Page 16 of RomeAntically Challenged
“I’m as sweet as sweet comes. You just happen to bring out my—”
“Bad girl side?” He sounded hopeful.
“I was going to say my impatient side.”
“Whatever it is, you might want to channel the girl who doesn’t have a problem telling me to fuck off next time that idiot calls for wedding advice. Otherwise, you may as well kiss your ten grand goodbye.”
“Just because I’m nice doesn’t make me a pushover.”
“Good.” Emmitt scratched his chest like a bear settling in for the winter. “Then call him.”
“What?”
“Go on,” he goaded. “Call him and tell him that you aren’t his Anh Bon and demand that he repay the ten grand immediately.”
“Um... My phone is charging in the bedroom.”
He lifted his cell from the armrest and offered it to her. “You can use mine.”
“I don’t need to call him in front of you to prove I’m not a pushover. I’ll handle it.”
“Good to know,” he said, but it didn’t look as if he believed her.
Even worse, Annie began to doubt whether she believed herself. Not only had she given Clark permission to steal her wedding venue and her grandparents’ wedding date, the call ended before she could squeeze a concrete date as to when he’d return her money.
“Just don’t come to me looking for a plus one when he asks you to be the best man. One look at me in a tux and you’ll be elbowing ladies right and left to catch the bouquet.”
“In your dreams.”
“Seriously though, you need to say screw everyone else and just do you,” Emmitt said without a hint of teasing in his tone. “I mean it. You don’t owe him anything. Hell, the prick owes you—and not just the money. He owes you one hell of an apology for putting you in that situation. Then he needs to apologize to you in front of your friends and family about the dress and stealing your grandparents’ wedding date.”
Wow, not only had he heard nearly everything but he’d thought about it long enough to form a strong opinion. The whole situation turned Annie’s stomach.
It wasn’t what Emmitt had said or even how he’d said it that burned. It was the humiliating fact that he was the first person in her world to say those words, to tell her to stand up for herself.What did it mean that a perfect stranger was able to understand what her closest friends and family had pushed aside in favor of civility? What did it say about her that she’d allowed them to?
“Do you think all of that will fit on a sticky note?” she asked.
Emmitt’s gaze lazily roamed over Annie’s body and down, and Annie felt zips of awareness follow in its wake. “You strike me as the type of woman who, once she sets her mind to something, doesn’t let anything stand in her way.”
The confident way he said it sent a rush of tingles racing through her body faster than her mom checking out a Black Friday sale.
“That’s a bold statement to make about someone you’ve spoken to twice.”
“What can I say—they’ve been insightful conversations. Plus, you’re pretty easy to read.”
Annie snorted—twice—because she was about as easy to read as a darkened street sign to a glaucoma patient.
Born Asian and raised by white parents, Annie came into the world a walking oxymoron. In fact, the more people came to know her, the more their initial assumptions were proved inaccurate. Annie was proof that you can’t judge a book by its cover. So she was embarrassed she’d done the same to Emmitt.
If being mysterious was considered intriguing, being a never-ending surprise was off-putting. People liked to rely on their judgment, and Annie was often misjudged.
“You laugh, but I bet I know more about you than most guys would after six dates.”
“This should be impressive, since I doubt you’ve been on six consecutive dates in the past six years.” When he opened his mouth to argue, she added, “With the same woman?”
“I’m so observant, I don’t need the same amount of time other people do to know if it’s a forever kind of thing,” he said, which surprised her because when he said “forever” he didn’t look as if he wanted to gag or would break out in hives.
“Are you saying you’re open to commitment?”
