"Whose ass do I need to kick?" I asked when she made her way back to me.
She shook her head and laughed. "Nobody's."
"You sure? That conversation made it sound like someone deserves it."
"Oh, he does," she sighed. "But he's my boss, and he's giving me the week off paid so it'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I asked you to do it."
"A whole week off, huh?"
"More like nine days, actually."
A lot could happen in nine days, or at least I was banking on it. "Starting when?"
"Right now, even though I still have a couple of hours left on my shift. My boss told me I should leave." She jerked her chin towards the other woman behind the bar, a brunette who looked to be closer to my age than hers. "I guess he figures that Heather can handle the bar on her own until we close."
Bob bought himself a little consideration with that idea since I hadn't specified that I wanted her on leave immediately when I'd made him my offer. But it sure as shit provided me with a golden opportunity since getting Addilyn to do something with me at midnight was bound to be easier than after two o'clock in the morning. "How about you give me my bill, cash out for the night, and let me take you out for a bite to eat?"
She narrowed her eyes at me for a moment before a mischievous glint filled them. "Can I pick the place?"
"Sure."
"Anywhere I want?"
"Yes," I agreed, fully expecting her to pick somewhere expensive with the look she was giving me. I learned exactly how wrong my assumption was when we pulled up in front of a fast food place with a front entrance shaped like a little brick house about half an hour later. "Really? I tell you I'll take you anywhere, and you picked Chick-fil-A?"
"What can I say?" She shrugged her shoulders as she climbed out of my rental car. "I love their chicken nuggets."
I followed her, sliding her hand into mine and pulling her to my side as we walked towards the glass doors. "Lucky for you, I do too."
"I think you meant to say it was lucky for you, since you'd be stuck eating here even if you didn't like it because you already said we could go wherever I wanted," she laughed, tugging me away from the glass doors and towards a tiny red door on the brick house entrance.
Glancing at the words next to it, I groaned. "Dwarf House is right; I'm going to have to crawl through that door."
"But you'll be doing it right behind me, so the view's bound to be worth it." She winked at me and wiggled her ass. I followed after her, my eyes glued to her ass as we entered the restaurant.
It didn't take long before we had our meals and were seated at a booth towards the back. The place was more crowded than I expected it to be, but everyone else faded away as we ate and talked.
"What're you studying at college?"
She leaned back in her seat, her hand frozen above the sauce packet she was about to dip a nugget into. "How did you know I was in school?"
"You're twenty, and you mentioned being on Spring Break. It wasn't hard to figure out from there."
"Oh, yeah," she mumbled, dipping her nugget lower. "I'm in the hospitality program at Georgia State University. It's why I got the job at the club; I need four hundred hours of work experience for graduation."
She couldn't have come up with a more perfect answer if she'd tried, what with me being a bar owner and all. As we talked, my impossible attraction to her continued to grow. When we were done eating and she yawned, I was disappointed the night was about to end but determined to get her to agree to spend time with me the next day.
"Meet me for lunch tomorrow? Or technically today I guess," I corrected after a quick glance at the clock on the dash of my rental car as I drove her back to her apartment near campus.
"Sure," she answered hesitantly. "I guess I could do that since my calendar is suddenly wiped clean."
"Try not to sound too excited about the idea of spending time with me, why don't you?"
She burst into a fit of giggles that finally wound down a couple of minutes later when I pulled into the parking lot in front of her building. "Thanks for dinner and the ride home."
"You're welcome." I climbed out of the car and shook my head when I found her shutting the door as I made it over to her side. I crowded her against it, resting my hands on the edge of the car's roof to box her in. Her bright blue eyes widened in surprise. "That's twice now where you haven't waited for me to open your door."