Page 43 of Playing a Player (Sweet Cravings 1)

"Keira?"

"What? Sorry, I got distracted. I don't know, I've had three boyfriends and all three of them dumped me. They all said it was them and not me. But I'm pretty sure that means it's something I did, since they all said the same thing."

"I doubt it was your fault."

"Actually, it probably was my fault. I tend to overthink things."

"Hmm. You gotta learn to live in the moment, Keira."

"I think I did a pretty good job of that the other night." I smiled at him.

Rory put his hands in his pockets and looked away from me.

I hadn't meant to make our conversation awkward. I wanted to know more about him. "Did you grow up in Philly?" I asked.

"No, Bryn Mawr. It's like 20 minutes from here. But I've always preferred Philly."

"I know what you mean. I grew up in Wilmington. And after moving away for college, I couldn't picture myself going back to such a small town. So, I moved here."

He smiled at me. "Do you have any siblings?"

"A younger brother. That's actually why I'm so good at Nerf battles."

"I hate to break it to you, Keira, but you weren't all that great. I had you pinned down in less than a minute."

"Well, my brother and I didn't play that way." I lightly pushed his shoulder.

He looked away from me again. "So where is this new bar?"

"You know what, it's a little farther than I realized. Why don't we just go to Heritage?"

"Okay, cool, I've never been there anyway."

Thank God. For a second I thought he was going to question me. I hadn't been able to find any new bars nearby. And I had never been to Heritage either, but I had read that it was awesome. Maybe I was better at playing it cool than I realized. "What about you, Rory? Do you have any siblings?"

"No, I'm an only child."

"Are you close with your parents?"

"As close as any normal 26 year old, yes." He smiled at me.

"So, not close at all?'

He laughed. "I love my parents. But I don't really think they'd be thrilled with my lifestyle choices."

"Mhm." I tried to raise my eyebrow at him, but I couldn't. My face didn't work that way.

He laughed again. "Are you trying to give me a stern look? That's very cute."

Cute. I didn't want him to think I was cute. I tried to think of something provocative to say, but we had just arrived at the restaurant.

Rory opened up the door for me. Such a gentleman. When we walked into the restaurant, there were tons of people already dancing. A jazz musician was playing in the corner. I didn't know anything about jazz, but everyone seemed to be enjoying it. We went over to the bar and Rory ordered us each a beer.

I liked talking to him. I wish we could just sit down at one of the tables and talk all night. But that wasn't why he had agreed to come out with me. I had to stick to the plan. "So, who do you think is sexy?" I asked. This is so awkward. I so badly wanted him to look at me and say I was the only girl he noticed. But I knew I was far away from that happening.

"Well." Rory took a sip of his beer and looked toward the dance floor. "The blonde to the left."

My eyes wandered the dance floor until I found who he was talking about. There was a tall blonde with huge breasts. She was super tan and super fake looking. There was no way she was a real blonde. And she couldn't have looked more different than me. Is that really the kind of girl he's attracted to? "The one dancing with her friends?"

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