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He laughs and turns toward me in the cool night air. It’s the first evening that the night has been crisp like this. I’m not looking forward to the temps dropping at all.
“You know her and you still let her set us up?” His giant hand swipes down over his beard and his jaw tightens.
Shit, did I say that out loud?“I know her, but I didn’t know about this. Not until it was too late.” Technically, thatisthe truth.
“Well, no. I’m not giving her a good rating. She obviously doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
I huff and twist toward him in the dim light of the evening. “You really can’t one star her. We didn’t even give this a chance.”
“We didn’t have to.” He chuckles under his breath. “We’ve done this before. Don’t you remember the lodge? We couldn’t even hang a few pictures together. You like things a certain way and I suck at listening to people. It was doomed before it started.”
“Did you really think this would be any different with anyone else? And for the record, I don’t like things done a‘certain’way. I like things done therightway. Besides that, it was one day, Axel. You’re going to judge me over one interaction?”
He laughs. “You did the same damn thing!”
Okay, he’s got me there. I shouldn’t be asked to have emotionally charged conversations after a ten-hour shift.
We turn the corner into the back lot behind the diner. It was nice of him to walk me out here, but it would be even better if he’d stop running his mouth.
“You know,” he says, straightening his back, “I’m sure dating would be a lot easier if you knew what your faults were.”
“Ha! Please. You wanna know your faults? You think you’re bad at listening to people, but the truth is you’re afraid to open up. That marriage question, for example. The second you feel cornered by anything real,even if you came looking for it, you run away.”
“I can tell you my faults until the cows come home, but you don’t seem to think you have any. Plus, I’m hardly running away. I’m walking you to your car, while continuing to listen to you rant about what a piece of shit I am.”
“No one said you’re a piece of shit. I said you run from everything real. There’s a difference. A piece of shit wouldn’t be walking me to my car.” I hit the key fob to unlock the door. Axel takes hold of the handle and opens the door slowly, drawing that sarcastic grin up again.
“We’re even going to fight over whether I’m a piece of shit. That’s fun!”
“Okay then, if you insist… you can be a piece of shit.”
He laughs. This one seems genuine.
“Okay, well thanks for the lesson on pieces of shit. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind going forward.” I draw in a deep breath. “Back to the rating conversation. My sister is really banking on—”
“Your sister?”he grumbles.
Damn it.I really need to pay more attention to what I’m saying out loud. In my defense, it’s been a really long day. “Yeah,” I exhale. “Nora’s my sister but she’s not… this isn’t what you think.”
He laughs under his breath, but again it’s not a funny kind of laughter. It’s an… on the edge, might murder someone, kind of laughter. “Oh, I’d love to hear it.”
“I… She…” Nothing I say is going to fix this. “Look, she tried matching you with someone, but she couldn’t. So here I am, trying to pinch hit.” I realize what that sounds like once I say it, and even though I can’t stand Axel, I feel guilty immediately. “She couldn’t match you, but her database is small right now. She’s new and she’s still expanding. It’s just a problem with timing.”
He nods and stares down at the pavement. “You better get home. Looks like a storm is coming.”
I stare up at the clear night sky, then back at Axel. I may have been born a snarky bitch, but I still have a heart. “I can be a handful, and tonight I was—”
“You don’t owe me anything. You were here to do your sister a favor. End of story.” His tone is curt. I don’t blame him. “Get in your car so I know you’re okay before I take off.”
Why did he stop being mean? The mean was making it easy to overlook how hot he is.
Being that I have a heart that’s easily influenced, I consider telling him what I’ve thought about all night. The parts about how it makes no sense that he’s single, how hot he is, and how his personality will fit with the right person,at some point, but all of that would sound trite now. He’d probably think I was only trying to butter him up so he wouldn’t one star Nora.
Feeling the weight of my stupidity, I climb into my car, and turn the engine with plans of making a few trips around the block before heading to the west end of the parking lot for the night. But as I turn the key, there’s a weird noise.
Good fresh hell, of course something else is going wrong.
I try to turn the engine again, but the car only putters and moans.
