Page 12 of Snake

“Fine,” he grumbled, defeated. “What do you want to see?”

––––––––

~oOo~

––––––––

She said she was hungry, and he was supposed to ‘show her around,’ so Cox headed off in the direction of Marie’s. The town tongues would wag like crazy when people got a load of him sitting at the diner with the enemy, but he didn’t give a fuck.

Autumn pulled up short. “Wait. We’re walking?”

He turned back and gave her a look. “We’re going to Marie’s. It’s less than two miles away. You can’t walk that? You’re not wearin’ your fuck-me shoes, so what’s the problem?”

Those skinny arms crossed again. “I can promise you I don’t own a single pair of fuck-me shoes.”

That was probably a great opening for some cutting remark about her sexuality, but Cox didn’t fuck around with insults for the sake of insults. If he said something shitty to somebody, it was because they deserved something shitty. Even then, he’d rather just walk away.

People thought he had beef with everybody, but that wasn’t true. He didn’t give enough of a shit to have beef with almost anyone. With a few exceptions, he hated everybody equally. Not because of anything they’d done, but because people fucking sucked.

Autumn Rooney, he had some beef with. But he didn’t need to do anything about it because the whole club had the same beef with her.

“I don’t want to walk,” Autumn said after several seconds of quiet impasse.

“My bike doesn’t have a second seat.” For the specific reason that he never wanted anyone on his bike with him.

“I wouldn’t ride your stupid motorcycle anyway. But luckily, I didn’t walk from the airport. I rented a car.” She pulled out a set of keys with a plastic fob and pointed them at the parking area. A faint double-beep sounded from there. “This way—unless you’re so testosterone-addled you won’t ride when a woman is driving. In which case, you can follow me on your steel penis.”

Cox’s cheek tensed oddly, and he realized his mouth was trying to smile. He licked his lips to divert it, but the thought that had set his facial nerves twitching held: she was pretty good at snarkball, spiking back every volley he sent her way.

It was one thing to dislike someone; stripping that dislike bare and using it like a switch was next level, and he didn’t think he’d ever known a woman to throw down like this. Of course, most women avoided him, and those who didn’t avoided talking to him much. As he preferred.

“I got no problem riding with you,” he said and strode toward the parking lot. Autumn trotted forward to pass him, then led him to a big silver Audi sedan.

Either the woman was loaded or she had a great expense account. Probably both.

––––––––

~oOo~

––––––––

Cox had expected people to take note when he walked into Marie’s with the woman who was trying to ruin Signal Bend, but he was surprised when the diner had one of those straight-from-Hollywood moments and the whole place went quiet as everybody stopped and stared. It was almost six o’clock, so Marie’s was near capacity. That was a lot of people suddenly forgetting their manners.

So subtly it was unlikely anyone but him noticed, Autumn faltered a little when the silence crashed down. Cox put a hand on her back to keep her moving in the direction of the only open booth. As they headed toward it, he sent a look around, making eye contact with as many people as possible until they all remembered they had their own business to mind.

Autumn slipped into the booth. Cox slid onto the other bench and grabbed two menus from behind the condiment caddy. “You ever eat here?” he asked as he handed her one.

The look she hit him with screamed, Are you stupid? “This is my fifth visit to Signal Bend. Of course I’ve eaten here. There aren’t many options to choose from.”

He’d asked a question; she’d answered it. There wasn’t anything else to say unless he wanted to throw snark back at her, and he did not. So he focused on his menu and left her to her own.

After a minute or so of silence while they stared at the laminated pages, Cox sensed someone come up on them. It was Kalina, a waitress here, and also a club girl whom he tended to favor, primarily because she didn’t try to make conversation with him. She was happy to quietly sit on his lap in a corner of the Hall while he drank, and then sit on his lap in his dorm room while he fucked her, and then go on about her life without expecting even a ‘see ya later’ from him.

“Hey, Cox,” she said as she put her pen on her order pad. “You know what you want?”

Cox nodded at Autumn, whom Kalina had thus far ignored. “You ready?”

“Sure,” Autumn answered. “I’ll have the fried chicken sandwich with fries—can I get some cheese on that?”

---