Page 10 of Dark Love

“Fine, I’ll go, but you need to answer one question first.”

The hurt look she gives me is better than the alternative. “What?”

“What kind of cookies do you like?”

Cookies… she’s back to asking about cookies. “Chocolate chip.”

“With or without nuts?”

“That’s not one question.”

“Fine. But you’ll be stuck with whatever I pick… Um…” Her eyes go to where my arm is still wrapped around her.

Every part of me protests letting her go.

“Thank you again.” She walks out of my life forever…

Ejected

Dahlia

Do I go back to the table or to the bar to get a new set of drinks first? The table. Definitely the table. The girls are at a table by the opposite corner with a clear view of where I was sitting. They aren’t even pretending not to watch me the entire time I weave through people.

“How do you know Vex?” Diane doesn’t wait for me to even sit down before she starts questioning me.

“Vex?”

Her eyes bug out, and her jaw drops open. “You just sat down at the biggest crime lord’s table in Urbium, and you don’t even know his name.”

Crime lord? “How can you say that? He seems like a perfectly nice man.”

The girls burst into laughter without explaining the joke.

Fine, he might not look like a nice man. But he’s really kind and slightly confused about what trouble means.

“Prue, that man broke a guy’s fingers for grabbing a girl's butt on the dance floor without permission,” Mindy fake whispers.

Okay, so he really doesn’t like a woman being sexually assaulted. “Still not getting the evil crime lord vibe.”

“Broken fingers are nothing. He beat a guy bloody and broke both legs after the creep tried to roofie a girl in here.” Diane’s whisper is actually close to one.

“I mean he should have called the cops…but do you blame him?” All of this fits with the intense but kind man that I just met.

“You’re nuts.” Mindy nudges Diane. “Are you two going out on a date?”

Both of their eyes get even wider if that’s possible.

They are crazy. “What? No. He just helped me out with a creep at the bar. Vex—” That name is just too weird. “—is a really nice guy. It wasn’t anything like that.”

“He kept his arm around you the entire time you two were talking,” Mindy points out a fact better forgotten.

How do I even respond to that? It was just so comfortable to have his arm there… Absolutely not going to say that. Vex made me feel safe… Nope, not something I want to admit to either.

“Ladies.” A man in an all-too-tight bouncer shirt walks up to our table. “Drinks. Compliments of the boss.” He sets a shot down in front of each of the girls, and a glass of champagne in front of me.

Is it real or a glass like I got before?

The bouncer doesn’t leave the table. Are we supposed to tip him or something?

---