Take me, for example, no one would ever think I was involved in a fucking double homicide, but here we are.
Here we fucking are.
I stare at my phone for the umpteenth time and see it’s well past midnight. Stone said her shift ended at midnight on the dot—like a misfit Cinderella of sorts—so what is taking so long for her to get her fine ass out of that pigsty and into the leather seat of my car?
Hmm.
She’s probably freshening up and making herself beautiful for our first date.
I feel a pull of my lip curve upward with the thought of her taking all this time just to look good for me, but that idiotic notion is quickly crushed into smithereens. When I hear her voice holler goodnight to some drunkards slouching on the wall outside of the bar, I establish she looks exactly the same as she did when I saw her inside earlier.
Not that she doesn’t look good. Fuck, in those short shorts, it’s impossible for her not to. But still…
I don’t know why I’m disappointed, though. Maybe I thought she was going to put on a sexy-ass dress for me or something. I roll my eyes at myself in annoyance, because I should know better. Stone isn’t the type of girl who wears girly-girl things for a guy. And she sure as shit isn’t the kind of girl who goes out of her way to look pretty for someone she barely knows; maybe not even for someone she does. She dresses for her own goddamned self, so thinking I could ever influence her fierceness in any way, is just downright stupid. This date hasn’t even started yet, and I’m already acting like the world’s biggest douche.
“Nice ride,” she says with a sarcastic, over-the-top whistle, before slamming the car door like a garden gate.
“Thanks,” I mumble.
“So? Where are we going?”
“Hmm. I thought you’d have an idea.” I shrug.
“You’re kidding me, right?” She snaps her neck to me in outrage.
“Hey, its midnight. No. Hold up. It’s actually a quarter to one.” I poke at the time on my phone screen for good measure. “Not many places I can take you, sweetheart.”
Furious with my reply, Stone looms her open palm right over my face, and I sink in my seat, ready for the tongue lashing she’s going to give me.
“First things first, don’t ever call me sweetheart again without expecting me to kick your junk in return. Secondly, this hanging out thing was your brilliant idea. The least you could have done was think of a place to take me, asshole,” she lashes out, unamused with my lack of plans.
She’s right. I know this is all for show, but I should have had a game plan for tonight. I mean, something that will be fun for her while putting up with my sorry ass. Lord knows, when all this goes to shit, she’ll be left with a bad aftertaste thinking about the time she spent with me. The least I could do is make a genuine effort for her to be entertained. Maybe even give Stone some good memories to remember me by, since I’m positive she’ll have plenty of bad ones in the near future.
Not that I care about that.
Stone is a mark. A hot, sexy-as-sin mark, but a mark just the same. Still, it wouldn’t kill me to show up as she deserves, now would it?
I lean my head on the headrest and stare into her pissed-off silhouette.
“I’m sorry, Stone. You’re right to be mad. But I told you this morning that I’m not good at these things. It’s not like I do this all the time. Just be patient with me while I try to work out the kinks, okay?”
I watch her fury lose a little bit of its steam, her cute nose scrunching in contemplation. She turns her whole body in my direction, those soft, red lips creating the most beautiful frown that could ever have graced her face.
“What do you mean? Like date?” Her brows pinch together suspiciously.
“Yeah, date. It’s not like I’m known for taking girls to the movies or fancy dinners. If you want me to be honest with you, the last time I took a girl out was probably to my high school prom. And I did that shit just because it was expected.”
She tilts her head, scrutinizing my every feature, as well as each honest-to-God word that just spilled from my lips. Once she comes to terms that I’m telling her the