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“Don’t worry, I won’t take it personally,” she teased. “For the record, telling me to shut up only makes me want to talk more.”
“Great,” Joel mumbled. “Before everyone gets here, would you like a sandwich?” He had pulled everything that he had in his refrigerator for sandwiches out and put them on the counter. “I was going to make myself one.”
“Sure, if it’s not too much of a problem,” she said.
“Not at all, and while I make our sandwiches, we can figure out a way for you and Melody to get along,” Joel said.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Trista said, scrunching up her nose. Yeah, he found that totally sexy, but he’d keep that to himself.
“Well, she’s a nice person, and once she gets to know you, she’ll see that you seem to be nice too,” he offered.
“You don’t even know me, Joel,” Trista reminded. “You think I’m nice?”
“Yeah, I do,” he admitted.
“Aww, thanks,” she gushed, “I think that you’re nice too. Can I ask you a personal question?” He could tell that saying no wouldn’t get him far with Trista. She seemed like the type to keep digging around until she got the answers that she was looking for. It would probably be easier to just answer her question instead of giving her any fight.
“Um, sure,” he hesitantly answered.
“I know why I let Melody fix us up, I needed you to help me get Dante released, but why would you agree to a fix-up? I mean, you seem like a good guy—you’re nice, you seem fair, and you’re good looking.” He flashed her his smile and she shook her head at him. “Jesus, don’t make this into a big thing, Joel.”
“Right, but you just called me good looking, so there’s that,” he said.
“Okay, can you just answer the question?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said, “I had no idea that Melody was setting me up. I thought that I was just meeting her and her new husband, Axel for a few beers. I had been promising them that we’d get together since their wedding, and well, I was out of excuses and Melody refused to let me cancel on them again.”
“So, she set you up with me and you had no idea?” she asked.
“No clue,” he agreed, “she sprang the set-up on me when you walked in.”
“Well, that’s shitty,” Trista said.
“No kidding,” Joel said, “and then, you walked in and pulled a gun on me. I guess that will teach her to set me up with anyone in the future.”
Trista laughed, “I guess so,” she agreed.
“Now, can I ask you something?” Joel asked.
“Sure, I’m an open book,” she said.
“Are you really looking for a set-up or was tonight purely about getting Dante out of jail? I mean, how did the topic of conversation come up between you and Melody about the two of us meeting?”
“I knew that you were single,” Trista admitted. “I did my research on you and when I figured out that you had a very small inner circle of friends, and that you and Melody weren’t just partners, but had been together in the past, I hatched the plan to get close to her. I told her that I just couldn’t seem to meet any nice guys, and I gushed about how lucky she was to meet Axel. I showed up at Savage Hell a few times, hanging out with the two of them. It’s a wonder that you and I never bumped into each other while I was there.”
“I didn’t get out much. Hell, tonight was one of the first nights in months that I agreed to go out, and I even pitched a fit, trying to get out of it. But Melody put her foot down, and now, I know why. She had set up for the two of us to meet, and if didn’t show up, her plan wouldn’t work.”
“I guess that I should thank Melody for her assistance, then. If she hadn’t convinced you to come out tonight, I might have never gotten my chance to free Dante.” Trista took the plate that he handed her.
“I hope that turkey is all right,” he said, “it's all I had left.”
“Turkey is great, thank you,” she said, taking a big bite of her sandwich.
“Would you like some water?” he asked. “It’s either that or beer and since it’s after one in the morning, I think that beer is a bad option.”
“Geeze, it’s after one?” she asked around a mouthful of sandwich.
“Yep,” he said, “I’m hoping that with all of the help we’ve got coming, it will only take a couple of hours to outfit this place with the new security gear that Savage is bringing over. I’m beat.”
