Page 47 of Love It or List It
“Thanks.”Joe sipped his wine.
Austin twirled his wineglass and eyed Joe up.“Though maybe next time, don’t keep dating someone that dumb.”
“Ha ha,” Joe said dryly.
“I’m serious.”Austin laughed.“Though I gotta say, I’m also curious, ’cause what were your dates even like?I mean,” he continued with a handwave to take in Joe’s everything, “you’re clearly a romantic of the red roses and candle-lit dinner variety.”
“Oh, am I?”Austin wasn’t wrong—Joe did like an intimate dinner—but he didn’t want to admit it, especially after the meal they’d just had.
“Uh, yeah?”Austin sounded confused by even the hint of a contradiction.
Joe snorted.Curious about this game Austin had started, he said, “And you aren’t?”
Austin shrugged.
Joe considered him.“You probably make your date pick every restaurant because you can’t decide.”
Austin was mid sip and nearly choked.
Joe grinned.“Was that a yes or a no?”
Austin wiped his chin and glared.“It was a neither.Also, you definitely always pick and refuse to let anyone else have final say.”
Joe shrugged.“Only because most people have terrible taste.”Plus, there were a lot of Italians in the area, and everybody talked.Joe knew every decent restaurant in a fifty-kilometer radius and whether the owners were assholes.He eyed Austin again.“Don’t tell me you like a coffee date.”
Austin pulled a face.Joe hadn’t thought so.That had been a long shot, but he struggled to imagine Austin on convoluted dates.He struck Joe as someone who liked simple.He probably enjoyed strolls through antique shops and farmers’ markets—places he could find projects, or inspiration for the same.
“You probably love a coffee date if it’s in a fancy hipster café with pour-over and handcrafted baked goods,” Austin guessed.Damn it, why was he better at this?
“Let me guess—the ReStore is your ideal date.”
Austin pulled another face.
Joe gave up.“Okay, enlighten me, then.”
“I don’t really date.”He shrugged.
Joe gasped.“Cheater.”Here he’d thought they’d been playing a game and it turned out Austin had just thrown out the rulebook.
“I thought that was already established.”
“Not hardly.”He sipped his wine and pondered.If Austin didn’t date, then Joe only had one avenue to even the score.“Hmm.I bet you call all your one-night stands ‘baby’ because you can’t remember their names.”
As soon as he said it, he knew it had been a mistake.He’d spent the whole day tryingnotto think about this.Now he was not only thinking about it, he was voicing those thoughts out loud and inviting Austin to speculate right back.
Austin flushed, his mouth dropping open in offense.A direct hit.Austin Taylor was kind of a slut, and now Joe could never unknow that.“Oh, so we’re moving to that side of things?”He stuck out his chin.“Two can play at that game too.”He pointed a finger in Joe’s face.“Pillow princess.”
The accusation momentarily jolted Joe out of his more X-rated musings, and he cackled.“Swing and a miss.”Hugemiss, even.He let that give him confidence as he shot back, “You probably have your hookups saved in your phone as ‘hot blond (name of gay bar) bathroom handy.’”
That got a laugh, at least.“First of all, that would never work.There’s only one gay bar in town.”
Oh, yeah.Good point.
“Also,” Austin added, “I just don’t get their numbers.”
Joe inhaled sharply.Fuck, was that… kind of hot?Or had it just been too long since he touched another person with sexual intent?He cleared his throat.“Wow.Love ’em and leave ’em, huh?”
“More like fuck ’em and leave ’em,” he countered.
