“Not worth your time?” he seethed.
His cologne was really starting to bother me, and on top of the stressful day I’d had already, I could feel my head begin to throb. If I’d been thinking clearer, I would have noticed all the stares we were getting.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, you spoiled little bitch?”
Spittle hit me in the face, and I grimaced in disgust. “Do you really want to cause a scene right now?” I asked, keeping my tone bored despite the fact that I was in agony from the growing headache. But even through my pain, my anger began to build. First, Nolan texting me all day, then having to deal with Kirby and his bullshit. Now, Patrick with his cologne and dented ego. I was a bomb ready to detonate at any moment.
Ciana, sensing danger, stepped back, and the moment she was out of harm’s reach, Milo, her bodyguard, jerked Patrick back and put him in a headlock. Seeing the stockbroker struggle so helplessly made it easy to block out the vile names he threw at me. With a roll of my eyes, I flipped my hair over my shoulder as I turned away from the scene my date was creating. “Like I said, not even worth my time.”
Grasping Ciana’s elbow, I guided us both through the crowd and toward the front door, already apologizing to her. “I’m sorry I put you through that. I thought I was just being overly sensitive the other night and decided to give him one more chance tonight, thinking maybe I’d overlooked the good qualities on the first date. But, of course, I should have known better. There isn’t a single good guy outside of our family in this entire city.”
Outside, I instructed my guard to go help Milo while we climbed into the back of the SUV, where Ciana’s second guard was behind the wheel. Away from the overpowering smell of awful cologne, the noise of the restaurant, and the stress of the day, I felt my headache ease just enough for me to think a little clearer.
And then my damn phone vibrated again.
“Who keeps texting you?” Ciana asked curiously.
“Did you know I once thought about being a sports agent?” I confided, keeping my voice quiet so Gino didn’t hear me. “I was going to use my law degree to be the best agent in baseball history. But I would have only had one client.”
Understanding filled brown eyes the same shade as our mother’s. “Oh God. Is he bothering you?”
I shrugged. Bothering me was too tame a word for the emotional roller coaster Nolan’s texts had sent me on all day. “He’s run into some trouble. He needs a new agent, someone he says he can trust.”
How he could trust me, when I couldn’t return the sentiment, I didn’t know.
“I told him, if that was the case, then he definitely didn’t want to ask me for help because if I ever saw him face-to-face again, I would beat him unconscious with his own baseball bat.”
Ciana threw back her head, bursting into laughter. “Ah, Z, I would pay good money to see that.”