Round Ten
MAGGIE
“I’m the worst!” I walk a lap of the private apartment above the bookstore, a space we don’t tell the other event attendees about, because we don’t want to share a bathroom with them. Turning on my heels, I massage the bridge of my nose and squeeze my eyes shut. “I promised myself I would be nice!”
Snickering, Fox hitches herself up to sit on the kitchen counter. “Believe it or not, but that wasn’t so bad.”
“I was mean!”
“He said you had a stick up your ass,” Alana counters. “Jab for jab. I’m saying it was fair.”
“He continues to poke, poke, poke at my temper!” I drop my hand and spin with a snarl.
“He said my job was made up, and that I had no other prospects. This event has been a freakin’ success!
We raised ten thousand dollars with bodies through the door alone.
That doesn’t include book sales. It doesn’t include future business.
It doesn’t include sponsorship partnerships with other businesses that wanted to cross-promote.
” A feral growl tears along my throat. “This was a success!”
“Totally was,” Eliza mumbles, folding her eight-pack fighter-body in front of the fridge. “Also, I’m starving. Would it be weird to order a whole pizza and eat it at my table? The little canapes aren’t doing it for me.”
“It would be a little weird,” Fox teases. “But it would be funny, too, cos we know you’ll eat the whole thing on your own, and if a date tries to grab a slice, you’ll tear their arm off. It would be both horrifying and impossibly sexy to every man who ever wanted to take you for a spin.”
“They can’t handle me. None of them can.” Disappointed with the offerings, she slams the door and turns back to face us. “I think our break is over, too. Can we make this more of a round-robin, knockout-style tournament? If I get them to tap in two minutes or less, I can move them along faster?”
“No. You owe them five minutes each.” Drawing a looooong breath, filling my chest and expanding it wide until my dress shifts with the movement, I hold it in for a beat.
Two. Three. Finally, letting it out again, I nod—go team, go—and shake my shoulders back.
“Okay. I’m ready. At least I don’t have to deal with him again tonight. ”
“Exactly.” Fox slides off the edge of the counter onto high heels that push her already-impressive five-nine frame closer to six feet. Brushing her hair back, she runs a hand over her cute little baby bump and grins. “We’re done with him for tonight.”
“Well, actually,” Alana snickers. “You’re not. You get him in about three more turns.”
“Sure, but she’s done with him, and I’m not secretly attracted to the cute cop next door, which makes it much easier not to get all hot and bothered when the grumpy bastard sits down at my table.”
“Secretly attr—” My entire body jolts with shock. Surprise. Horror. “Excuse me!? I am not!”
“I didn’t say you were.” She slaps my butt on the way past. “I just said I wasn’t.
Why?” She stops in the doorway with a smirk.
“Do you have something you’d like to share with your friends, Magnolia?
Something sinful and bad and sneaky? Is it weird crushing on the guy you kinda hate?
I heard you were at his place a while back… and he didn’t even have a shirt on.”
“This is that small-town gossip vine bullshit I never missed.” I stalk past a smiling Alana and Eliza, then around a ridiculously smug Fox. Moving onto the stairs, I gnash my teeth and head down. “It would be a shame to let facts interfere with an entertaining story though, huh?”
“I don’t hear her denying the no-shirt thing,” Fox taunts as the trio follows me downstairs. “I think he loves arguing with you, Maggie. Everyone else wants to mother his child or stroke his hair. He likes this Bitch Barbie flirtation thing you’ve got going on.”
“Shut up.” I hurry down the stairs and mentally plan a fast announcement to get the second half of our evening started, but in my distraction, I move off the last step and swing to the left, only to crash into a solid brick wall and throw my arms out to save myself.
The cartilage in my nose crackles in warning, and the breath in my lungs bursts free.
I flail, desperate to grab onto something, anything, rather than tumble to the floor, but then my brick wall turns into a human man.
And dammit! That human man is the only one in this room I would trade for the floor.
“Woah. Slow down.” He grabs my biceps and steadies me, kind eyes scouring mine for a single beat in time…
until he realizes who he’s holding. For a moment, he was the boy I remember from elementary school, the hero who saved me from bullies, and the book carrier who refused me the burden of carting my own things around.
He was the sweet boy he raised his son to be, and most devastating of all, the one I spent countless nights of my childhood wishing on a star for.
But then that kindness washes away and the arrogant Detective Caster returns.
“I hope you drive better than you walk, Magnolia. Your spatial awareness sucks.”
“Yeah? Well, I hope you perform better on dates than the lackluster effort you’ve shown tonight, Wilbert.
You left me quite disappointed after our time together.
” I tug my arms free of his grip and hate the giggling stares warming my back.
The smirking interest from the small circle of friends I knew from a lifetime ago.
“I don’t recall mentioning this during my opening speech, Detective, but female participants have been instructed to provide feedback and a rating for each of their dates.
I wouldn’t publicly publish these report cards, since doing so would be the epitome of unprofessionalism.
But I often enjoy pouring a glass of wine and settling in for a little light reading when I have the time.
I wonder what the cards will say about you? ”
“Probably somethin’ about how smooth he is,” Ramone quips, strolling closer with a broad grin and laughing eyes.
“How romantic and sweet and utterly charming he is. Oh, wait. That’s what they’ll say about me.
” Sidling up on my left, he winks. “Also, I believe it’s almost time for our date, Ms. Sava.
” He nibbles his bottom lip. Total douchebag move.
“I look forward to discussing that moment we had in first grade.”
“You had a moment?” Billy snarls. “What fuckin’ moment?”
“You gave me a Spiderman stick-on tattoo.” Warmth floods my cheeks as a memory from forever ago blooms anew in the forefront of my mind. “Oh my gosh. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“I went and got me some real tattoos since then. I might show you sometime.” Smirking, he inches closer, completely oblivious to Billy’s gritted jaw.
“They’re hidden under my clothes though, and I heard we got a cranky cop in the house tonight, so I probably have to keep it on for now or risk catching charges. ”
“Do you ever fucking stop talking?” Billy shakes his head and spins away, stalking through the bloated crowd and stopping at the table he was last at.
My table.
“You should probably get the second half of tonight started,” Fox snickers, her soft, smiling voice in my ear. “And don’t forget the lucky door prize.”