Page 27 of Personal Foul
Charity jerks away, but with the way I’m holding her, I don’t think anyone else would notice.
But she felt that zap too. I can tell by the dazed look on her face, her eyes wide, her lips parted on a harsh breath.
“Wh—” she starts, but I cut her off with another fierce kiss. Quick and hard, and then I release her, setting her back down and spinning on my heel to retrieve the axe.
When I set it back on the table, Charity’s back on her stool, smoothing her hair and avoiding my gaze.
Andrew steps forward with a lopsided grin on his face, holding out a hand for me to shake. “Congratulations, man. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to pull it off. I figured you’d either land wide again or bust.”
Laughing, I shake his hand. “Thanks, man. I couldn’t let you show me up on a date I organized, though.”
“Right, right.” He rolls his eyes, but his smile never falters. “You just had to show me up in front of Isabelle.”
“I mean, someone has to. There’s no reason for a pretty girl like her to waste her time with the likes of you.”
He mock gasps. “What? Are you calling me ugly?”
Laughing, I shake my head. “You said it, man. Not me.”
Isabelle’s blushing, and even though this is all good-natured joking, part of me’s serious. If he’s not going to date her, he should just tell her that and let her move on instead of continuing to string her along like he has been. Her interest in him is obvious to anyone with eyeballs. Letting him win would just give her more reasons to fawn over him, which I’m sure he would enjoy, but if he’s not going to reciprocate, that’s kinda fucked up.
Not that I’m in any kind of position to judge someone for doing something fucked up … but at least Charity knows where we stand.
You did kiss her, though. And you know it wasn’t just to sell you as a couple. You wanted to.
Shut up, conscience. We’ll deal with that later. And by deal with that, I mean we’ll chalk it up to selling us as a couple and steadfastly ignore all other reasons I might want to kiss Charity. Because I’m well aware that she doesn’t want to kiss me.
We only have about fifteen minutes left of our hour, so we take turns throwing things. Isabelle chooses to sit out and watch, but Charity goes after the knife some more. Andrew, who’s better at it than me despite my early success with it, gives her some tips and pointers. And normally I might be jealous of another dude guiding my date through a physical maneuver, but …
Hell, I kinda am jealous.
Fuck.
To distract myself, I turn to Isabelle. Maybe I can convince her that she needs to stop mooning over Andrew. If she does, he’ll either decide he’s interested enough to pursue her, or he won’t and she can find someone who is interested. Either way, it’s a win for her.
“I meant what I said earlier about you being too pretty to waste time with an asshole like Maloney,” I tell her, pitching my voice loud enough for her to hear but hopefully not carry to the others.
She raises her eyebrows and glances at Charity. “Oh yeah? What would Charity think of you saying something like that?”
Chuckling, I shake my head and hold up my hands, palms out. “I’m not hitting on you, don’t worry. Maloney’s my friend, but sometimes he’s a dick with women. You’ve given him plenty of opportunities to ask you out. All I’m saying is, maybe make it less easy on him for a while.”
She looks at Andrew and Charity taking turns throwing the knife and fiddles with the dry erase marker we used to keep score on the whiteboard at the back of the counter. “Like play hard to get?”
“Mmm. Not quite. More likebehard to get. If he’s not gonna follow through, does he really deserve your time?”
She sets aside the marker and props her chin on her hand, meeting my eyes. “Was Charity hard to get for you?”
I open my mouth, not quite sure how to answer. Finally, I simply say, “Yeah. She was.”
That has her eyebrows raising in surprise again, and we both glance at Charity as she throws the knife. She’s taken several turns with it and sunk the tip into the board each time. I can’t help feeling a swell of pride on her behalf.
“She’s a ballbuster,” I say in answer to her unspoken question.
Isabelle chuckles. “Yeah. I can see that. She seems all tame and sweet on the outside. But under the surface, she’s anything but.”
My smile grows. “Yeah, that’s what I like about her.”
Knocking on the table to draw my attention back to her, Isabelle’s face grows serious. “She’s also my best friend. So don’t break her heart, or I might have to break something of yours.”
