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“You not letting me finish my fucking sentence,” I snap.
He scoffs and crosses his arms.
“Yeah? Are you done? Are you listening to me now?”
“Don’t I look like I’m listening?” he retorts.
Lowering my voice back to normal, I put my hands on my hips. “Finally, yeah, so thanks. Now, I’m not even going totouchyour delusions about what a compliment is, so I’ll just get right to it: I can’t go on a date with you tonight, tomorrow night, or any other night. Just go home and don’t come back.” I can’t keep sarcasm out of my tone when I add, “Sorry you wasted all this time daydreaming—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he interrupts me anew, glaring and holding up his hands. “You’re bailing on me? After I helped you out, you’rebailingon your end of the deal?”
“I am.”
“Seriously?”
“Don’t I look serious?” I mock him.
I didn’t figure he’d love that, but I didn’t expect him to look like he wants to smack me in the mouth for it, either.
He drops his hands and takes a deliberate step up to me. My fight-or-flight response flares to life—
—but before I can decide which I want to go with, someone new comes into my line of sight astheystep up toWyatt.
It’s the tall, tattooed someone I’ve been waiting for, and seeing him fills me with relief.
Wyatt jumps in surprise when he notices him, but as he takes in Landon’s look of unfriendly curiosity, his annoyance resurfaces.
“Can I help you?” he asks with a sneer.
“Sure can,” Landon replies, his tone utterly flat in the absence of his usual liveliness. “You can tell me what you’re doing and why.”
Eyes rolling, Wyatt chooses to ignore him. He looks at me again and grits out, “You owe me a date, Liv. I put that battery in your car in exchange fora date, and I expect you to pay up. Fair is fair.”
“I’ll repay you in some way that doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable.”
“‘Uncomfortable’?” he echoes. “What are you, a prude?”
“I’m not going to explain myself to you.” I jerk my thumb in the direction of the elevator. “Go home.”
He stares at me for a long second, then gives a humorless laugh. “Wow. You fucking cunt. I can’t believe this. We made a—man, who the fuckareyou?” He swats at the cash Landon has just held up in front of his face. Then he glares at him. “Get out of here! I’m in the middle of a conversation!”
“No, you’re in the middle of being a dick.” Landon now smacks the money hard against Wyatt’s chest. “There’s twenty bucks for your help with the car battery. You’re all set. Bye.”
Wyatt shoves the money back. “I don’t want this! I want my date with Liv!”
“Well, Liv doesn’t want a date with you, so that’s the end of that.” He folds up the money and attempts to stick it in the pocket of Wyatt’s work shirt.
Wyatt knocks his hand back. “Listen, asshole, if you don’t—”
“Youdon’t understand what’s happening here,” Landon cuts him off, suddenly uncharacteristically harsh. “You are being dismissed. The only say you have is in what you walk away with. So are you going to accept this money as payment for your help, or are you going to acceptnothing? Because Liv is out of the picture now. Forget about her.”
Wyatt’s eyes burn with anger.
Landon isn’t fazed, though.Hiseyes are stone cold and razor sharp—and it pains me, to be honest. What went on with Lolly? What sucked the patience and warmth out of him and left him like this? It must’ve been really bad.
Not knowing what to say or do, I just stand here and wait for one of the two guys to make the next move.
Shortly, Wyatt’s expression closes off, giving me the impression that he’s done with this. Although he’s a bit thicker than Landon, he’s shorter, and Landon is clearly in no mood to be challenged even one more time. If Wyatt dared to push this to a fight, it’s not likely he’d win.
