Really? Was he really trying to catch a glimpse of my lower half under the table?
“You should check it out sometime.” He blinked, seeming to reconsider. “Although, I’m not sure they have…” His voice trailed off.
I knew exactly what he’d left dangling. He wasn’t sure they’d have a harness that would fit my body type.
I tilted my head and poured innocence into my voice. “Not sure they have what?”
“Well, you know.” He waved his hand in the direction of my legs.
“No, I don’t know. Educate me.”
He looked away and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Okay then, let me educate you.”
His head whipped back around.
“In the future, if your date doesn’t have the fictional body of a Barbie dream girl, don’t stare in horror and take surreptitious glances at what you consider problem areas.” My fingers hooked in air quotes. “Don’t flirt with another woman when you’re supposed to be out with a lady. And for goodness’ sake”—I scooted back from the table—“don’t assume that if a woman isn’t your ideal weight she’s going to steal your French fries!”
A smattering of applause erupted around us, and I realized my voice had risen with each word until I had practically yelled the last part.
David ducked his head. “You know what? I don’t think this is going to work.”
I wanted to throw one of Betsy’s sarcastic retorts—no kidding, Sherlock!—his way, but refrained.
“I’m just going to go.” He was halfway to the door before he’d finished speaking.
My nose scrunched. Great. Now I was left with the check and the dead carcass of a murdered cow. Perhaps I could get it boxed up and find someone on my way home who’d benefit from a free meal.
But the worst part was that the Nature Conservancy would be out a two-hundred-dollar donation. Maybe if I told the girls about the body shaming I’d had to endure, they’d still write the checks.
Movement out of the corner of my eye brought my head up in time to see a man lower himself into the newly vacated seat across from me.
Over-long maple-syrup-colored hair flopped across a stately brow. Ginger eyes dancing with mirth stared back at me, a grin full of secrets pulling at the corners of his cheeks.
Well, ding dong dilly. Wasn’t this my luck. Drew Bauer with his cocky smirk that probably left all the female personnel at the hospital swooning but irritated me like a splinter left to fester.
“Quite a show you put on there.”
I huffed.
“Although, I’m surprised you gave him so many strikes before kicking him out of the batter’s box. You didn’t give me quite so much rope to hang myself with.” He leaned his forearms on the table, invading my space.
His presence was like kerosene on my temper, stoking the fire within me to four-alarm proportions. I leaned right back, staring into his ginger orbs, rising to the unspoken challenge.
Everything about Drew Bauer annoyed me. He was a dripping-faucet, nails-on-a-chalkboard, litter-tossed-in-the-streets kind of man all rolled up into one carefree, obnoxious package. I’d been accused of caring too much about too many things, and if that were true then Drew was the anti-me. All nonchalant casualness. Complacent disinterest and apathetic indifference.
A small part of me whispered that couldn’t be completely true, since he was a doctor, and doctors had to care about their patients. But then I’d remember his comments about how we needed more oil pipelines and less restriction on pollution from big companies, and my stance on him being a horrible human being would solidify.
“You know”—he continued to smirk at me—“I was five seconds away from laying into that guy myself.”
“I don’t need you to come to my rescue.”
“Of course not. You’re strong enough to fight your own battles. I’d never mistake you for a damsel in distress.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“No, I wasn’t going to say anything on your behalf.”
“Why then?”
A group of people at an adjoining table burst out laughing. Drew paused for their gaiety to quiet.
“For the male gender, naturally. That jerk was making us all look bad.”
My turn to bark out laughter. “A little late to redeem my estimation of the males of our species.”
His grin hiked. “We aren’t all terrible.”
I made a show of considering. “You’re right. Ben is a sweetheart.” Ben was Drew’s colleague and best friend and the fiancé of one of my best friends. Molly and Ben were the reason I put up with Drew. They were also the reason I had to put up with Drew.
I grabbed my purse and stood. “As lovely as this evening has been, I’m going to go home.”
His hand encircled my wrist to stop my departure. “Not so fast.”
I glared at his fingers. “Unhand me.”
Instead of obeying, he had the audacity to trail his thumb along the tendon of my inner wrist.
I jerked my arm away.
“I don’t think you really want to go,” he said smoothly.
“You presume to know what I want?” I challenged.
His eyes rose to meet mine, a flash of victory making them shine bright. “You want to earn the two hundred dollars your friends promised.”
My lips pressed together.
“I believe the stipulations were dinner consumed, three topics of conversation, and you let him walk you to your car.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “As everyone witnessed, David Brown walked out. My agreement with the girls can no longer be fulfilled.”
“Can’t it? They just said you had to go on the date. They didn’t say with whom.”
Jen took tentative steps toward the table, a tray with two dinner plates in her hand. Drew waved her over.
I speared Drew with a look. “I’m not going on a date with you.”
“Of course not.” He said it like the idea was preposterous. “But I’m pretty sure you can eat a meal with me to get your beloved donation.”
Jen practically tossed the plates on the table before retreating. Poor girl. I’d have to leave her a hefty tip for all the chaos she’d endured. I touched her arm and asked for the check before she scurried all the way back to the kitchen.
“My friends will see reason,” I pointed out to Drew.
He picked up the knife sitting at an angle along the edge of the plate and cut David’s burger in half. “Will they?”
Something in his tone caused me to pause. “Are you…blackmailing me?” I gaped at him, gathering my thoughts before I continued. “If I don’t sit down and eat with you, then you’ll somehow sabotage this donation? Do you hate the planet that much?”
He picked up the burger and took a bite, making appreciative noises in the back of his throat. He held the burger up. “This is really good. You want a bite?”
I sat back down in my chair with a thud. “Did you know that seventy percent of all agricultural land is used to raise farm animals? A lot of that is for grazing, which could be used to grow crops for human consumption. Livestock farming also leads to deforestation in key places like the Amazon and is a major component of the loss of biodiversity.”