I didn’t just flush at his compliment, I burned. “Thank you,” I murmured and then gave his date a polite smile. “Hullo.”
She glared at me.
Oh well.
“Adam, this is Christian.”
Adam gave Christian a taut nod and then flicked his hand to his date. “This is Megan.”
“It’s Meagan,” she corrected him waspishly, pronouncing it like ‘mee-gan’ instead of ‘meh-gan’.
I saw Adam stifle a long-suffering sigh. Uh oh. His date obviously wasn’t going well.
“We better get to our table.” Christian gently pulled on my elbow.
I gave Adam another smile. “Enjoy your evening.”
“You too, sweetheart.” I moved to follow Christian but had only taken a step to walk away when I felt a tug on the hem of my dress. I glanced down, frowning, and watched Adam pull off the price tag. I blushed as he winked at me.
I closed my eyes briefly. I’d left the price tag on. I was always doing stuff like that. God, I hoped Christian hadn’t seen it. Opening my eyes I deliberately ignored Adam’s date and mouthed a heartfelt “thank you”. He grinned at me and I smothered a laugh at myself before hurrying to catch up with Christian at our table across the room.
“Who was that?” Christian asked casually as we were seated.
“My brother’s best friend,” I replied equally casually. “We grew up together.”
Christian nodded and then ordered us white wine. I preferred red.
We chatted as we waited for the waiter to return, and Christian told me all about a charity he was organizing. He stopped talking when the waiter came back and he began to order my food for me. Deciding to think this was charming rather than overbearing I informed him this was my brother’s restaurant and that I knew what I wanted. He was impressed that Braden owned La Cour and for five minutes I told him about Braden’s other businesses.
After that we were back onto Christian.
By the time the second course arrived, my hope for this being “it” was diminishing rapidly. Not once did my date appear to take any real interest in me, and the more I realized how self-absorbed he was, the more aware I became of Adam sitting across the room from me. Adam whose eyes glittered with interest every time I opened my mouth.
I had just picked up my fork to take a bite of my steak when a phone rang. Debussy.
Really? Even his ringtone was pretentious.
Yes, by this point the shine had definitely worn off.
Christian pulled the phone out of his pocket and answered it, his eyes going wide. “I’ll be right there.” He put the phone back in his pocket and stood up.
I stared up at him in absolute shock. Was he about to leave me here? In the middle of a date?
“My sister just went into labor,” he explained, and I watched as he threw a wad of cash on the table. “Stay, finish your meal.” He leaned down and pecked my cheek. “I’ll call you.”
And then he was gone.
I couldn’t exactly hate him because he’d abandoned me on our first date to go be by his pregnant sister’s bedside. At that thought I slumped against my chair. Christian was obviously a good person. He just also happened to be incredibly self-involved. It occurred to me he’d been the same way at the student union last week but I’d twisted it in my overly romantic little head and called it open and honest.
I looked at my food glumly.
A hand came down on the back of my chair and a shadow appeared above me. I glanced up to find Adam bending over me, a scowl on his face.
“Where the f**k did he go?” he growled.
God, I loved him.
“His sister went into labor.”