Page 13 of The Little Black Book

My face heats as several nearby customers turn to look at us. Stacey makes a show of pushing her chair under the table roughly, then pins me with a hard glare.

“Lose my number,” she says, then lifts her chin and stalks away.

“Holy shit.”

I look from Stacey’s retreating back to Zoey, who’s sliding into my runaway date’s chair. She pushes the wasted food aside and grabs her plate of buffalo wings and fries. Setting it down, she reaches back over to grab her soda and takes a long pull from the straw.

Giving me a firm nod, she says, “Bitches be crazy.”

A laugh barks out of me before I can stop it. I feel eyes burning into me, the other patrons probably wondering what the fuck is going on. My date left on a tirade and the woman sitting next to us took her place without wasting a second.

I don’t give a shit. Let them ogle us all they want.

“So, we can agree that wasn’t my fault?” I ask, one corner of my mouth lifting.

“Ha!” she says, smiling widely. “She was obviously pissed you didn’t show up early and over-excited to see her. She checked the time like twelve times in the fifteen minutes she waited.”

“I wasn’t late,” I say.

“I know,” she says, shaking her head. “And all that shit about Maine? She acted like she wasn’t sad at all about her grandmother dying.”

“Right?” I ask, digging into my steak with a little more gusto now that the company is dramatically better.

“And she didn’t act like that on your first date?” she asks, popping a gooey-cheese-covered fry into her mouth.

“Honestly? I can’t remember, exactly, but my notes in the app say she was fun. Lots of laughs and good chemistry.”

“Well, her time away obviously changed her.”

“Obviously,” I say, then smile as Zoey takes a bite off a wing, smearing buffalo sauce across her mouth.

“On to the next,” she says after chewing and swallowing.

Holding a fresh wing toward me, I tap my bite of steak against it in a toast of agreement. We finish our food, and Zoey’s charming humor salvages the meal, keeping the night from being a total waste of time and money.

And when we finish eating, I pull out my phone and delete Stacey’s information not only from the device, but from theHis Little Black Bookapp, as well. I’m not going to let tonight’s failure get to me. It’s an anomaly. A small hiccup. All my future dates can’t possibly go this wrong. I’ll find the right woman.

She’s out there. I know she is.

On to the next.

Chapter5

Deadly Serious

Zoey

That was more fun than I expected it to be. Sure, it was a bit painful to watch Sam in that uncomfortable situation, but I was happy to see the discomfort wasn’t any fault of his own. That woman was intolerable.

“Cookie dough with sprinkles?”

I meet Sam’s gaze and nod with a smile. We decided to walk off our dinner and ended up here, at one of my favorite ice cream shops. Sam orders for me and gets himself a chocolate cone. Ice cream in hand, we head for an empty table near the window to sit and enjoy our dessert.

Dipping my spoon into the cup, I dig out a big bite covered in multicolored candy and shovel it into my mouth. I groan with pleasure as the sweet flavor of vanilla bursts on my tongue then chew the cookie dough bits with another little moan.

“That good, huh?” Sam asks with a chuckle.

I grin, answering, “My mouth thinks so. My hips, not so much.”

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