She blinked. The answer had come from so far out of left field she didn’t know how to respond. “Um…yeah. Okay. So, I have to get going.” Really, she had to go. He was handsome, sure. He apparently had a good job, or at least it sounded as if he did, but that lawyerly part of her brain was also busy pointing out that he hadn’t actually said what it was that he did either—and when people weren’t forthcoming about something like that, it was usually because they had something to hide.
Blake grabbed her arm again. His smile went down right ingratiating. “Listen, I want you to bear my children.”
Her face paled. The thought of killing Christy ran through her head. She stammered out, “I beg your pardon?”
He leaned closer, over the table. Close enough that she caught a whiff of cologne, and something that smelled like burnt matches. He burped again, turning his head and curling his fist up around his lips. An eye-watering stench wafted to her face. She got out, “Have you lost your mind?”
Was this a joke? Had Christy set this up like some sort of the most-awful-date’s-been-had-now-get-out-there-and-date thing? Or was Blake serious? What was he? Some billionaire too busy to have a baby but willing to pay some poor woman to bear his dubious seed? Gross! That might be awesome in books or something, but no way was she willing to be some guy’s paid incubator!
She stood so fast the chair rattled and then fell. Christy, who’d been buried in her phone, looked up. Her eyes went round as Heather stuck a finger in Blake’s face and shouted, “I agreed to coffee, not to…to having your children, you pyscho!” Tears hit her eyes. What the hell was wrong with her that she attracted these kinds of men? It had to be some kind of internal, infernal flaw, one that was making her life a real hell too. Todd had been a jerk, she had always known he was a jerk, but she had loved him anyway, and all that had gotten her was single, clueless about how to date, and somehow possessed of some inner magnet that drew weirdos and the unlovable to her like flies to a pot of honey.
Blake stood. He burped again, and that time he didn’t cover his mouth. The belch made a long ripping sound, and she felt heat, actual heat, on her face. Her temper flared even as her stomach rolled. She stepped backward, her hands going up to ward him off. Christy was already there, and she grabbed her arm, saying, “Okay, this is a total bust.” A comic look overtook her face. “What the…what’s that smell?”
Heather, torn between hysterical laughter and real rage, gasped, “He burped!”
Christy didn’t say another single word. They dashed toward the door. The server and barista were nowhere in sight, and since the three of them had been the only customers, Heather was really sure they were about to make a clean getaway.
They ran out the door and onto the sidewalk. Heather gasped, “Come on, we’ll take the side street!”
They dashed to the corner and down that street. Christy looked back and panted out, “Oh my God he’s chasing us!”
He was chasing them? Heather’s feet, in the too-tall heels, chose that very moment to slip in a slick patch created by liquid oozing out of a pile of trash bags on the curb. She let out a short, sharp scream, and then she went flying forward, hauling Christy right along with her, and onto the pile of disgusting trash bags!
“Dam, why me?” Her indignant scream was muffled by trash, and Christy’s hand yanked her backward off the pile, only to snap off the heel on her right boot. Tottering, enraged, and sure she would never date again as long as she lived, Heather grabbed the first thing she saw—the leg off a broken chair, and brandished it as she swiveled around.
“Uhhhhhhhh…” She blinked. Christy let out a soft cry, and then they clutched each other as the dragon descended from the sky.
A dragon. A jet black, fire-breathing dragon with massive wings and gleaming scales dropped right out of the sky. Its taloned feet hit the asphalt of the side street, breaking it into chunks. The last thought that went through Heather’s brain right before she fainted into Blake’s arms was that this was the worst date ever.
