Page 30 of Semi-Rejected Life

“Oh…” I stared blankly at him. “I should probably… apologize to him?”

“To my delivery guy? What for?”

“Maybe he could pass it on?”

“You can try I guess. I doubt blondie will want to be anywhere near you so you could do it in person.”

“What was his name? I’ll see if I can find him.”

Vincent stared at me for a long moment, narrowing his eyes. “I… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?! You went on a date with him! His hands were all over you!”

“I went on a tenth of a date with him thanks to you! And I don’t think it’s fair of you to sit there and judge me when you waltzed into town and told me you just wanted to fuck me and fuck off forever.”

Several people in the cafe turned our direction, and I felt the sting of embarrassment filling my stomach like acid.

“You’re right,” I nodded, trying to force myself to breathe. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t judging… I was just surprised.”

“You were absolutely judging.”

“Okay, okay.” I shook my head. “I just… it was so hard to see him touching you like that! My wolf just went crazy and took over! I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. You have to believe me, Vincent, that was the last thing I thought was going to happen when I saw you two.”

“First off,” he said. “I don’t care what your excuse is. You may think I’m your mate, but you haven’t done one damn thing to prove that to me.”

“I know–”

“And secondly,” he continued, cutting me off. “Just call me Vince.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

Was… Was that a step in the right direction? Why would he correct his name if he never planned to see me again? And he didn’t mention anything about hating the jealousy thing, just that I had no claim over him yet. That was totally fair, of course, but I still found it surprising.

“Uh… this might be a dumb question,” I started.

“Coming from you, I’m sure it will be.”

I flinched again.

Vincent sighed. “Sorry. I’m on the defensive.”

“I know. That’s my fault,” I nodded. “But I want to ask… What can I do to make this up to you? Or to prove that I care.”

Vince just stared at me. “So… You want me to tell you how to date or how to treat people decently?”

I opened my mouth to explain what I meant, but at that moment, Vince’s phone went off.

“Sorry,” he said. “I gotta take this.”

He clicked the button and got up from the table, heading for the front door. My heart sank, assuming I’d lost my first real chance to talk to him. However, it wasn’t until I looked down that I noticed his bag still sitting next to his chair. My mood lightened immediately.

He was gone for only a couple of minutes. It was just enough time for me to sit there and beat myself up for being an idiot. I was asking questions and trying to apologize, but doing it so poorly that Vince thought I was just vapid. And maybe I was. All my life I’d been around pretty much the same people. And, being the Alpha’s son, nobody really messed with me. It was completely possible that I wasn’t the most intelligent man and I just plain didn’t know.

But as the bell over the door rang and Vince came back inside, I pushed those thoughts from my mind. I could figure that out on my own. Right now, I needed to focus on being present for these moments between us.

“Well,” he sighed, slumping down in his chair. “It looks like I need to get to the shop early today.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Something wrong?”

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