Descent (Black Heart Romance)

“Our table’s ready,” he tells me.

I nod and start to follow him, but he motions for me to move ahead of him, so I guess I’m taking the lead. I greet the hostess and give her his name, then she grabs a couple of menus and leads us to the table.

When I turn around to make sure he followed, I see his head down and he’s texting.

Jackson used to do that all the time when we went out to eat. Drove me crazy.

His gaze is still glued to his phone as he texts someone else, so I walk around the table and sit down. Several seconds pass, then a few more. Seeming to realize it’s a bit rude that he’s still texting and ignoring me, he peeks up from his chat. “Sorry babe, give me like two more seconds. I had a text from a friend and he’s just blowing my mind.”

Babe?

Don’t like that.

Ignoring it like he’s ignoring me, I open the menu and busy myself with deciding what I’ll order for dinner.

Finally, he finishes his other conversation and takes a seat across from me at the table.

I look up from my menu. “Is everything okay with your friend?”

He looks up as if startled to see me sitting here. “Oh. Yeah, yeah, all good. My buddy Chuck was just freaking out and I had to talk him down.”

My forehead creases with concern. “Oh no. Well, is everything good now? Do you have to go? If you need to go see your friend, I totally understand.”

He waves me off, then grabs his cloth napkin and unfolds it on his lap. “Nah, you’re sweet, but nothing I can do for him, unfortunately. He’s been dating this trashy girl we’ve all been warning him to lose, she’s clearly only after his money, but she must have a mouth like a Hoover because he can’t see it.”

Ew.

“We’re always joking with him to make sure it’s double-wrapped with her and he calls us assholes. Well, she’s pregnant, so who’s the asshole now?”

Maybe still you.

I don’t say that, obviously.

“What makes her so… trashy?” I ask.

“It’s hard to put into words, but you know it when you see it, you know? She’s not a lady like you.” His gaze warms as he looks me over again. “You obviously take care of yourself. You’d be surprised how many women don’t these days.”

Ew!

“I don’t like when guys say things like that,” I announce, grabbing my own napkin and unfolding it on my lap. “It’s always a slight to other girls, and I think it’s kind of assholey. I don’t need to be better than other girls to feel good about myself, and I dress in messy, slouchy clothes when I’m at home relaxing plenty, so I don’t want you to think I’m always well-polished and lovely. I’m not.”

He seems startled that I didn’t lap up his compliment like a good little kitten. “Sorry. Wasn’t trying to offend. And I didn’t mean it like that, like god forbid you wear sweatpants, it’s just with her…” He stops, realizing this isn’t going the way he wants it to. “Never mind. I think we’ve had a small miscommunication,” he says with a conciliatory smile.

“Maybe,” I say with a smile of my own.

“He wasn’t even planning to have kids, and now she’s trapped him, so I just feel bad for the guy, you know?”

Every word out of his mouth makes me enjoy him less. “Pregnancy prevention is not a woman’s job. She can’t get pregnant without his help. He has the dick, right? He should put a condom on it if he doesn’t want babies.”

He laughs, not like I’m funny, but like I’m adorable to have such strong feelings about things. “All right, all right. I can see we aren’t going to agree on this.”

I’m not amused, so this time I don’t bother responding.

Trying to lighten the mood (or read me, who knows?) he asks jokingly, “Hey, you don’t want babies anytime soon, do you?”

I smile sweetly. “Not yours.”

His eyebrows rise in surprise, then a bark of laughter shoots out of him. “I like you, Hallie Meadows. I think we’re going to get along very well.”

That makes one of us.

Chapter Twenty Four

Hallie

Dinner takes an eternity to get through.

We don’t order dessert because Lance is afraid if we do, I’ll get fat before we make it to his apartment. He doesn’t say so explicitly, but it’s implied by his obsession with all things superficial.

I cannot wait to never see him again.

On the way out, he actually holds the door for me, which is the first remotely gentlemanly behavior he has exhibited tonight. The way he looks down at me after he follows me out the door makes it seems like he thinks this date went much better than I think it went.

“Well, I had a good time with you tonight,” he says.