Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,59

But it did give me more material for teasing her. "The prime rib, medium."

"That comes with green beans with garlic sauce and mashed potatoes, is that okay?"

"Yeah that sounds great." I'm not a lunatic.

"We almost missed out on dinner," James almost shouted as he sat down. He immediately cleared his throat.

First Daphne was acting crazy with her order and now James was yelling. Is everyone high or something?

Matt gave me a thumbs up before he sat back down.

"What?" I mouthed silently.

"You'll see," he said silently back to me.

I was definitely missing something. It must have been make the waiter as uncomfortable as possible day. As soon as the waiter was done taking everyone's order I turned to Daphne. "Um...what the hell was that?"

"What was what?"

"The way you just ordered was..." I didn't know how to finish my sentence.

"Crazy? Embarrassing? Bossy? Rude? Mortifying? Ridiculous?" Kristen gave a list of adjectives to fill in my pause.

"Yeah, what the hell, does she always order like that?" I asked her.

"Always. It's horrible."

I laughed and looked over at Daphne. Maybe I didn't know what she liked at all. "You know, the chef prepares everything the way he thinks it'll be best."

"Exactly. The way he thinks it'll be best. Not me."

"But he's a culinary expert."

"Have you seen his resume?"

"No, but..."

"Exactly. He could just be some schmuck they pulled off the streets."

"Probably not, but fine. Regardless of that, how do you even know if you don't like something if you won't try it?"

"I know what I do and don't like. I just want what I want. Is there something so wrong with that?"

"No, I guess not. But trying new stuff is a fun experience."

"It's true," James said. He was still talking a little loudly. "If I didn't get out of my comfort zone I never would have ended up with Penny. She's my favorite experience. And I get to experience her all the time, if you know what I mean." He paused. "I mean sex. In case you didn't know what I meant. But not recently, actually. We're waiting until we get married, you know? Which is funny, because we've been fucking this whole time. Like a lot. Sometimes more than once a day. Which maybe isn't a lot to this guy," he pointed at Mason.

Mason pushed his hand away. "Are you feeling okay?"

"But it's a lot to me," James said, ignoring Mason. "So I don't know why we have to stop on the homestretch. You know? It's like she's punishing me." He laughed. "Inside joke. Not with these guys." He waved his arms around, gesturing to the rest of the table. "It's an inside joke with me and Penny." He took a sip of his drink and made a slurping noise with his straw.

Daphne and I both laughed.

"See," I said, giving James a weird look. "Experiencing new people or new food is fun. And very passionate."

"You're so full of yourself." She picked up the margarita I had ordered for her and took a sip. She scrunched up her face. "Fine, I have to admit that it's actually pretty good."

"Exactly."

"Is it?" James asked. "Let me try." He put his straw in Daphne's margarita and took a sip. "It is pretty good." He laughed and made the slurping noise again with the straw as he pulled it out of her drink. He kept it in his mouth, letting it dangle like a weirdly long cigarette.

"Um, are you feeling okay, James?" I asked.

He spit the straw out onto the table and cleared his throat. "Yeah. Why? I mean, I'm a little overheated I guess." He pulled off his suit jacket. He tried to toss it on the back of his chair, but completely missed and just threw it on the ground. He didn't bother to pick it up. Or maybe he didn't realize he had missed. "What are you looking at?" he asked when he turned back around.

"Nothing?" I glanced over at Matt.

Matt immediately gave me two thumbs up. Oh, no. What the fuck did Matt do?

Chapter 21

Daphne

I quickly picked up the suit jacket that James had accidentally thrown on the floor. "You dropped this," I said and handed it to him.

"Oh, no, that's not mine." He immediately pushed it back into my hands. "I'm not wearing one."

"Right. Because you just took it off..." I let my voice trail off. Does he really not remember wearing it a second ago? James had only drunk half of the beer in front of him. Maybe he was a light weight, but