Page 6 of Seeing Harper

“Mmhmm. I want mine unsweetened, and if you don’t mind, can you cool it with the sexual innuendos? It’s a bit of a turn off, especially with the disrespect you’re throwing my girlfriend’s way.”

The waitress’s eyes widened and she gasped in surprise. “I… it… I’m sorry. I didn’t think she was your girlfriend. I thought you were available.”

“No, you didn’t. You just didn’t care if I was or not.”

“Clay, it’s fine,” Harper said.

“No, it’s not. Do you do that with every table or just ours?”

“I swear I didn’t think… I was just…”

“You obviously didn’t think. But you know what? It’s fine. Can you just put our order in?” Clay asked.

The waitress nodded as she hurried away.

“Clay, that was not necessary,” Harper said, her voice hushed.

“Yeah, it was. What if you’d really been my girlfriend or my wife? It pissed me off that she totally disrespected you. And then it made my skin crawl. Damn, can’t we just get our food?”

“You alright?” she asked, reaching over to squeeze his hand.

“Yeah, as long as she doesn’t come back over here with that shit.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s in the back crying now. Somebody else will probably bring our food out.”

“Works for me,” Clay said.

“Let’s hope nobody spits on it.”

“We can smell it if they do. I’ll be getting more than we ordered to go for free if somebody does that.”

Harper laughed.

“What?” Clay asked, confused as he watched her laughing.

“I’ve never seen you like this. You’re usually so laid back.”

“Sorry. It just really rubbed me the wrong way.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’ve found your mate somewhere out there,” she said, waving her arm around to indicate the world, “and now when somebody comes onto you it really offends you.”

Clay looked at Harper, his expression unreadable.

“Is that it?!” Harper asked, excitedly. “Did you find her?”

Clay shook his head.

“Lie! I can smell the lie! Who is she? Do I know her?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Not sure about if I know her, or not sure if she’s your mate.”

“Yes,” he said. “And I really think I’d be offended anyway. That wasn’t even close to innocent flirting. She was practically propositioning me right here in front of you.”

“Well, it’s a small town. Smallish, anyway. Not a lot of chances to make new connections. Somebody interesting comes in, you do what you have to,” Harper said. She looked up and saw the waitress coming their way with a platter of something.

“Oh! Food!” Harper said, sitting up straighter.