“I— That?—”
“Here you go.” Oh good, the bartender was back. “Did you want to open a tab?”
I nodded. “That would be great, please.”
“Sure thing.” Then he was headed back down the bar.
I turned back to Hemlock. “So, shall we talk business, then?”
“I’d rather talk pleasure, but, sure, business will do.”
Good lord, the mouth on this man… He was pure trouble, and I was prone to making bad decisions when it came to trouble.
Hemlock was a relentless flirt.Every time I tried to get us back on track he’d distract me with his smooth talking and casual touching. He was acting like this was date and I didn’t totally mind it. He was cute and personable—and it had been a very long time since I’d been on a date.
The last guy to ask me out was a police officer I crossed paths with quite a bit. I lived in such a crappy area that I had an attempted mugger at least once a week. We met a couple years ago, and he seemed nice enough so I agreed to a date last year—even though I hadn’t been fond of cops since my mum died. He called me the day of to cancel. He said an icicle had completely totalled his car and asked to reschedule. It was June, yeah, right. I told him not to bother.
I’d seen a ton of those “alpha male” dating advice things where they say to test a woman’s agreeability by making excuses to cancel shit and then seeing how they responded. I wasn’t interested in someone dumb enough to follow that trash advice so I just blocked him and moved on. I’d seen him a bunch since then and every time he tried to insist it was real, even tried to show me pictures.
He was starting to wear me down a bit. I’d been considering giving him another chance, but now I was surrounded by some of the hottest supervillains on the planet. I didn’t know how a normal dude was supposed to compete with that.
Once drink two was in my system, I relaxed a bit. I liked Hemlock’s banter, and I liked the way his attention made me feel. I was having so much fun that I wasn’t paying attentionto the time until my phone started ringing incessantly. I’d told Amber that I would be doing this, and she insisted on checking in.
I excused myself, headed to the back of the bar where there wasn’t a speaker directly overhead, and answered.
“Hello?”
“Are you home yet?”
I could barely hear her. I covered my free ear.
“Does it sound like I’m home yet?” I yelled over the music.
“It’s been three and a half hours, what the hell is taking so long? Did he kidnap you?”
I snorted.
“Yes, because I’d still be at the bar, answering my phone, if I was kidnapped. I’m fine, he’s just…” I trailed off, glancing to where he was sitting at the bar watching me with a smile on his face. “Nice and fun.”
“Bitch,shut up! Shut the fuck up! Are you on a date with a super-hot supervillain right now?” She didn’t even give me a second it answer. “Oh my god! You totally are! I hate you; I actually hate you. You’re living my dream. Is he hotter in person? Without his mask?”
“Oh, absolutely. I cut myself off an hour ago to keep from jumping him. I’m still tempted to take him home with me, though.”
“Wait, wait no! Can I come? Please, I will literally beg you.”
“Absolutely not. Do you know how long it’s been since I got laid? You’re not ruining it for me.”
She started yelling incoherently while I laughed.
“Dude, chill out. I’m not actually taking him anywhere. The last thing I need is to get involved with a supervillain.”
“Ugh, you suck. Let me live vicariously through you!”
“I can give him your number, if you want. Then I can live vicariously through you.”
There was a long pause. “Does he give stalker vibes?”
I glanced over again; he was still watching me.
