“No.”
“Think about it before you say no.”
“No.”
I laugh. “If you don’t go out with me, I’m going to drive you crazy. I’ll be at every wedding event that you have. The rehearsal, the wedding, the reception. I’ll be there, haunting you. And don’t think you’ll get rid of me after the wedding. I’ll still be there. I’m Wes’s best friend after all. I’ll be at every family event. I’ll start a double-date night with you and Wes. I’ll be there every week. I’ll be there after the birth of your first child and every birthday afterward. I’ll hit on you every time.”
“No.” She narrows her eyes in defiance this time before taking a sip of her wine, like she thinks she is going to be the one to win this.
She won’t. She forgets, I never lose. Ever.
“You’ll always wonder if you don’t go on a date with me. I’ll haunt your dreams. You’ll always wonder, What if? What if you were wrong about Wes and I was the guy for you?”
“No.”
“If you go out with me, you can confirm to yourself that I’m the asshole you think I am. You’ll never have to wonder.”
“I don’t wonder.”
“Yes, you do. If you didn’t have the tiniest hint of wonder about me, you wouldn’t even be bothering with me. You wouldn’t be here.”
“No.”
“My body will haunt you. You’ll always wonder about my body, my abs, and other things,” I say winking.
“No. Wes has great abs,” she says. But there is a hint of seduction in her voice. A hint that she knows what I’m saying is true. That she wants me.
“Not like mine. He’s nothing like me.”
“No, because you are the devil.”
I nod. “True. But, if you truly loved Wes, you’d have nothing to lose by going out with me. In fact, you would be saving Wes from a monster like me.”
Sloane takes another sip of wine and clears her throat. “Okay.”
I smile smugly. “That didn’t sound like a yes to me. Will you go out on a date with me?”
“Let’s get one thing straight. I’m going out with you to get rid of you. And the second the date is over and I tell you I’m done is the second you leave my life forever. Got it? I don’t play games.”
“So, is that a yes?”
She crosses her arms.
“I need to hear you say it, or the deal is void. I need to hear you say that you will go out on a date with me. A real date.”
She rolls her arms. “Yes, I will go out on a date with you.”
I grin. “Good.”
The waiter brings us our lunch, which is good because I am starving and really do need to go to training after we get finished here. I dig into the pizza that is in front of me, eating quickly. After my second slice, I look up and see Sloane staring at me.
“What?”
“You’re a pig.”
I shrug. “I’m hungry. I assume you are planning on leaving now that you got what you wanted, and I have places to be. So, what if I eat a little fast? We aren’t on a date right now, so what does it matter?”
She rolls her eyes for the millionth time it seems since we sat down at this table.