He didn't seem phased though as he reached for his wallet and waved it. "Paying customer."
"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone," she said, motioning to the small plaque behind the bar.
"Funny thing about that law," Daniel said, lips curving up in a way she found way too appealing even though she was supposed to be mad at him. "It doesn't mean you can just kick anyone out because you don't like them. It means you can refuse service for reasons that go against dress code or the health code, or if someone is being disruptive. Not liking someone is, unfortunately, not included."
"Well you would know all about the law," she said, tone cold.
He ignored that and stood again, gesturing to himself. "As you can see, I'm in slacks and a dress shirt so I fit the dress code just fine even though Lam routinely serves people in jeans and tees. I am also showered and don't have on cologne so no one can complain that I smell. And I am being perfectly civil. So, sorry, babe, but you're going to have to serve me."
And damn if she didn't. There were no other bartenders to pawn him off to.
He was right too- she had to serve him. He was being quiet and he was dressed nicely. It didn't escape her notice either that he cleaned up really well.
"Don't expect service with a smile," she snapped, grabbing a rocks glass and putting it on the bar.
"From you? Sweetheart, I know better."
"Cut the shit," she said, dropping a glass of gin and tonic at him, not caring if it wasn't what he wanted. "I don't want to hear your pet names and I don't want to have a conversation with you. From this point on tonight, you're allowed to order and ask for your bill and that is fucking it."
With that, she moved back over toward Corey who was standing. "You're just going to leave me in an empty bar with him?" she asked, small-eyeing her friend.
"I have bills to pay and subs to give orders to and hot wax to order..." she said, obviously just making up excuses to leave. Her work could, and on her days off did, function without her. "Have fuuuun," she said, giving Faith a huge smile as she made her way to the door.
Faith pretended to ignore Daniel for the next twenty minutes, all the while being acutely aware of every single movement he made, every time he watched the door or drank from his glass. And, maybe most especially, every time his eyes looked at her. Which, well, was pretty much the entire time she sliced lemons, limes, and strawberries.
Salvatore came in a blessed half an hour later, brows drawn together when he looked at Daniel. "Thought you fired him."
"I did," she said through clenched teeth.
He nodded at that, taking the water she passed to him. "That takes some balls. He knows you could kill him with your pinkie, right?"
Faith's lips turned up, not realizing until that moment how much she really needed a little encouragement. Whether she knew it or not, her confidence had taken a hit over the whole ordeal. How could she not have suspected he could be a cop? She was suspicious of every person she saw inside of Lam. But then there he was with his ability to sneak up on her and disarm Anthony and she went ahead and fell into bed with him. Granted, she had been worried enough to bring Xander and his team in on it, but not worried enough to wait for the damn files.
Amateur move.
"Yeah, if he's smart, he will nurse that drink and not ask me for anything else the rest of the night."
"What'd he do to piss you off, kid?" he asked, obviously not being quite as observant of sexual undercurrents as his father was.
"We just didn't fit," she lied.
They fit almost perfectly. That was the problem, wasn't it? She would have been able to brush it off, move on, let it go, if he had been like any of the other guys she had been with. The fact of the matter was, he was nothing like them. While she always preferred ultra-confident, street-wise, and a bit cool guys pretty much as a rule, each one of them had been lacking in one way or another. One was definitely street-smart but otherwise a complete and utter idiot. One was cool enough to let her do her own thing without question, but was absolutely God-awful in bed. Not even 'eh, I can work with this if he's open to some suggestions' awful. No, he was a two-pump chump who thought he was a sex God.
They all just came up short in some way that she found non-negotiable. Really, her bar wasn't even that fucking high. There were just a lot of losers in a city as big as the one she lived in.
But Daniel, in all his gruff, but caring ways, seamless confidence that was still somehow lacking the typical fragile ego that usually came along with that trait, his training, his goodness, his willingness to let her tell him her secrets at her own pace, yeah, he was as close to perfect as she had ever come across.