“I didn’t notice,” I said through my teeth. “You can take his table if you want it?”
When I turned to face her, Ro’s mouth was agape. “Are you kidding me? I mean, hell yeah, I will.”
I nodded curtly. “Great, have fun.”
“I’m sure I will,” she practically purred as I walked away from her to get back to work.
After dropping off the bill, I went to the kitchen to grab the entrées for a party of four famous housewives and then took the order for an elderly gay couple who came in to dine with us every Thursday. It was only when I was coming back from punching in their order that I realized most of my section had miraculously disappeared.
The housewives were gone, leaving only the lingering scent of heavy designer perfume in their wake. The newly set table of six was vanished, and three twosomes packed up, with only dirty dishes left to mark their time here.
What the hell?
Only my elderly couple remained, sipping on the champagne I’d popped for them.
And Adam Meyers.
He sat at the most discreet table in the restaurant, partially obscured from the entrance in a little alcove where the walls were studded with cubbies filled with candles. I could see him perfectly from my vantage point, and he was staring at me.
Looking extremely displeased with me.
I pursed my lips and stomped back to the server hub to wait for Ro, who swanned into the space a moment later, murmuring under her breath about fussy diners.
“What the hell, Ro? Haven’t you been to see Adam Meyers yet?” I asked.
She pouted. “Oh, I went, but he had absolutely no interest in me. He said the only reason he was in tonight was to seeyou. Do you have something you want to tell me, Linnea?”
Goddamn.
“No,” I said on a long exhale that blew a tendril of my long hair out of my face. “At least, not right now. Apparently, I have a bossy celebrity to see to.”
Rozhin frowned at me, but I didn’t have time to fill her in on the absurd events in my life during the past few days. Not when I had a feeling Adam Meyers would somehow find a way to punish me if I kept him waiting any longer.
He watched me cross the floor to him the way a big game hunter waited for his prey to trip a booby trap, as if he had always known it was only a matter of time before I was his.
That look set my teeth on edge and made something deep in the base of my gut ignite.
I ignored the fission of desire and set my face to granite.
“Did you empty my section on purpose, or was it the dark cloud over your head that made everyone scatter?” I asked, propping my fist on one hip as I stared at him.
“Perhaps you aren’t as good a server as you think you are,” he suggested mildly. “I’ve been here ten minutes without any interaction from you.”
I wasn’t an angry person, not really. When your mother takes up all the oxygen in the room, there is no fuel left to ignite your temper. But I found myself furious, then, staring into Adam Meyer’s annoyingly handsome face, knowing that he had the upper hand because he was rich and famous.
“No wonder you need a fake girlfriend if this is how you treat people,” I snapped.
“Keep your bloody voice down,” Adam growled. “Take a seat before you cause a scene.”
“I think you accomplished that when you sent my section away,” I hissed, even as I reluctantly took the seat opposite him. “Everyone else in the restaurant is staring at us.”
Adam snorted. “They were staring at me before you sat down, at least now they have something interesting to speak about. I paid for everyone’s dinner and asked the general manager to pack up whatever had yet to be delivered. No one was unhappy with the arrangement.”
A bubble of laughter lodged in my throat despite myself, a giddy giggle because of the surreal nature of the moment.
I was arguing with one of the most famous film stars in the world because he was a grump with no manners who wanted to date me to save his reputation.
And somehow, I was actually considering it.
