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Maggie cut through the room, slicing between the tables like a knife through water. When she reached him, she kicked his feet off of the chair purely out of spite. “What is your deal, man?”
He held up his hands as though he was confused by her behavior. “What was that for?”
She scoffed at him. “You know very well what that was for, you jerk.” She sat down across from him and put her bag in the chair beside her. “You’re going to get me fired, you know that?”
Bryan leaned in and rested on his elbows. “You should’ve gone out with me.”
Maggie stopped and looked at his face. The self-important snot of a man was serious. “All I want to do right now is slap you. Do you understand? I want to hit you in the face until you’re physically incapable of making that smug little look you’re giving me right now.”
“Hey,” he said, pointing an accusatory finger at her, “this all could’ve been avoided if you had just agreed to go out with me the first time. It’s not my fault I had to take such drastic measures.” He smirked and leaned back against the wall again. “Girl like you, I’m surprised you think you’re worth such effort.”
Maggie slapped a hand down on the table. The silverware clanked together and she tipped over a glass. “I don’t think I’m worth the effort, I’m just not interested in a selfish jerk. There’s a difference!”
“Selfish? I gave you gold watches and clothes! How am I the selfish one?”
“You didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart. You’re trying to bribe me into going out with you. And even now instead of coming to me like a normal person and talking to me, you had to threaten my job, my livelihood, just to get me to come here now.”
Maggie quickly glanced around the room and saw everyone staring at her. A waiter appeared at their table and asked for their drink order. Maggie just asked for some water, but Bryan got himself liquor and a couple of beers.
“Light lunch?” she asked him snidely.
He just made a face in return. She took a deep breath and pulled out the contract paperwork and set it on the table in front of her.
“Let’s just go over your paperwork and be done with this.”
“C’mon, you don’t want to talk first?”
“No,” she growled at him, “I don’t.”
He grumbled and readjusted himself on his seat to sit up straight. “Look, I just said that stuff to get your boss to make you come out with me.”
“I know!” The words nearly escaped in a shout, but she was able to keep them fierce yet quiet enough for just their table. Then, in a soft whisper she said again, “I know. But if I go back empty-handed, my boss will fire me for sure, so I have to go back with something.”
“Can’t we just do it later, or something?”
“You’re not getting it.”
“No,” he said quickly and held a hand out to her. “I do get it. That’s my point, though. I’m interested in you because you’re not interested in me.”
“If that’s all you’re looking for you should go somewhere else.”
Bryan stopped and looked at her. Despite herself, she met his eyes and she was angry at herself for noticing it, but something changed. It was in his eyes, on his face. Something happened in that mind of his, and she saw everything he had been a moment ago… shift. “What if that’s not all I’m looking for?”
It was the first genuine, human thing he’d said to her since they first met. Just those words took the fight out of her.
The waiter returned with their drinks and said he’d come back for their food order after they’d had a chance to look at the menu. Maggie sipped her water, the cool liquid coating a mouth that had gone dry in her anger.
Finally composed again, she asked him, “What is it you’re looking for?”
“Well you know,” he began, and she saw that smugness come back to his face.
She lurched forward and slapped a hand over his mouth. “Shut it, right there. Whatever you’re about to say, don’t.” She saw his eyes go wide in confusion. When she pulled her hand back, she saw realization dawn on him and he leaned forward again.
“Sorry.” She leaned back in her chair and looked at him. “I have no interest in that guy. This one, right here in front of me. He seems real. Stick with him, or we have nothing to talk about.”
He nodded. “Got it.” Then, after a moment he looked at her through a squinted eye, as though she were the sun and just too bright to stare at directly. “I ain’t ever met anyone like you. You don’t take anything from anyone, do you?”
Maggie rapped her knuckles against his contract. “Not when they mess with my life.”
