"Even though the company is terrible?"
"Nothing gets in the way of me and mac and cheese," she said matter-of-fact. "So go or stay," she said. "It makes no difference to me."
I put my napkin on top of the table, fully meaning to leave, but I couldn't. I had to prove her wrong.
Damn it. Of all the times for my competitive nature to show up, it had to be now when I was sitting with the biggest shrew in Midnight Cove?
"I'll stay," I said after a second.
"Suit yourself," she said. "But try not to bore me."
I snort laughed in spite of myself. "You are truly a horrible person."
"Don't confuse horrible with honest, Sterling. I haven't done anything horrible since the second I saw you debating with yourself. And trust me when I say, you deserve it."
I motioned for the waitress and for a moment there I thought she wasn't going to come. When she finally deigned to walk over, she rolled her eyes at me and crossed her arms over her chest as if serving me was literally the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
"I'd like to apologize," I told the woman. "Might you ask the hostess over as well?"
The woman blinked at me once but then nodded and rushed over to get the hostess. When both of them were standing in front of me and Maron was watching me like a hawk, I spoke.
"I admit I was late and that was poorly done. I apologize for how I treated my date here in the beginning." I held my arms out to the side in supplication. "Do you think we can start over?"
Both women looked to Maron, and I couldn't help but get crabby about that. "Miss Archer?" they asked.
Maron narrowed her pretty eyes at me. Oh gods, I had to stop. Her eyes weren't pretty. They were horrible.
Andshewas horrible.
Everything about her was horrible.
"Do you mean it?" she asked.
I nodded.
"Probationary period then, ladies. Act nice as long as he does. The second he reverts to his original ways, you have my express permission to dump his entrée in his lap."
"If you dump my entrée in my lap, you might have a complaint."
"Take that up with the owner," Maron said archly.
The two women nodded, but as they were walking away, one of them quipped, "You're sitting with the owner, asshat."
Maron gave me a sweet smile.
Of course I was.
"You own this place?"
She shrugged. "Not completely. It belongs to the family, though in five more years it will be signed over to me."
"Did you really want them to dump food on me?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
I shook my head and sat back to examine the shrew I was with. She was petite. I could tell that from across the room but sitting this close to her, it was even more pronounced. She was tiny, maybe 100 pounds soaking wet? Her hair was past her shoulders and thick enough for me to wonder how long it took her to tame it every morning. Her eyes were a sparkling green, though I'd noticed over the last little while that they darkened when she was angry. Her skin was the common pale alabaster of most vamps, but whereas other vamps never blushed, she seemed incapable of preventing it. I could tell her emotions right on her skin. Her lips were full and covered in a berry colored lipstick and her clothing appeared to be both elegant and well-thought out, with a practiced eye for color. She wore a slim fitted dress with a yellow belt and yellow pumps. Her jewelry was simple. A silver necklace with an arrow charm and two silver dots worn in her ears. She dressed like she spoke, no-nonsense, yet full of fire.
I couldn't decide how I felt about it.
On one hand, for a redhead, she was surprisingly attractive, and it had snuck up and clubbed me over the head sometime during the litany of insults she'd aimed at me. On the other, dating her could be like dating a judgmental school marm except for one with an uncanny ability to find your deepest flaw and poke at it like a tongue on a sore tooth. I couldn't decide whether that intrigued me or turned me off.
A second date was out of the question. I couldn't resist doing anything crazy like actually liking this woman. I had a plan.
And it definitely didn't involve a mouthy redhead.
