Page 21 of For Butter or Worse
“I’ve had better.” Leo settled more firmly on the bench. He took in the little plaza where the shop was—twinkle lights above the awning, bright, sunflower-yellow benches lining the sidewalk.
“Oh, please, you practically moaned when you took a bite of the matcha.” She snapped a piece of waffle cone in her mouth, then stretched her legs out and leaned back into the bench.
“I had a brain freeze, and that was moaning in pain.”Lies.The matcha had made him moan.
“Oh, so you hate it? I’ll just go ahead and eat what’s left then.” She reached for his cup, but he pulled away from her.
Well, he hadn’t considered she’d take the damn thing from him. He wasn’t about to give up ice cream easily.
“No, no. They say too much dairy can be a bad thing. I’d hate for you to get sick.” He took a too-big spoonful and swallowed. An instant brain freeze followed, and he cupped his forehead in his hands.
When the splitting pain ceased, he looked up. Nina smiled widely back at him.
“Yikes.” She took a bite of waffle cone. “Another brain freeze, huh?”
What had he done wrong in a past life to be totally reliant on Nina to help his career? And why did that have to involve one-on-one dates with her? They’d been alone together a couple of times, and their interactions seemed to be getting worse instead of better. At what point would they both realize this charade wasn’t worth the hassle of having to play nice with each other?
Not that they were being kind now, even though they should be. For appearances, if nothing else.
“Maybe we should...call a truce? At least until we’re done having to work together.” They had to come up with a new plan or try something different.
She licked a bit of ice cream off her bottom lip and studied him. “When you say, ‘a truce,’ you mean...”
He knew Nina well enough to know when she was trying to push his buttons, so he pushed right back. “I mean that while we’re together, I will forget the fact that you’re a massive snob.”
Her gaze slowly shifted to him and she pursed her lips.
Damn it. Well, he couldn’t help himself. “Sorry, I will stop saying things like what I just said,” he added.
“Okay, and I guess I’ll pretend that you aren’t a sexist asshole.” She closed her mouth in a tight smile, blinking.
He ran his tongue across his teeth as he took in her statement. The truth was that they’d both done shitty things to each other, enough to fill multiple tell-all books that would hit the bestseller list. But if they actually wanted their arrangement to work, they’d have to at least try to be better. He needed to do better by her.
“You’re right, what I did was wrong.” He turned to face her to show that he meant what he was saying. He couldn’t deny that he’d used “Nasty Nina” to intentionally hurt her, and what he’d done was plain old sexist—would anyone ever use that term against a man? He knew the answer was no, and he shouldn’t have used it to provoke Nina. So now he had to put on the big-boy pants, eat shit and be a better person. “I deserve all of the hate I’m getting right now, because using your nickname was a massively bad move. And you may not believe me, but I never knew that it would become a whole thing when I first said it. I didn’t mean to repeat it, but I was on edge at the finale. Not that that’s any excuse. It was wrong of me to say, period.”
His chest filled with a huge breath as he waited for her to respond. She straightened and took a painstakingly long time dabbing a napkin to the corners of her mouth, a pause that he deserved.
“I don’t forgive you,” she finally said.
“I don’t expect you to,” he said.
“A truce. We’ll call a truce.”
“Okay.” A little smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “A truce.”
They locked eyes, and she gave the hint of a smile back. Not exactly a handshake, but he’d take whatever bread crumbs of friendliness he could get. That was the people pleaser in him, after all.
“We should head out.” She clapped her hands on her thighs, signaling their time was officially up. “We’ve been successfully spotted.”
He looked around and saw a few small clusters of people staring at them. One woman caught his eye, waved and then immediately rushed over.
“Could I get a photo?” she said breathlessly. “My mom is gonna flip!”
Nina elbowed him and raised her brow as if to say “See? People!”She looked so proud of herself that he nearly chuckled. Instead, he raised an eyebrow back in acknowledgement—showtime.
They stood and posed with the fan as an onlooker took the photo.
“Can I get one, too?” the person who took the photo asked.
