays every now and again.”
“Okay, you’ve got my attention,” she said.“What did you want to see me for?”
My brows immediately furrowed because she sounded like she was speaking to a door-to-door salesman.She didn’t sound flirty or even friendly, and truth be told, she didn’t sound at all happy to be running into me.Nevertheless, I bit the bullet.
“Well, I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me this weekend...or whichever weekend works for you?”
Rya’s entire body froze, and it was the most uncomfortable reaction that I’d ever gotten from a woman after asking her out.“I’m sorry, what?”
“I wanted to know if you’d like to go out with me this weekend?”I repeated.
She looked genuinely at a loss, and that didn’t bode well for me.“You’re...you’re asking me out?On a date?”
I nodded as I grinned a bit.“I’m trying to, but this is coming out a lot more awkward than I had expected.”
“That’s probably because it makes no sense why you’d be asking me out,” she replied rather evenly.However, when she started looking around the bar, that’s when shit really went south.“I mean, unless this is some kind of a joke.Are your friends hiding in the back or something?”
“Wow,” I remarked, more offended than I could remember ever being.“I’m not sure what I did the other night to make you think that I was that big of an asshole, but that’s not what’s going on here.”
Her green eyes looked me directly in the face as she said, “Well, excuse me for assuming that you might be taking one for the team.Since Leandra and Joseph got along that night, it’s quite possible that you’re here on his behalf for some...some double-date sort of thing.”
The quick reminder of how Teddy had been an asshole was enough to put me in my place.“Teddy’s a jerk when he’s drunk,” I told her honestly.
“I imagine that he’s probably a jerk when he’s also sober,” she retorted.“But that’s probably boys just being boys to you.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I replied as evenly as I could.“He’s Ivan’s friend, not mine.”
Before she could say anything to that, Ellen was back, and she was placing a drink token in front of Rya.“That’s from David.”
Rya looked over towards the other end of the bar, and that’s when a man who appeared to be in his late forties lifted his beer to acknowledge her.Now, while I could just be smarting from her lack of enthusiasm at me being here, he wasn’t looking at her like she was just another patron that he was familiar with.The beer was an invitation, and I couldn’t help but judge why a man his age would send a young girl like Rya a beer.
“Tell him thanks,” Rya instructed as she smiled up at Ellen.
“Will do,” she replied cheerfully.
“Do you know that guy?”I asked, not being able to help myself.
Rya looked back at me, her brows furrowed a bit.“Look, I’m not sure what’s going on, but we both know that you’re not here to ask me out on a date.So, how about you tell me the real reason that you’re here, Koen?”
That took me aback.“Why can’t I be here to ask you out on a date?”
“Because you have no reason to,” she answered pointedly.“With your looks and money, you can have any girl that you want, and before you give me some nonsense about my personality, we barely spoke the other night.We didn’t converse long enough for you to get any real sense of my character.”
This was the craziest conversation that I’d ever had with a woman, and I was honestly struggling a bit.While she was being direct to the point of rude, she wasn’t exactly sounding rude.Again, she sounded like she was reciting a product description or entertaining a salesman.
“That’s why you go out on dates, Rya,” I pointed out.“To get to know someone better.”
“I understand that, Koen,” she replied a bit condescendingly.“However, what I don’t understand is why you want to get to knowmebetter.”
