“You don’t need to protect me, I can handle myself.”
He laughed. “You were doing a great job with Tadd there.”
I made an angry face. “I would have been fine if you hadn’t barged in.”
The humor left his face and he looked at me soberly. “Look, guys like Tadd are dangerous. Leave it alone.”
We were silent for a second. “I’m not spoiled,” I said.
He grinned at me. “I didn’t say you were. I said rich, not spoiled.”
“It’s what you meant though,” I said, getting angry.
He laughed. “Got a little temper on you?”
His deep green eyes piercing into mine diffused my mood, and I turned back to my drink.
“Only with assholes like you,” I muttered.
He looked mock offended. “I’m an asshole, huh? Maybe I should leave you here, let you fend for yourself.”
I looked at him and panicked for a second. He laughed again.
“Relax, I’m kidding,” he said. “I’ve got nowhere to be for a while.”
I nodded and sipped my drink. I felt relieved and excited, although he wasn’t exactly acting like he wanted to be around me. He was more ambivalent at best. We sat in silence for a minute, and I could see him scanning the crowd. He nodded at a few people, and they nodded back. I realized he knew almost everyone in the room, but he was purposefully sitting with me. That gave me some hope, although I was starting to wonder what I originally had seen in him. He was turning out to be a bigger prick than I had imagined.
“You said you worked here,” I said, breaking the silence.
He grunted in response.
“What do you do?” I pressed.
He looked at me. I caught him run his eyes along my body, and I felt a thrill pass through me. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted him to imagine me without my clothes, imagine what he’d do to me if he had the chance. I certainly was imagining him, his strong, lean muscular arms wrapped around my hips, his full lips against mine. I realized how hot I was getting, and ordered another drink.
“It’s complicated,” he replied after the bartender came back with another whiskey and Coke.
“What do you mean, it’s complicated?”
He grunted again, and finished off his beer in three large gulps. When he banged the empty glass onto the wood, the bartender returned with a refill for him. I had never seen something like that happen, let alone in a relatively crowded bar, but Rex was obviously some kind of regular there. I guessed he had status.
He shrugged. “It’s complicated. That’s all it means.”
I looked at him again, and saw something there I couldn’t define yet. He was obviously a part of this world, but it somehow didn’t define him. He wasn’t like Tadd, but he was in the same situation as guys like Tadd. I didn’t understand what he was doing at that bar, drinking like a regular, and what his complicated job was. But I felt something inside of me suddenly need to find out.
We let the silence grow between us for another minute, before he finally spoke.
“What do you do?” he asked.
“I work for Adstrigo, doing marketing stuff.”
He looked interested. “Shane Green’s company, right?”
I nodded. “Yep, the one and only.”
“Have you ever met him?”
“Sure, everyone meets him at least once. He also happens to be dating by best friend. Well, engaged now.”
I couldn’t read the look on his face. “That’s cool,” he said, and let it drop.
“You’re not exactly a talker, are you?” I said after another short silence. I felt like I was pulling teeth.
He grunted in return and smiled.
“Yeah, exactly,” I teased.
He grinned wickedly. “You talk enough for the both of us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said, a little annoyed.
“Nothing at all. Just because I don’t talk a lot, doesn’t mean I have nothing to say.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “And what do you have to say now?”
“Just trying to figure you out.”
“And what do you think?”
He moved a few inches closer, and I felt a thrill in my chest.
“I think you’re pretty and you’re not used to hearing ‘no.’ I think you grew up rich and you don’t know what you’re doing. I think you’re bored and lost.”
My breath caught in my chest. I realized how accurate he was, how really lost I had been feeling ever since moving to Philadelphia, and how bored I was with my life. I craved excitement and something other than the normal, easy existence I had been leading. I needed something or someone to give me purpose, something to elevate me beyond the drudgery of my normal waking hours.