He was grinning at her now. "So, are you his girlfriend?"
Chloe looked toward me. "I don't know." She smiled. "HeisLawton Rastor, you know."
The kid was nodding like somehow this made sense. He turned back to me. "As long as you're here, can we have your autograph?"
I heard myself laugh. When I'd pulled into the parking lot, this wasn't what I had in mind. Still, I wasn't going to be a dick about it. I'd been a teenager once.
True, when I'd been their age, I'd been a lot less puppy-like. But the reason for that was obvious. My old neighborhood was more of a Doberman kind of place.
"Sure," I said.
"Except we don't have a pen," the guy said. "You got one?"
Next to him, Ducky spoke up. "If you don't, I could borrow one from the pizza place." He straightened. "On account of the fact we're regulars."
Chloe gave a small laugh. "Hang on, I think I've got a pen in my purse."
Ducky cleared his throat. "Um, we don't have anything to sign either." He gave me a hopeful look. "You got a picture? Or maybe a piece of paper or something?"
Chloe spoke up. "How about the pizza box?"
Now, they were both nodding. "Yeah," Ducky was saying. "Good idea." He thrust the box through the open car window. "But sign thetopof the box, okay? Because the inside's all greasy." He paused. "Sure you don't want a piece?"
I looked down at the box. It was still warm, but not heavy enough to contain a whole pizza. Probably, they'd been scarfing it in the parking lot. "Thanks," I said, "maybe next time."
A couple of minutes later, the box was signed, and we were on our way.
From the passenger's seat, Chloe said, "That was really nice of you."
I shook my head. "What? Signing a box? It was nothing."
"It wasn't nothing," she said. "You let them take selfies with you."
I shrugged. The selfies happened so often, I barely noticed them anymore.
Chloe was still talking. "You were nice to them, too. I bet a lot of people wouldn’t be."
"Nice?" I gave a dramatic groan. "Oh, no."
"What?" she asked.
"Nice," I repeated. "That's the kiss of death."
She gave me an amused smile. "What? You worried about ruining your reputation?"
"Baby," I said, "my reputation'salreadyruined."
I'd said it as a joke, but the funny thing was, it was true. I had a reputation alright, and it sure as hell wasn't for being nice.
The way the tabloids told it, I'd gotten my reputation by kicking asses, breaking hearts, and showing my dick on the internet. But if I were lucky, those days were over. This was a new start, and I was going to make the most of it.
It was a good thought, and I might have kept on thinking it, except just a few hours later, there was trouble. And like always, it wasn't the kind I could solve with niceness.
Chapter 33
Up until now, the night had been going great. We'd had dinner at this Greek place that a friend of mine owned, and then we'd hit a comedy show at a downtown casino, where we'd laughed our asses off at jokes that we'd probably forget by tomorrow.
Everything – being with Chloe, listening to her laugh, having her look at me the way she used to – it had been worth the trip, even if it meant I'd need to hop back on the same plane in just a few short hours.
