Page 9 of Hands off his Dudette

Chapter 5

To his credit, Nick Stone didn't look or act like the type of person who'd call women psychos. Piper might have paraphrased. He didn't seem the type to talk about women at all, because he had only one subject of choice: Nick Stone.

"And then I caught the ball, although they were sure they had it in the bag. You should have seen their faces."

She didn't in any way encourage his egocentric ramblings, but he didn't need an attentive audience; Nick simply seemed fond of the sound of his voice.

She would have doubted that he was related to Piper, had he not looked a little like her, with his dark hair and beautiful eyes. He was quite a picture, really. Unfortunate that nature had seen necessary to balance it out and make him one of the most boring and self-centered people she'd ever met.

Anna yawned. To her relief, their waiter arrived with dessert.

She smiled at him, saying, "Thank you," as the twenty-something guy elegantly placed a beautifully plated deconstructed apple pie in front of her.

Nick snapped, "About time."

Not only megalomaniac: rude to staff, too. What a winner. Up until that point, Anna had been toying with the idea of taking him to a nearby hotel after dinner, because her vagina hadn't come out to play for a while, but Nick the Dick could have fun with his hand.

She looked down to her dessert to distract herself from his incessant chatter. Presented inside a glass tumbler, the pie filling was topped with a ball of panna cotta and surrounded by a delicate crust cage. Anna sighed. It was almost too pretty to eat it.The food had been delicious, at least, so Anna didn't regret putting on proper clothes and some lipstick tonight.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and took a picture of the dainty pie, and immediately sent it to Finn.

"Don't you think it's a little rude?"

Anna looked up from her phone to find Nick staring at her, frowning. "Using your phone on a date, I mean. Millennials can't seem to do anything without their phones, these days. Society as a whole has grown entirely dependent on them."

She blinked, still startled at being called rude by a man who'd spent two hours singing his own praises without so much as taking a minute to breathe.

Then she laughed, holding her hand up to call the waiter back to their table. To Nick, she said, "Look, don't take it the wrong way, but I don't think this is going to work."

"What do you mean? You're offended by my pointing out that you were ignoring me? Typical female move."

Thankfully, the waiter was back by then. "Hey, could you do me a favor and pack this up for me?" she asked. "Actually, make it two orders of pie, if you don't mind. I'd also like the bill, please."

"Certainly, ma'am," the waiter responded, smiling kindly. "Are you paying together or separately?"

"Separately," Nick replied, glaring at her.

She kept her eyes on the waiter, looking down at his name tag. "Actually, together, please. My treat." She handed him her card. "Add twenty percent service, to make up for his behavior, Vincent."

The young man beamed. "You got it. I'll be back right away."

To her surprise, Nick was still seated in front of her. She'd pegged him for the kind of guy who'd leave in a huff.

"You're a bitch."

"Name calling, now. I can't understand why you're single."

He looked like he was chewing on a sour lemon for a hot minute. Anna wondered if she was going to witness a proper scene.

"All right," Nick said slowly. "What have I done?"

She lifted a brow.

"You're right, I'm still single, and I don't want to be. Obviously, I've pissed you off—before mentioning the phone. Or the bitch thing. I've been on a few dates, this year. None of the women have acted like you, but they're generally not interested in another date, so I obviously suck at this.So, what have I done?"

He genuinely seemed confused.

"You talk about you a lot," she replied. "Like, a lot."

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