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“That’s very inventive.” Alex’s grin, his smoking hot, sexy as sin grin, never faded. “I must say, whoever made you the reason you’re single was a real ass. The assiest ass of all time. A woman as pretty as you is a rare score, but a woman who is smart and funny? That’s the whole package right there.”
“H-how do you know?” Muffy stammered while she melted inside. “Maybe I turn into a crazy raging woman at the stroke of midnight.”
“Do you?”
Muffy felt her cheeks heat up. Her skin was annoyingly pale even after a summer of trying to get a tan and any amount of emotion showed on her face. Her cheeks were like a thermometer except instead of measuring the temperature, they were a dead giveaway as to her mood. Steve used to make jokes about her face all the time. Especially when she was angry, which would just make her angrier.
“It doesn’t have to be midnight,” she admitted. “Sometimes it just happens. Mostly when people make fun of my vampire like pale skin and my cheeks going red all the time.”
“Did someone actually do that?”
“Yeah. Yeah, people have.”
Alex shook his head. “Fools. All of them. Straight to the dungeon for beheading. Oh wait, this isn’t the right century for that.” He picked up the menu off to the side but didn’t actually look at it. No, those velvety soft brown eyes remained locked with her much paler, far less soft, kind of brown, kind of green, not at all impressive orbs.
“Thanks. Uh- yeah. That’s- wow.” Muffy grabbed her menu and slammed it in front of her face. She was sure she was completely red, and she couldn’t handle meeting Alex’s eyes. “That waitress over there keeps giving me funny looks like she knows this is a blind date kind of deal and she’s afraid to come over here to get our orders because we haven’t even touched our menus and we’re both giving off uncomfortable body language.”
Alex’s laugh was deep and dark and incredibly sexy and Muffy couldn’t help but imagine him dragging her down to the dungeon and doing her up against the wall while some cagy dragon watched on. Too far. That is seriously way too far. I’m starting to sound like Carla.
“I guess I’d better choose fast. It looks like she’s coming this way.”
He’s playing along. Oh my god, he’s playing along. He isn’t getting up and leaving or telling me I’m a hopeless dork or offering to let me finish first. He’s attractive and he’s nice and he’s still… here.
While her insides combusted into a pile of steaming goo, her eyes scanned the menu and she made a quick choice. Chicken. Chicken was always safe.
“Hi,” the waitress, a young woman dressed in a black skirt and a white shirt, said in an annoyingly sappy voice. “What can I get for you?”
She didn’t even offer drinks. There was already water on the table and maybe she figured it was best to just get them their food and get them out of there before the date imploded completely and the fallout happened right there in the middle of the restaurant. Which wasn’t exactly a family establishment. It was nicer than that. Far more classy than the last two spots Muffy had been forced to endure. Not that she’d actually eaten at either.
“The chicken,” Muffy said in a strained voice. “The Thai chicken, please.”
“Alright.” The waitress reached out and snapped up Muffy’s menu. She didn’t smile until she looked at Alex and then wow- the wattage turned on big time.
Muffy was jealous, pissed off and annoyed right down to her ovaries. Alex, to his credit, didn’t even give the waitress, who was blonde and quite attractive, a second glance.
“I’ll have the sirloin steak. Rare, please, with garlic mashed and the seasonal veggies.” He passed over the menu. “Thanks.” He offered a courteous smile, before he turned back to Muffy.
“Chicken. That’s a good choice.”
“I figured it was the safer choice. I never know what to get. I don’t actually eat out much.”
“You’re a decent cook then?”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m okay. Better than my roommate.”
“You have a roommate?”
Muffy’s entire body did an internal wince. “Yeah. It’s probably not sexy to admit it, given that we’re both working professionals and grown women, but it works. She’s my best friend. Has been in like forever. She’s like my sister.”
“No, places are expensive. Everything is expensive now. It just makes sense. And it’s lonely living by yourself.”
“Carla saved a cat a few weeks ago,” Muffy blurted. “We were thinking about getting another one. You know, so he’d have a friend while we’re both at work all day.”
“That’s a very noble calling. Saving animals.”
Muffy couldn’t tell whether Alex was actually kidding or not because his eyes were sparkling and her insides were hurting and she’d probably just ovulated a little and that took a lot of mental power and at the best of times, she wasn’t great at reading other people because every time she looked at guys like Alex, she got all flustered inside and couldn’t actually continue to look at them without that bloody annoying heat creeping into her face.
