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“What makes her so… trashy?” I ask.
“It’s hard to put into words, but you know it when you see it, you know? She’s not a lady like you.” His gaze warms as he looks me over again. “You obviously take care of yourself. You’d be surprised how many women don’t these days.”
Ew!
“I don’t like when guys say things like that,” I announce, grabbing my own napkin and unfolding it on my lap. “It’s always a slight to other girls, and I think it’s kind of assholey. I don’t need to be better than other girls to feel good about myself, and I dress in messy, slouchy clothes when I’m at home relaxing plenty, so I don’t want you to think I’m always well-polished and lovely. I’m not.”
He seems startled that I didn’t lap up his compliment like a good little kitten. “Sorry. Wasn’t trying to offend. And I didn’t mean it like that, like god forbid you wear sweatpants, it’s just with her…” He stops, realizing this isn’t going the way he wants it to. “Never mind. I think we’ve had a small miscommunication,” he says with a conciliatory smile.
“Maybe,” I say with a smile of my own.
“He wasn’t even planning to have kids, and now she’s trapped him, so I just feel bad for the guy, you know?”
Every word out of his mouth makes me enjoy him less. “Pregnancy prevention is not a woman’s job. She can’t get pregnant without his help. He has the dick, right? He should put a condom on it if he doesn’t want babies.”
He laughs, not like I’m funny, but like I’m adorable to have such strong feelings about things. “All right, all right. I can see we aren’t going to agree on this.”
I’m not amused, so this time I don’t bother responding.
Trying to lighten the mood (or read me, who knows?) he asks jokingly, “Hey, you don’t want babies anytime soon, do you?”
I smile sweetly. “Not yours.”
His eyebrows rise in surprise, then a bark of laughter shoots out of him. “I like you, Hallie Meadows. I think we’re going to get along very well.”
That makes one of us.
Chapter Twenty Four
Hallie
Dinner takes an eternity to get through.
We don’t order dessert because Lance is afraid if we do, I’ll get fat before we make it to his apartment. He doesn’t say so explicitly, but it’s implied by his obsession with all things superficial.
I cannot wait to never see him again.
On the way out, he actually holds the door for me, which is the first remotely gentlemanly behavior he has exhibited tonight. The way he looks down at me after he follows me out the door makes it seems like he thinks this date went much better than I think it went.
“Well, I had a good time with you tonight,” he says.
“Yeah, me too,” I lie, looking down at my purse.
“Sorry if the night got off to a weird start. I know this place is a bit tricky to find, and then the whole drama with Chuck.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
I never want to think about it or him again. I just want to go home, kick off my pretty-but-uncomfortable slingbacks, and curl up with my kitty.
The restaurant entrancewasin a weird place, though, so we have to trek through an alley to get back to a road busy enough for a taxi cab to pick me up.
“So, you want to head to my place?”
I look over at him, a little stunned he would even ask. “No.” Remembering my manners, I say, “Uh, I’m not really a… I don’t home with guys on first dates.”
“Classy and hard to get, huh?” he says, smiling that smarmy smile again. “I like that.”
Ew. So much ew.
