Page 20 of Run, Little Bunny

The hostess walks up to me, and I already know what she’s going to say. “He requested you.”

He always does.Calm the fuck down.

I approach his table, keeping my voice steady. “Hey, how are you doing?” My standard greeting—nothing weird.

“Hey.”

Now that I’m thinking about him as someone I could be going on a date with, I check him out. He always looks good. Never anything embarrassing, and no graphic t-shirts. This henley is nice, cute. His arms look huge and remarkably similar to the bunny’s.

Okay, focus.I jump into my usual script for the night, telling him about the specials.

“How about you surprise me?” he says.

Hmm. That’s new.He usually orders a variation of the same thing—homemade pasta with one of the house sauces.

“What’s your budget?” I ask, trying to keep it light.

“Not worried about that tonight.”

“How hungry are you?”

“Starving.”

Is this flirty?

“Okay … but no sending it back to the kitchen if you don’t like it.”

“I know I’ll like it.”

This is definitely different energy from him. It has to be him. Stop blushing. It’s weird.

I let out an awkward giggle, feeling the heat rise to my face.

“Are you having a Stella, or …?” I ask, trying to regain some composure.

“Stella.”

I quickly walk over to the tablet on the wall and tap in the order. I choose my favorite dish on the menu: lamb shank with potatoes. It’s decadent, but amazing.He’ll love it.

When I set the beer down at his table, I remind myself to keep things neutral. “Did you have a nice weekend?”

“Parts of it were really nice … other parts were terrible.”

“Did you get arrested?” I tease.

“No … but you could say I was in one form of jail.”

I raise my eyebrows, giving him a sassy look.Just tell me already!I want to scream.

Chad takes a sip of his beer, and I remind myself I can’t spend the whole night at his table. I drift to the back with the other servers. “What do you guys know about Chad Braun? Like, what’s the tea?”

“The gossip?” Vicky, one of the older servers, clarifies.

I nod.

“Nice guy. He and his friends used to get up to all kinds of nonsense in their twenties, but he’s calmed down a bit.”

“What kind of nonsense?”

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