Page 12 of Room One Hundred and Twenty Nine

My eyebrows perk up, not knowing what he means by that.

“Um, yeah. I like to read.”

He nods and smiles, “Cool. What do you read?”

“Romance,” I say confidently. “I read romance books.”

Generally, if someone gets me started on romance novels I won’t stop. I’ll tell all my favourites, how long my TBR list is and give recs for days. Something tells me that won’t be the case with Noah when this jackass starts fucking LAUGHING.

“Oh, my God. You actually read that shit?”

My jaw drops at his audacity. Like bro, are you looking to get into my pants because laughing at my reading choices is not how to do it.

Heads in the restaurant turn our way as Noah continues to laugh. He’s dabbing his eyes with his napkin.

“Yes, douche, I actually read romance. What’s wrong with that?” I ask.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “But come on.” He leans in as if he’s telling me a secret. “They’re barely books. They’re just mommy porn you find in your mom’s closet.”

My jaw twitches and I steel my shoulders, ready to give him a lecture about how amazing romance is and that it’s the reason Ican get myself off better than he ever could. But before I can go all in my phone rings.

Thank fuck!

I pick it up and say hello before even checking the caller ID.

“How’s it going?” Dani asks.

With a smile on my face, I say, “Oh, you need me? Like right now?”

“Woah, that bad, huh?”

Oh, yes. So bad we’re going to have a conversation about this later.

“Yes,” I say. “I’ll come back right now.” I pick up my bag as the server comes with our food.

“So sorry to bounce like this, but I have to go.” I don’t even bother telling him the lie we came up with. I just start walking away.

“Um, okay.” I hear him say.

Before I go though, I turn about and say one more thing.

“Just for the record. Romance is one of the most popular genres. It makes billions of dollars every year and it’s the reason you’re going to have a hard time finding a date because no woman will stay with some guy who laughs at what they like to read. We’re confident in ourselves and would rather spend time with a fictional man than someone like you. And deep down, I think you know it. That’s why you want to degrade the genre, but that won’t happen. You are not the worst guy in the world. You have the potential to be a great partner, but dude, you’ve got to get with the program. Romance is awesome. And so are women. So maybe it’s time you took a long hard look at yourself and figure out why you’re intimidated by a fucking book genre. Books filled with the imagination of someone they’ve never met and characters who don’t exist in real life.”

I shrug. “Anyway, you have a nice rest of your evening.”

I turn and leave the restaurant. In my head there’s applause and “Eye of the Tiger” blasting through the speakers, but in reality, it’s totally silent as I leave and try to hail a taxi.

“Okay, so what the fuck girl?” I hiss into the phone. Dani’s still on the other line, and I want some answers.

“Oh, my God. First of all, you go, girl! Second, I’m so sorry. I take it from that epic speech that he had not so nice things to say about romance books?”

“Yeah,” I sigh.

“I’m so sorry. He seemed so nice. I didn’t think he was going to be like that. Can you forgive me?

I smile into the phone. “Of course. Just maybe lay off the blind dates for a while.”

“Okay. What are you going to do now?”

---