Page 30 of Sing Your Heart Out

I roll my eyes. “I don’t know how dates work where you are from, but I’m paying for everything tonight.”

Her eyes get big. “What? No way!”

“Shhh, stop arguing. First of all, I’m rich as fuck. And even if I weren’t, I wouldn’t make you pay. So stop protesting.”

She shoots me a little glare and sits down at a table. “You are bullheaded. Do you always get your way?”

I bob my head, sitting across the table from her. “Yep. Almost always.”

She runs her hand down the simple denim dress she’s wearing, giving me a look. “Are you really rich?”

I smirk. “Yep. When I was in college, I accidentally figured out how to synthesize a new form of adhesive that is super sticky. I sold the recipe of my mistake for like ten million dollars, so…” I shrug. “That’s how I can afford to live in LA and basically only front a band. But I want to achieve something notable in my life… thus, I’m here, trying to win this competition.”

I splay my hands out on the table, my heart giving an odd thump when I look at again.

She’s staring at me. “Why did you ask me on this date, Smith?”

I shrug again. “Because, Sarah. There is obviously some sort of connection between us. I’m just trying my damnedest to find out what that is.”

She blushes. “Oh.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Is that all right with you?”

She breaks eye contact and looks down. But she still nods. “Yes.”

The bartender brings out both of our cokes and a huge pile of nacho tots, then vanishes again. Sarah looks at the towering pile of food in front of her, blinking.

“Where do you even start?” she wonders aloud.

Sipping my Coke, I snag a tater tot from the side of the mountain. I pop it into my mouth, miming as the salt and fat hit my taste buds.

“There you go,” I say, waving my hand. “I’ve already started it for you.”

She gives me a silly smile as she digs in, popping a couple tater tots in her mouth. As she chews, I try to think of appropriate first date talk.

“So you said you were from Georgia,” I say at last. “Tell me about growing up.”

She frowns a little and shakes her head. “It’s not that interesting.”

“I want to know, though.”

She studies me for half a minute before relenting. “All right. I grew up with just my grandma close. My parents died in an accident, my grandpa was never in the picture.” She draws a breath. “My grandma worked at Waffle House and we could just barely make ends meet the whole time I was in school. When I turned sixteen, I met my ex Justin. My grandma hated him and didn’t want me to move to LA. But you know how it goes. I thought I was in love.”

Her eyes shine with unexpected tears. “Justin wasn’t all he was cracked up to be, I’m guessing?”

She looks down at the table and shakes her head. “No. He was… he could get physical sometimes.” She gulps in a breath and looks up at me. “Actually, I ended up running away from him just before I came to Las Vegas.”

My fists clench. The very idea of some piece of shit hurting her, of him hitting her and shoving her, makes me so angry that I don’t know what to do.

“Sarah,” I utter her name.

She looks at me.

“You will never see that bastard again. Okay? You’ll never have to deal with him. He’s just lucky that I don’t erase him from this planet.”

She wipes at her eyes, nodding. “Thank you. Hopefully he won’t be able to track me…”

Is he the kind of guy that would? Of course he is. “You don’t need to worry about him anymore. Tomorrow I’ll make a few phone calls and get things straightened out.”

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