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“I guess you must be feeling pretty crummy right now.”
He raised a brow like he wasn’t sure what she meant.
“You know. Having to tell your family about Victoria’s engagement. Sorry about that, by the way.”
He shrugged like it was no big deal, and she was struck by the urge to reach across the table and slug him. The woman he’d been dating for the past three years was marrying someone else, essentially dashing all his mother’s hopes and dreams. And he’d announced it to his family during appetizers! Did the man have no feelings whatsoever?
She could feel the whisky making her braver than it was smart to be. She shouldn’t do it. She shouldn’t say anything to make him kick her out of his house, but she had a lease, dang it. And she’d never been shy when it came to expressing her opinion.
Before she could think too much, the words tumbled out of her mouth. “How do you think tonight went? Wait. Let me answer that for you. Not well. Not well at all.”
There was a pause before he said, “I admit, I probably could have handled tonight better.”
“You think?”
He glared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She shook her head. “Are you for real? Victoria really dodged a bullet with you, didn’t she?”
She was on a roll. Might as well go for broke. Lease or no lease, he’d probably order her out of his house. Maybe she could set up her inflatable mattress in The Bistro’s storeroom. If she was discreet enough, Tom Donalan wouldn’t have to know about it.
“You basically string this girl along for three years and your family and everyone thought you were going to get married and now she’s marrying someone else and you announce the whole thing at a family dinner in front of a perfect stranger, that would be me by the way, so no one can really quiz you too much about it. Talk about repressed. Did the Feelings Police arrest you when you were a kid or something? I’d actually feel sorry for you, if you weren’t, you know, you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you. Poor handsome rich guy.”
For a second, she thought he was going to yank the glass from her hand, but instead he slowly leaned back in his chair. “The Feelings Police? You don’t know the first thing about me. Or my relationship with Victoria or my family.”
“I know your type.”
“My type? What? Did some guy stomp all over your heart and now you’re a man-hater?”
“Uh, excuse, me, but you’re the one who doesn’t know the first thing about me.”
“So, you’re not a man-hater.”
“Of course not. I like men. A lot. But I’m not looking to settle down and get married.”
He laughed incredulously. “Then you, sweetheart, are either lying to me, lying to yourself, or are a rare breed of woman.”
“Wow. So it’s okay for a man not to want to get married, but when a woman says she feels the same way she’s either a liar or some kind of crazy spinster. You do know we’re living in the twenty-first century, right?”
“You seem to think I’m some kind of misogynist, but believe me, I’m far from it. I believe women should be able to do whatever they want. It’s just been my experience that when women say they don’t want to get married, they don’t always mean it.”
“You mean, they want to get married to you.”
He had the decency to flush. “That’s not what I—” He shook his head. “No wonder you think I’m an asshole.”
“No, well, yeah, I just think you’re an asshole who’s had it really easy.”
“You’re probably right about that.”
It was impossible to give him a hard time when he was basically agreeing with her analysis. She sighed. “Okay, so what really happened with Victoria?”
He looked like he wasn’t going to say anything.
“Think of me as your therapist. We’re complete strangers whom fate has brought together for a few weeks, but we’re never going to see each other after that, so whatever you tell me is completely confidential.”
