Chapter 19 #2
He nodded. “You need a drink.” He shot a dark look toward Joey, who we were fast approaching. “I definitely need a drink. How about we focus on relaxing and worry about picking up the scooter tomorrow?”
“This isn’t your elaborate way of telling me you’re never getting on the scooter again, right?”
He smirked. “I’m going to regret telling you this.” His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. “I actually enjoyed riding on the scooter. I wasn’t lying when I said that.”
“I knew it.” I had to refrain from pumping my fist.
He rolled his eyes. “I don’t think this place has food.
Just drinks. We’ll have a few, grab Chinese when we’re done.
” He nodded at Flock to the Wok. “Then we’ll catch an Uber home.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll Uber back out here, pick up the scooter, and then spend the day on this side of town. I need some new inspiration.”
He was making up the last part. He’d been writing like a maniac. I was so grateful he was acting as a shield against Joey, however, that I merely nodded.
“I’ll be buying the Chinese and breakfast,” I said. “And paying for the Uber.”
“We’ll argue about that later.”
“No argument. It’s a condition that has to be met.”
He sighed. “Fine. I’m buying the drinks when we get inside, though.”
I frowned, realizing he’d tricked me. The drinks would be expensive at a place like this. “Um…”
“Nope. It’s a done deal.” Brody flashed a flat smile at Joey as we passed but didn’t acknowledge him otherwise. “Just relax,” he whispered, his lips close to the ridge of my ear, causing goose bumps to pebble my skin. “We have a plan. It’s going to be fine.”
JOEY EVENTUALLY FOLLOWED US INTO the bar, but he was sullen and maintained his distance. That could have been because Brody never allowed himself to get more than ten feet from me the entire night. There might have been a different reason too. I honestly couldn’t decide.
Either way, after more than an hour of sulking near the bar and glaring in our direction, Joey disappeared. Only then could I breathe easily. Since I was already on my third blood orange martini, Brody and I opted to stick to our original plan.
“Your tongue is red,” Brody noticed as I sipped a fresh martini.
I grinned and stuck it out at him. I was buzzed. There was no getting around it. That made me flirty. Brody either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care that there had been a noticeable increase in my giggles over the past hour.
He smirked in return and sipped his cocktail. He’d gone with something called resurrection, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. Well, except for one thing. That one thing sat across from him and glowered at us whenever we engaged with one another.
True to form, Blair had brought her notebook with her.
This evening, she was determined to nitpick the fight scenes.
She hadn’t let up on Brody from the moment she’d sat across from him.
Since he’d saved me, I wanted to save him.
I figured if I was too obnoxious, Blair would move on to a different author and allow Brody to breathe.
Apparently, I’d underestimated exactly how determined she was.
“There’s no way,” she insisted.
She was deadly serious. As far as I could tell, she never drank.
Not that there was anything wrong with that.
As much as I prayed for the woman to relax, it wasn’t as if alcohol was always the answer.
Not even in the South. Plus, for all I knew, she was in recovery.
But she was so very serious. It made me tense just to be around her.
“There’s no way what?” Brody sounded tired, which only had me feeling worse for him.
“There’s no way Markham could run up a hill and get enough leverage to do a backflip and land behind his enemy,” Blair argued. “There’s just no freaking way.”
Brody regarded her with kind eyes. “I’ll take it under advisement. Is that all for your list tonight?”
Blair’s eyes narrowed. “You haven’t really explained why you picked a move that can’t be physically carried out, so I’m not done.”
“Okay.” Brody slumped in his chair.
Blair had sucked the life out of him, and it filled me with rage. Why does she always have to pick on him?
“That’s it?” Blair’s voice ratcheted up a notch, and I sensed she was about to go off the rails in fantastic fashion. “That’s all you’re going to say?”
Knowing I had to swoop in, I pasted a bright smile on my face. “Markham is an elf,” I blurted. “Normal human physics don’t apply to elves. They can do more than humans can.”
Blair immediately started shaking her head. “Even for an elf, it wouldn’t be possible.”
She was an irritating individual. I tried to remind myself that she was likely lonely—why else would she so obsessed with nitpicking Brody’s books?—but I was too agitated on Brody’s behalf to temper my response.
“Have you seen Lord of the Rings?” I asked.
Brody jerked his eyes to me, seemingly confused. I offered up a reassuring smile but swung my attention back to Blair.
“I have,” Blair replied suspiciously.
“Have you seen the things Legolas can do in those movies?”
She grasped where I was going right away and shook her head. “It’s not the same.”
“It’s fiction,” I shot back. I didn’t want to be rude to the woman, but she was way too much work. “Sometimes you have to suspend disbelief for fiction. That’s the only way you’re able to enjoy it.”
“But—”
“Fiction,” I repeated, my temper getting the better of me. “Just unclench, Blair. Enjoy the story. Don’t fixate on the details.”
She looked between us, and there was a moment when I was convinced she was about to start screaming. It was as if a switch had been flicked in her head. Ultimately, she nodded. “Fine.” She stood with a purpose. “I guess I’m done for the night.”
“Great.” I flashed a wide smile. “Thank you so much for coming.” I was trying to be polite, but it came out as sarcastic. I didn’t apologize.
“Yes, well, enjoy the rest of your evening.” Blair’s tone was frigidly prim.
“We will.” I waved as she stormed away.
“You didn’t need to do that,” Brody said when she was out of earshot. “My skin has become so thick since I started interacting with her I don’t even think about it any longer.”
“She’s torturing you. She needs to give it a rest.”
“She doesn’t realize she’s torturing me.”
“Maybe she needs to realize it.”
He shrugged. “You want another drink?”
I laughed, shoving thoughts of Blair and her anger out of my mind. “Now you’re speaking my love language.”