Page 26 of Gold Digger
“It’s a Michelin star restaurant, you numpty. Trust me, they care.”
I smiled. “I like it when you call me a numpty.” I gave her hand a tug and drew her in for a hug, folding her small body intomine, uncaring of the looks we were getting from passersby on the pavement. “You and your dirty mouth.”
She chuckled into my chest and shook her head against my suit. “You’re so weird.”
I sighed. “Come on, Lottie. I’m hungry. The last bird I took in there was wearing some sort of boiler suit, for God’s sake. You look great in comparison.”
“Little dating tip for you, big guy,” Lottie said with some fire in her voice. “Not ideal to mention other women you’ve taken somewhere you’re trying to take someone new.”
I smiled. “Are you jealous?” I liked that idea. Smiling might not have been the best choice, though, considering how her eyes flashed green fire when I did it.
“Anyway, thatlast bird,as you so beautifully put it, was probably in adesignerboiler suit that cost more than I make in six months. I doubt she was wearing clothes she scrounged up at Asda that have seen better days.”
“I promise, nobody will care.”
“Well, I’m definitely not going in there now that I know it’s your regular hookup spot. No way.”
Hmm. I recognised that stubborn tone. I had sisters after all. She wasn’t going to change her mind. Bugger, this wasn’t going the way I’d wanted it to. I thought I had dating down to a fine art: wow them with an exclusive restaurant, flash them my few smiles, get my way in all things. This negotiating thing was new to me. The woman wouldn’t even set foot in the restaurant I’d chosen for a start, and I’d already pissed her off.
“I’ve got it,” I said, “Come with me.”
I took her hand in mine and tugged her along the pavement.
“This better not be another fancy place,” Lottie grumbled as we made our way down the street. When she was level with me I took her by her shoulders and steered her around me so that Iwas on the traffic side of the pavement. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“All this manoeuvering me around. What’s that about?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Just now, you moved me across to your other side.”
I smiled down at her confused face. “Lottie, I’m sorry if I haven’t given you this impression up until now, but I am, in fact, a gentleman.”
Her eyebrows drew together in confusion. “What’s that got to do with moving me around the pavement like a chess piece?”
I sighed. “The lady should walk on the inside, away from the traffic.”
“What?” She laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”
I shrugged. “It’s second nature to me, to be honest.”
“So it’s gentlemanly to be the first to get hit by a car?”
“Yes, of course it is.”
Lottie snorted. “Posh people are weird.”
“Here we are,” I said, drawing us to a stop by Kensington farmer’s market. “Right then, now we just have to find James.”
“James?”
“My fishmonger friend.”
“So let me get this straight,”Lottie said after swallowing some of her smoked salmon bagel. “When you called James your ‘fishmonger friend’, what you actually meant was your aristocratic entrepreneur friend who smokes the most amazing tasting salmon for shits and giggles in smokehouses on his many country estates, and which sell like hotcakes at Harrods, Harvey Nicks and any other posh outlet you can think of?”
“That just about covers it,” I said as I bit off more of my own bagel. “Like I said: fishmonger.”
