Page 98 of The Best Bad Decision

Why did I feel like apologizing for not getting messier?

Before I could decide what to say next, he rose gracefully and barely brushed his lips against mine. “I’ll make sure I put the appointment on my calendar, baby.”

Appointment?

I must’ve looked stupid because he chuckled. “With the lawyer…Mr. Slaten?”

Oh.

Yes.

“That’s his name.”

Master was smart even when he’d sucked out all my brains…now I just had to figure out why he was giggling.

“You are adorable.”

Maybe it didn’t matter why he thought I was so funny.

Chapter 29

Casimir

“Did you see how they lit the backdrop at the end? I still can’t believe you got such good tickets.” Atlee sounded like a total theater nerd as he gushed about the play, finally sighing out another round of praise about the seats and a variety of technical things I couldn’t track at all.

He was adorable, but my favorite part was the way he scooped the cherry off his sundae and popped it into his mouth. For a man who loved the theater and getting dressed up, he’d gone wide-eyed over getting ice cream for dessert.

“I know people.” I shrugged as he chuckled, but I was telling the truth. “And I thought of you when I saw an ad for it.”

Atlee’s beaming smile gave him that cute puppy look he loved to deny he gave off. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Of course. “It came up online and then I saw some posters for it at that weird coffee shop near my work.”

Just thinking about them made me frustrated. “Hippies with no sense of time should not run a business like a coffee shop, no matter how good their coffee is.”

Nodding sagely, he was trying to keep a straight face but he was doing terrible at it. “Thankfully they’re not close enough to my office that I don’t have to deal with them.”

Have to…

He didn’t have to deal with them.

I leaned back in my chair and raised one eyebrow. “How often do you go just to watch the chaos?”

Ha.

A blush crept over his face as he squirmed in his seat and found the last couple of bites of his banana split monstrosity fascinating. “Um, lately I’ve taken a few long lunches to run some errands and I might’ve ended up near there.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “I knew it. You love their insanity, don’t you?”

He still looked sheepish, but with it out in the open he nodded and gave me a wide-eyed look that was fascinating. “Just in the past couple of weeks. You mentioned it on one of our first dates and I was curious.”

The pink crept back over his cheeks, but he spilled his thoughts as he wiggled. “There are so many…people…well…I don’t know how to describe them but it’s fascinating.”

Weird people.

There were so many weird people.

“They’re weird.” It seemed like I had to give him permission to use that label. “I’m good with all kinds of BDSM, even in some public situations, but that old guy who chases people around with the wooden spoon is just too much and that lady with the pup…”