Page 10 of My Grumpy Sweetheart
“I’m taking my shoes off,” I told him with a shrug. “We’ve got a four-hour drive ahead of us, and since I won’t be driving, there’s no reason for me to keep them on.” Hello? Wearing just socks was so much more comfortable. “And I brought snacks for our drive. I didn’t know what you liked, so I brought a variety of things.”
Maybe I’d gone a little overboard, but I didn’t want to be rude by only bringing stuff for me. I thought I’d packed a good variety of things, but apparently, I’d missed something. Hell, I’d brought chocolate, crackers, chips, protein bars, cut up fruit, Skittles… and more. I even packed vegan and gluten free options.
Not because I’d been nervous about our meeting and wanted it to go well. Nope. Nu-uh. I wasn’t nervous. Just… considerate.
“Okay.” It was the last thing he said before he started adjusting the driver seat to his much bigger size. A minute or so later, the engine rumbled to life and off we went towards our weekend getaway.
In silence.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, and looked out the window at the deep green forest.
Maybe Dakota was one of the shy types who masked their shyness by being gruff. Or maybe he just seemed gruff but wasn’t. Anyway, I’d just give him a couple of minutes to get acclimated, and then I’d try to start a conversation. After all, we had four hours to kill.
CHAPTERFOUR
DAKOTA
Bailey.
My buyer’s name was Bailey, and he was… so… so… I couldn’t even describe him. Certainly not what I’d been expecting, that was for sure. When I thought about who might buy someone off an auction online, I’d thought about some old guy in his sixties who wanted to feel young for a weekend. Grey hair — or no hair at all — a beer belly, khakis, and those god-awful button-down shirts I’d burned the minute I’d turned in my resignation two years ago.
Bailey was none of these things. For starters, he was young. So incredibly young. He looked like one of these new Gen-Z types, so… twenty? Twenty-two? Fuck, did he still go to college?
Though I had to admit he was cute but not even remotely my type. He was a tiny, twinky thing with turquoise fingernails and a smile so bright it’d almost blinded me the first time he’d directed it at me. And he seemed to smile a lot. Non-stop.
Not even when I’d growled at him for bringing so much luggage. Or for taking off his shoes — seriously, who did that in the car? Not even when he’d had to ask for my name for the third time because I had ignored his question the first two times. Which was an asshole move, yeah. And I did feel bad about it, just… not bad enough to apologize.
Thankfully, he let me drive and stayed blissfully silent so I could enjoy the rumbling of the car engine and the scenery outside. I hated the thousand shades of gray in the city. The smog-filled air, the light pollution. I’d done that for almost ten years, and I was fucking done with it. This? Field after field orchard after orchard, tree after tree? That was my speed. Quiet, calm,no people.
Except for the wiggling, sparkling, fucking beaming man next to me.
Clenching my jaw, I fought the urge to ask him how much coffee he’d had today. Or energy drinks. The youth liked those fucking disgusting cans of poison, right? Instead, I remained silent while trying to think of a reason why someone like Bailey — young, good-looking, seemingly outgoing — felt the need to buy someone like cattle off a website. I wouldn’t ask, of course. I wasn’t here to make friends. This wasn’t an actual date. This was me trying to survive this damn weekend so my friends had to make good on their promise and match the donation Bailey had made. Three thousand dollars. How the fuck did someone as young as Bailey get his hands on that amount of money to throw out of the metaphorical window?
Another question I wouldn’t ask.
“Soo… I’m curious. Why did you sign up for the auction?” he asked, shredding the silence between us to pieces.
I let out an annoyed sigh. I’d known this question would come, but I hadn’t expected it to be the first one. “Why did you bid in the auction?” I asked gruffly instead of giving him an answer.
“Oh… I got promoted and wanted to reward myself, and a date, a mini-vacation, and doing something for charity rolled into a delicious treat of win-win-win sounded like the perfect way to do so.” He smiled so fucking brightly he was rivaling the sun outside.
I, on the other hand, had to fight the urge to scoff. A promotion. What kind of promotion could someone like him, who likely just graduated from college — if that — a few months ago, have gotten?
“Uh-huh,” I said instead and gave a sharp nod as a sign that I’d heard him. I didn’t really need to answer verbally.
“So… if you don’t want to talk about your reasons for signing up — and I get that. Like… we’re basically strangers, and your reasons for joining the auction might be private. Anyway… what do you want to talk about instead?”
Ohfuck.
He was a talker.
“Nothing?” I suggested. I swear I could see his face fall for the blink of an eye, but then his smile was back. It even lit up his eyes like he wasn’t fazed by my rude comment at all.
“I guess I could start a philosophical discussion about why nothing is called nothing.” He sounded thoughtful but dead serious.
I shot him an alarmed look because philosophical discussions about the meaning of words sounded like my personal hell, but when I did, the little shit had the audacity to giggle. Not laugh. Not chuckle.Giggle. Like a schoolgirl. Only… he somehow managed to make the sound manly. And infectious. Like I could easily fall in if I wasn’t careful.
“Sorry, but you should see your face.” He snorted and pretended to wipe tears out of his eyes before pulling a face that looked like he hadn’t taken a dump in at least a week and was seriously constipated in what was obviously a caricature of me.
