I grinned at him. “You earned points for the compromise.”
“Never had a woman who didn’t want to turn over the burden of her security to me.”
“Those women are lucky that they’ve never had their security shattered so badly that they have to fear doing that.” My words came out slightly mumbled, because it hurt to admit that I was flawed in that way.
Bigfoot’s hand came down on top of mine, and I jumped slightly at the touch. “Sorry,” He hurried to apologize. “I want you to enjoy a meal with me, and it fucking kills me that part of your jumpiness is due in part to my own shit. Never wanted to add to your burden, sweetheart.”
“You didn’t.” He gave me a look that said he knew better. “Obviously what happened with you that night had an impact but so has my other unwanted visitor and the person who sent him to my place.”
“I’m fuckin’ thankful that you made it through both of those situations. It’s also why I’m so fucking protective of you. All of this shit started with me. I don’t want you to feel unsafe wherever you go simply because you stopped to help me on the side of the road. It’s not even just me feeling responsible for your safety after putting you in danger, though. You have to know that I need to protect you from a different level too.”
It was my turn to give him a nod as our waitress approached and clocked the change we made to the table. I could see the minute she decided it wasn’t her business. I wasn’t prepared for why she decided that, though.
“Travis, do I even want to know why you decided to rearrange our furniture?”
My pseudo-date turned and glanced up at the new blonde waitress. I didn’t see the woman who had seated us anywhere, which was strange. This one had incredibly perky boobs and more cleavage on display than should be allowed during the lunchtime, family-friendly rush. She leaned in and took advantage of his position to plant a red lipsticked kiss on his cheek. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn she had gone in for a full lip lock, but he turned away just enough before she got there that her mark was left on his cheek near the corner of his mouth instead.
“Mindy, what the fuck are you doing?” he asked as he leaned back, which put him closer to me. I silently handed him my white cloth napkin. He took it, noticed where my eyes tracked to, and then proceeded to wipe away the lipstick Mindy left behind.
“What? I can’t greet an old lover?” she asked as her eyes drifted my way to get my reaction. The woman wouldn’t get one. I didn’t play desperate bitch games.
“I’ll take a water with lemon and no ice, though we already ordered our drinks from our waitress who seated us.”
Mindy’s eyes narrowed on me momentarily before she turned her attention back to my date. “What about you, sugar?”
“I’ll take the water I ordered from Jessica after she’s sent back to our table.”
“What?” Mindy gasped. “Why?” Her eyes darted around, as if she were looking to make sure no one heard that last bit.
Bigfoot leaned in closer. “You damn well know that you don’t ever attempt to put a claim on a club member, especially in public and when he’s obviously on a date, unless he gave you his property patch.”
She huffed and waved his words off. “Come on, we both know she’s not your date.” The woman looked me over again and was obviously unimpressed by what she saw. The roll of her eyes told me as much before she turned her full attention back to Bigfoot. “We both know she isn’t even close to being your type.”
She probably wasn’t wrong there. His son’s mother was a platinum blonde. Mindy was not far off. They were both surgically enhanced in places where I was lucky to fit into a C-cup during the time in my cycle when my bra size inflated just a little bit. The only makeup I had on was mascara and the little bit of tinted lip balm. That was more to keep my lips from drying out than about looking good. Mindy, on the other hand, had clearly gone heavy with the contouring to make her nose appear smaller and jawline stand out more.
Bigfoot stood then and glared down at the woman before he looked up and yelled, “Where is the fucking manager? Is Jennika here?”
“Please,” Mindy cried out as she grabbed my date’s arm and pleaded with him. I would worry about the fact that I acknowledged him as my date later - when he didn’t have another woman throwing herself at him. “Don’t do this. I will get Jessica to come back over and cover your table.”
He snatched her hand off his arm and offered her a menacing grin that should have made her quake in her insensible shoes. “You had your chance to do that, and you chose to come out here and pull your shit, then to stick around and piss me off some more.”
“We have a history,” she whispered, though her desperate attempt to connect with him in a way that might create a sympathetic response ended up making it more of a whiny plea. It also made things worse for her.
“We fucked a few times, years ago, and I haven’t touched you since then. All we have is a history that wasn’t worth remembering in the first place. I don’t know why you thought I would react any other way to you disrespecting my date. That’s something I never did for you, by the way, take you on a date. But just in case you missed the fucking memo, you were never important to me, and I will never put up with someone disrespecting my woman.”
“I’m sorry,” She repeated as she backed away. The manager finally made his way over to us and glanced worriedly between Bigfoot and Mindy before he sighed.
“Mindy, get your things, clock out, and head home.”
“No. Johnny, I need the money.”
“You should have thought about that before you made our guests angry.”
“I’m not angry,” I told him. “I am thirsty though.”
“Apologies,” the man insisted. “I’ll have Jessica bring your drinks right away.” He turned and grabbed Mindy’s arm, since she still hadn’t moved. As he rushed our second waitress away, I heard him ask her where Jessica was and what the fuck she was thinking by pulling that shit with the one man who had the power to run them all out of town.
“Sammy, I’m so sorry about that. I swear, there is nothing going on with her.”
