Still not rising from his seat, he traced the bottom of Leah's margarita glass with one finger. "How will I know when you're ready to move on?" He blinked, and when his eyes reopened, his gaze had shifted from staring at his finger to boring into hers.
Jeez. Why did guys like this only hit on her when she was happily taken?
And she was happily taken. So she figured she'd best scare the guy away since he seemed the type to like a challenge.
"Depends." She shrugged. "If you're interested in a broken shell of a desperate woman-that will be obvious by the endless sobbing-I'll be super easy to seduce, if that's all you're after."
"It's not," he said evenly, never breaking eye contact.
Yeah, right, she thought. What a little player.
"Good, because in that state I'll be absolutely no fun and the sex will be awkward and icky."
"Not the way I do it."
She snorted. "If you wait until just after I stop breaking into spontaneous bouts of tears, you'll get my man-hating angry-bitch phase. Unless you like to be treated like shit-and some guys do-you'll want to avoid me entirely during that stage. Very scary."
"That has possibilities." She noticed his hand was starting to move across the table toward hers. She lifted her eyebrows and it returned to tracing the bottom of Leah's glass.
"If you're interested in normal Amanda, you'll have a long wait. This guy is likely to do a number on me and it'll take me a while to recover my normal personality."
"If you're expecting it to end badly, why bother dating the guy in the first place?"
"Never in all the history of Mr. Wrongs has there ever been one more perfectly right." And secretly she was hoping things would work out between them, even though she knew there was no way they could. Tina would find out about their relationship eventually, and nothing good would come of that. "So you're probably best off hitting on someone else."
"I can take a hint," the guy said. That made one of them. "I'm Anthony."
"You should probably take your hint elsewhere, Anthony," she said.
"Am I really that offensive?" he asked.
Amanda shook her head. "No, but there is zero chance of you taking me home tonight." She made a goose egg shape with her thumb and forefinger.
"Why don't you relax and tell me about yourself?" he asked.
She tilted her head, wishing she had someone to exchange incredulous looks with. She didn't mind Anthony's company since she'd been left sitting by herself by Leah, who was now several inches closer to Colton as they continued to sway on the dance floor. But she wasn't the kind of woman who led men on for sport, and Anthony just wasn't getting it. Leah's eyes met hers, and she apparently took Amanda's stare as a plea for help. Leah said something to Colton before surging through the crowd to their table.
"I thought you were going to save my seat," Leah said.
Anthony stood. "Sorry, I didn't realize I was intruding. It was nice to meet you, Amanda." He slipped into the crowd before Amanda could say likewise.
"You did want me to chase him off, didn't you?" Leah asked.
Amanda shrugged. "I'd already told him I wasn't interested. I'm not sure he believed me." Amanda glanced around to make sure Colton was out of hearing range. He was at the bar trying to catch the bartender's attention. "So what do you think of Colton?"
Leah flushed. "He's very . . ." She bit her lip. ". . . polite."
"Too polite?"
Leah shrugged. "I'm not sure. He doesn't act like he wants to touch me."
There could be a lot of reasons why he didn't want to touch her. It might be good manners, or it might be something deeper. He had looked a bit lonely and lost at the bar when he'd first caught Leah's eye.
The man in question set three drinks on the table. Leah might be too timid to pump the guy for information, but Amanda held no such qualms.
"So, Colton, why haven't we seen you around here before?" Amanda asked, reaching for her margarita and thinking this had to be her last one or she wouldn't be able to drive.
"It's my first time in this bar," he said. "I haven't been in Austin long."
"Where are you from?" Leah asked.
He smiled at her. "Miami."
Leah's eyebrows shot up. "Florida?"
He didn't sound like he was from Florida. He had a hint of Texas twang.
"Naw. Up in the Texas panhandle. Not far from Amarillo."
"Oh," Leah leaned in closer to him. "So what brings you to Austin?"
"There's not much of a music scene in Miami, Texas. Though I wasn't expecting Austin to be so focused on rock. Maybe I should have tried Nashville."
"So you're into country, I take it?" Amanda asked.