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Clarke seems less irritated by the second interruption, probably because instead of two giggling, flirtatious women, she’s snapping pictures of me with a man and his son, who turns out to be exactly as I called it, a huge Dodgers fan.
We talk for a couple of minutes, I sign the kid’s shirt, and the two go on their way.
Clarke and I make small talk through dinner, which surprisingly isn’t tainted by anymore interruptions. But our conversation holds nothing of any real significance. You know, favorite movies, favorite food, things we like to do in our free time. The usual things you talk about when you don’t really know the person sitting across from you.
I will say, it did surprise me to learn that she has a bit of a daredevil side to her. I would never believe she’d gone sky diving six times if she didn’t whip out her phone and show me actual videos from the GoPro camera she wore on her helmet.
All in all, I’d say she was twenty percent what I expected, forty percent what I didn’t, and forty percent a complete fucking mystery.
Seriously, how do you figure out a way to appeal to a woman that you can’t figure out?
Once we’d polished off more food than either of us probably should have eaten, we exited the restaurant and made the relatively short walk back to her house.
“So,” Clarke turns toward me as we come to a stop just shy of the front entrance to her building. She glances back at Luke, who lingers a few feet away, giving us some privacy.
I watched her glance over her shoulder at him several times on the walk back, like she was waiting for him to grab her from behind. I didn’t consider it might make her uncomfortable to have him around, but it beats the hell out of being mobbed by fans in the middle of the street which is precisely what would have happened had my security team not done their jobs.
There’s a reason I picked the restaurant we went to, the walking proximity to her building being the main one. I am nothing if not prepared.
Clarke’s eyes finally come back to mine. “Should I expect a call from my seller or will you be managing the sale yourself?”
“My people will handle it.”
“Your people.” She rolls her eyes….Again. “And can I expect thatyourpeople will be reaching out to settle up payment of my commission?”
“They will. But…”
“Oh no, you don’t. You said dinner, we had dinner. Or are you also a man who goes back on his word?” Her temper flares.
“No, you’ll get your money. What I was going to say is, do you think we could hang out again?”
“What?” Her jaw goes slack like she can’t believe what she’s hearing.
Yeah, you and me both, blondie.
I want to go out with her again like I want forks stuck into my eyeballs. Not because there’s anything wrong with her. More because it’s clearshethinks something is wrong withme.
“I had a lot of fun.”Lies.
“You hadfun?” She’s not buying my bullshit for one second, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up easily. They don’t pay me the big money for nothing. Time to turn up my game.
“Why do you seem so surprised?” I flash her my pearly whites.
“Because I basically busted your balls the entire night.” She snorts.
“Well, yes, you did do that. But you know what, it was kind of nice.”
“Nice? Having someone bust your balls?” She looks at me like I’ve officially lost it.
“Having someone tell me what they actually think and not only what they think I want to hear. You’d be surprised how rare that is.”
“Actually, I don’t think I would be.”
“Yeah,” I shift my weight from one side to the other, “so, what do you say?”
She looks over my shoulder instead of at me.
“I, uh… I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Her eyes finally flutter back to mine. “You’re nice and all…”
