I busied myself with my tea and looking around the pretty shop while the guys talked about The Laughing Elf. Draven dove right into a small, but detailed, list of things that he recommended Rhys implement. Among those was to have regular theme nights, a half off night for ladies, and utilize social media ads when he was going to have big headliners come in for the laughing hour.
Rhys nodded, making notes on his phone. “I have a wall of screens that I rarely get to put to good use. We could use that to put up, for instance, the Eiffel Tower for a themed Paris night.”
“Count me in for that, if you have it,” I said. “That sounds like a ton of fun. And it would give me the kick in the butt I need to find a date.” Which I very much needed. I’d tried dating before. To say it had epicly failed would be a vast understatement. It didn’t help to feel your date’s every feeling. I’d given up. I was in my late 20s and I’d never kissed someone, or had a good date, for that matter. It was time. Also, I really wanted to get rid of my growing interest in my boss. Dating other people was a surefire way to do that.
Draven was staring at me intently when I glanced up at him. I tilted my head to the side, asking him with my eyes what he was thinking about. His eyes became hooded as he stared at me, and I wanted to gulp, but instead stayed very still. I’d read before that people in the wild could feel when they were in the sights of a predator. I could verify that. Yes. Yes, you could.
Draven turned to Rhys. “You can do whatever you want with the themes, but after checking out your club, I’d recommend going with the classier themes. Like a Paris night, or a roaring 20s night. The interior of your club lends itself more to those than, say, 80s grunge night.”
I widened my eyes and turned to Rhys, Draven’s weirdness momentarily forgotten. “How classy is this club of yours, Geezer?”
Rhys scowled at the nickname, and Draven laughed before he said with an amused drawl, “Very classy.”
“But the bathroom smells like onion rings?” I asked, confused. I could see a concession stand bathroom smelling like onion rings, but not a posh club.
“My shower is just off the break room. One of my employees orders onion ringseverytimehe takes his lunch break. It makes my office and personal bathroom smell like a deep-fryer.”
I laughed and patted his hand. “Poor baby.”
The silver bells above the door caught my attention as someone came in. A blonde bombshell walked into the tea shop, and I tried not to gape at her. I must not have been very successful because Rhys and Draven looked up to see what had caught my attention. Rhys’s eyebrow went up while Draven relaxed further back into the seats, giving off a very faux, relaxed vibe. He wasn’t relaxed at all, though. His emotions had tightened down, like battening down the hatches before a storm.
I lowered my feet back to the floor and sat up straight as the woman came to our table and put a flirty, dripping with rings hand on Draven’s shoulder. “Darling, I haven’t seen you in a while!” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow like I was dog chow, and then leaned in and kissed Draven’s cheek, leaving a berry-pink stain on it. Why didn’t she just pee on him? It would have left the samekeep-your-grubby-hands-off-himvibes. “Dinner tonight?”
It was taking everything I had not toaccidentallystab her hand with a fork.
Rhys grabbed the hand not holding my tea as though he could read my mind. He shook his head at me, and I could read the silent warning:Proceed with caution. Stabbing the blonde viper would be frowned upon by society at large.Also, it would inconvenience Draven.
My eyes conveyed to him that there were some things that needed to be dealt with swiftly. Like they used to do in the wild west. Shoot ‘em up. Bang. Bang.
His eyes conveyed that stabbing is a crime punishable by the law, and that we weren’t living in the wild west. That we weren’t even living in the right century, for that matter.
Draven, either ignoring Rhys’ and my silent byplay, or completely oblivious, said goodbye to the blonde bombshell, and she left, sashaying out the door like a woman on the runway instead of a simple tea shop.
I hated her and wanted her gone from the earth. I thought it was possible she deserved to be thrown into the pit of Mordor. What a vile character! And her vibe was ick. She felt so fake to me, with a greedy under-base that blazed like a greasy lightning rod.
“Who was she?” I tapped my tea cup with my purple nailwrap and tried to keep my disgust for Draven’s friend out of my voice.
I must have failed epicly because Draven gave me a curious look before he answered. “A dining partner. I,” he paused, “don’t have many friends, and I hate to try new places alone.” He seemed a little embarrassed to admit to this, but I thought it was a totally valid thing. I hated it as well. In fact, I thought most people probably hated it. It was no fun trying new places all by yourself.
“So, she’s not a friend?” Or more, my nosy mind added.
Rhys started choking on his tea, his eyes watering like crazy. I reached across to help him with that problem by patting his back. That I patted it a little harder than necessary was a cathartic service my best friend was offering me. “You okay?” I asked.
My expression must have convinced him to keep his thoughts to himself, because he nodded and winced at my tender ministrations.
“No, she’s not.” He looked uncomfortable. “She sought me out a year or so ago, and asked me out. I made it clear to her I would be happy to attend as an acquaintance, but that I wasn’t ready to date. She agreed, and we’ve been out as acquaintances a few times to restaurant openings.”
“Oh.” I knew I shouldn’t say anything, but...
I sighed. “She’s not a good person, Draven. You know that, right?”
He stared at me, then finally said, “I did sense a falseness in her. It occasionally made me uncomfortable.”
I nodded. “Yeah, she’s about as false as fool’s gold. I’m sorry. But if it’s any consolation, I’ll go to new places with you! I dragged you both here, after all. Or, if you prefer to go with a guy, Rhys will go with you!”
Rhys actually nodded, not bothered at all that I’d just volunteered him. Aww, the sweetie. “I would actually love to hang out, Draven.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable. “I need to apologize. Mia made me realize that you’ve been extending a friendly hand my way, and I was unintentionally rebuffing you. I hope you know it’s not because of you. I’m just leery of people in general.”
I squinted at him. “You weren’t withme?”
