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I made a face. This weird surprise double date was going south fast. I needed to get out of here.
"I'm gonna hit the bathroom," I said. It was time to bail on this weird date. Two guys? No ordering? Nobody else in the restaurant?
I was getting freaked out by all the money and attention. It was over the top. I wanted to order my own food and make my own decisions, not get railroaded by two random guys, no matter how hot they were. They seemed to be in sync, which made me feel like an outsider. They belonged here, in a restaurant that they’d bought out. I didn’t.
When I went into the bathroom, I touched up my eyeliner. I stared at the window in the ladies' room. It was too small for me to climb out of. I was going to have to escape via the back door and hope the staff didn't see me and nobody was on a smoke break.
I got out of the bathroom and immediately ran into Blue.
"Oh no!" I yelped. I had a bottle of black liquid liner that came hurling out of my purse and splashed on Blue's khaki pants. "That's going to leave a mark."
Blue brushed at it, which just succeeded in spreading the stain. "It's fine."
"It's not!" I was almost hyperventilating. "That eyeliner doesn't come out of clothing. Ask me how I know." There'd been an unfortunate incident with my favorite ivory sheath and a few errant drops of liner. I bought a huge amount of stain remover to attempt to remove the eyeliner, but the damage to my sheath was irreversible. "Let me buy you a new pair."
"Right now? Jasper's getting impatient."
If I were in an old cartoon, steam would be shooting out of my ears. "Let's ditch him and go shopping."
Blue raised his eyebrows at me. "You have no idea what he'll do if he realizes that you ran out on a date with him."
"Let's not tell him." I gestured towards the back door. "Let's have an adventure."
Blue looked at me for a moment, then I saw a beautiful mischievous light enter his eyes. "Let's see how long it lasts." He pulled open the back door. "Ladies first."
I stepped through and immediately felt lighter. Sure, I was ditching my date, but he was being a dick. Now I was with his buddy, the surprise other part of the date, and I couldn't be happier. There weren't that many stores to pick from, so I just jumped into the nearest one that looked like it might sell men's clothing.
"Hi!" I walked up to a teenager who was folding jeans.
"Hello," she said, not looking up. "How can I help you?"
"I'm afraid that my pants are stained," Blue said. "We'd like to buy a replacement."
"Yeah, sure," she said without an ounce of enthusiasm. "Wait here."
She shuffled like a geriatric towards a rack in the back, then she pulled it to the middle of the store. "What kind of pants do you want?"
"I'd like to replace the ones that I ruined," I told her.
"I don't need new khaki pants. Maybe we should go for black or navy." He looked at his shirt. "Navy."
The teenager rolled her eyes. "Navy pants coming right up."
"Are you sure you want to be in this store?" I whispered to Blue. "I mean, the teenage saleswoman doesn't seem that enthusiastic."
"Is any teenager enthusiastic about working? She's probably mad that we took her away from folding jeans." We both looked at the display. The jeans were artistically arranged, but I was afraid of actually picking one up to buy since it would ruin the pattern. Blue put a light hand on my shoulder and squeezed. "We'll be fine."
The teenager came back with a stack of navy pants and had apparently gotten a giant gob of gum, because she was noisily blowing giant pink bubbles. I got the impression that she was trying to get us to leave her alone. We were the only customers in the store, and it was obvious she was not paid any kind of commission.
"Here," she said, shoving the stack into my arms before spinning on her heel and marching into the back room.
"Okay, that was borderline hostile," I said quietly to Blue.
"It's an adventure," he said. He took the pants out of my arms and went to a dressing room. The curtains didn't close all the way, s
o I watched as he shed his pants and stood in his boxers. He had really muscular legs, the kind that you'd see on an ancient Greek statue. I fanned myself a little while he couldn't look at me. I didn't mind leaving behind alpha Jasper at all. Blue was a lot nicer to me and I wasn't going to complain about seeing a little more of his skin.
I averted my eyes before I passed the line into creeper territory.
