His brother starts laughing.
The server growls, “You didn’t fuck her, Wyatt?! Want to try again? Huh?!”
Everybody is staring.
Including Eddie.
Including me.
Wyatt licks his lips. “You guys have the best sauce. Can I get another helping?”
She turns on her heel, “Sure, I’ll be right back.” Her voice was eerily calm so the brothers rise up, take money out of their wallets and throw cash onto the table for her trouble. Although, I think it’s really their trouble, isn’t it?
I twist in my seat as they leave. Wyatt grabbed a napkin as he got up from the table, now wiping his face as he laughs. He gives me a wink, and vanishes.
I face forward, mind racing to put together everything that just happened and what Eddie must be thinking right now. He stands so quickly the chair topples over. I react, jumping a little in my skin. “Eddie, I…”
“Is that why you called me? You hooked up with that guy and then he left, so you’re coming back to me, someone stable, someone safe? Why’d you suggest this place, Diana? Did you know he’d be here? Is this his usual hangout on Thursdays?”
“No! That’s not—”
He storms out of the restaurant, leaving me sitting here, overwhelmed, disturbed even, until it suddenly occurs to me that he didn’t pay the bill. Fire races up my spine, pulling me from my chair and money from my wallet. I throw it on the table and chase after him, my limp pronounced. “You having a good time?” I ask the looky-loos.
A few comedians start clapping, and instantly everybody joins in.
Astonishment turns me around. I see our server coming out of the kitchen so I shout, because what do I have to lose, “I didn’t sleep with him. I just met him today!”
“Then I just saved you.” Motioning from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet with one quick dismissal she adds, “You’re not as strong as I am. You would fall.”
With a sardonic laugh I demand, “And you didn’t? Mop? Somebody have a mop?”
You’re not the only one who can arch an eyebrow, lady. Watch me go.
CHAPTER 19
WYATT
“Y our face was priceless,” Nate laughs as we cross to my Jeep.
Pulling wet food from my hair, I chuckle, “Happy you were right? Worst part? I’m hungry.”
“Think all the delivery girls in town have a grudge against you, too?”
“Let’s make sure whoever we call sends a guy, just in case.”
“Wy, look who’s coming out of the Vortex.”
I look over my shoulder, expecting a tomato thrown at my head — a whole one, that isn’t ripe. But it’s Diana’s date.
And she isn’t with him.
Nate and I come to stand side-by-side as we watch khaki pants fuming. He flips around, presumably to go back to her, but then changes his mind and spins one more time.
A few seconds later Diana appears. “Eddie!” He doesn’t turn. She shouts again, really throwing her back into it. He snarls, spins, and they meet in the middle, people leaving the sidewalk to avoid their argument.
Nate says, “This can’t be a first date.”
“It felt like one.” I glance over and he nods agreement. There was nothing about the couple that evoked familiarity.
I appreciate that she doesn’t lower her voice because I want to hear every word she’s saying right now.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that! Especially in front of a crowd. And you call yourself a gentleman? You didn’t even leave money for the tab!”
He gets in her face, “You get to pay for your own dinner if you’re going to use me!”
I’m out in the road so fast I nearly get hit by a car, which would be the second accident in my life today. “Hey! Back off. Don’t get so close to her!”
Nate is right behind me. He shouts to the car, “We’re walking here! Don’t you see the pedestrians?”
“I see jaywalkers! Fifty points!”
I flip the guy off and keep on my path.
Eddie, because that’s what she called him, isn’t happy, but I gave him pause and he did back off. “Your boyfriend is coming to save you. With his knuckles on the ground.”
I start to bring my knuckles to his face, but Diana screams like something out of a horror film. I think my ears are bleeding. So are everyone’s within a four block radius.
“Wyatt, he doesn’t understand. He can’t understand. So just don’t…” She squeezes her eyes shut while her hands flail about like she can’t get a hold on the emotions slamming through her body.
Eddie is pissed, but not the type to get into a fight easily. Despite his mouth. I bet a lot of guys want to punch that. I heard everything Diana said inside The Vortex. Everyone did. And if that’s what this vanilla motherfucker thinks about me and my brother based on our looks, then he is one judgmental jackoff.
“Like I just told that waitress, I just met Wyatt today. He is not our problem. You never understood me or saw me at all! And if I have to be honest, that’s not your fault. We just weren’t made for each other and who can blame you or me, for that? Nobody. What is my fault is that I listened to someone’s advice…” Diana glances to me, troubled eyes flickering like she doesn’t remember what she was going to say or doesn’t want to say it. Maybe it was too personal. “I should’ve listened to myself. Because I knew last year. Which is why we broke up in the first place.”
Eddie is frowning, his anger diminished. “You just met this guy today?”
“Yes!”
He glances to me, wary, but apology fills his eyes as he turns to her. “I’m sorry for what I said in there.” He rubs his eyebrows, gathering his mental faculties now that his blood has stopped racing. “I was really looking
