Still …
The way he’d said “efficient” made something in my stomach flip, and not in a good way.
eight
I kicked off my boots,nearly swearing as I did at the immediate relief. My toes were sore and—was that a blister?
I let out a groan.
So much for my attempt to look nice for my first blind date. If dating was anything like this from here on out, I was going to need a serious investment in insoles.
The apartment was quiet, except for the faint hum of the heater and the buzz of a lamp still on in the living room. I half expected Josh to be camped out on the couch again, watching something with the subtitles on.
But it was empty.
Just as I was about to disappear into my room, a door creaked open.
“Bri?” Gina whispered like I was breaking curfew.
In fact, I was early. More than early. I hadn’t made it past that first drink before I made an excuse to get out of here.
“You’re home.”
I sighed. Busted. “Yeah. No one is here.”
She stepped into the hallway, looking toward the living room, as if she noticed it was just them as well. She was already inmismatched pajamas and a silk scrunchie on her wrist. “So? Tell me everything. Was he cute?”
“He was cute,” I admitted, toeing the floorboard near the radiator like it might offer me answers. “Kind of a textbook cute.”
“Ooh, like an investment-banker cute or dog-dad cute?”
“Like you’d easily see him in a dental-commercial cute,” I settled on. Little tooth sparkles and everything.
“That doesn’t sound bad,” she began slowly, smart enough to know that this wasn’t yet the deal-breaker.
“It wasn’t bad,” I said. Then paused. “Not exactly.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t hold back. I know you are waiting to say something, and I can tell it is going to be a doozy. What happened?”
I shrugged off my coat and let it fall onto the chair, collapsing into the corner of the couch. “I think he was rude.”
“To you?”
“No. To the server.”
Her face twisted like I’d handed her a sour candy. “Ugh.”
“I know.”
“What’d he do?”
“He basically waved her off when I was about to order. Told her I wasn’t ready. Then he snapped his fingers at her later. And when I called it out, he said it was fine because he used to work in a restaurant, so he knows how it is.”
“Snapped?” Gina echoed. “Like dog-training snapped?”
“Yep.”
“Oh, hell no.”
