Honestly, it was times like this when I wished that Dalton Summit had never gone to work at Precious Pets.He was just so damn sexy, gorgeous, and...and mouth-watering.Rya liked to joke that Dalton could be a book cover model, but she wasn’t wrong.Where Koen had that clean-cut, Rolex, power thing going for him, Dalton had that whole dark, dangerous, criminal vibe about him, and a girl could catch a cramp in her neck from looking back and forth between the two.
Seriously, it was maddening.
“Okay, this is going to get me shit, but I’m going to ask anyway,” Koen said.“How do you cheat at pool?I mean, unless you’re not looking at the table, how is that possible?”
“You can nudge the ball with your cue,” Rya answered.
“You can ‘accidentally’ bump the table too hard,” Dalton added.
“You can place the white over the line,” Rya continued.
“You can-”
“Okay, okay,” Koen laughed.“I get it...you can cheat at pool.”
Just then, one of the bartenders walked over to our table, then set a pink drink down in front of me, which was odd since all of us were drinking beers.
“This is for you,” she said, gesturing towards me.“It’s from the guy in the green.”
I eyed the drink.“What is it?”
“It’s a Pink Strawberry Vodka Lemonade,” she answered.“He said that you look like you’d appreciate it over a boring beer.
While it was customary to buy someone the same order that they were drinking, it wasn’t necessarily rude to send over something new, either.Still, I didn’t appreciate being judged again.I liked beer, and I had no problem drinking it straight from the bottle.
I reached for my purse, grabbed ten dollars, then handed it over to her.“Please tell him that I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t really like to mix my alcohols.Plus, being only a Thursday night, I’m sticking with beers this evening.”
“Put your money away,” Dalton ordered, and when I looked over at him, his jaw was ticking, and he looked pissed.“If he wants to be rude, then let him pay for it.”
“Rude?”I echoed.
“He sees two guys and two girls, and so the last thing that he should be doing is assuming that either of you are single,” he said, soundingreallypissed.
“I’m not taking his drink, Dalton,” I told him.“I’d also rather pay him back his money than...than feel obligated or whatever.”
“Yeah, until he sends over a beer instead because you’ve made up all these excuses to turn him down,” he fired back before shaking his head in disgust.
Ignoring him, I turned back towards the bartender.“Please take the money but also tell him thank you for me.”
Reading the room correctly, she took the money, then hurried back to the bar with the drink.However, for some reason, I felt embarrassed now, and that wasn’t fair.I hadn’t done anything wrong, but Dalton was acting as if I had just flashed the guy, inviting his attention.
“Why can’t you ever just tell them to fuck off?”Dalton asked.“Why do you always have to be so polite about it?”
“What’s wrong with being polite?”
“It causes more problems than not,” he replied.“And I bet you fifty bucks that he stops you whenever you have to finally go to the restroom.”
Before I could say anything to that, Rya was playing peacemaker again.“Hey, let’s just forget about that guy.We don’t get to come out together often, so let’s not let some random dude ruin it.”
“You’re right,” Dalton said.“After all, it’s not like this isn’t anything that we’re not already used to.”
I really wanted to scream at him.He acted like the attention was my fault, but it wasn’t.I couldn’t help the way that I looked, and I wasn’t about to start rocking the homeless look just because Dalton Summit had an issue with my appearance.
There was also nothing wrong with being polite.Yeah, some men were more aggressive than others and so it was harder for them to take the hint, but why cause a scene when you didn’t need to?Not only would the rejection embarrass the guy, but it’d also embarrass me, and I didn’t need or want to experience that particular drama.
However, before I could make a fool out of both of us, a very pretty blonde approached our table, a fresh beer in her hand, and I already knew.
Great.
