“Excuse me, but I was here first. The line stops behind me.”
Max smiled to himself before turning around. It was just the opening he needed to start the conversation that was brewing in his head. He plastered on his most charming smile and turned around to face the lady. The death stare that met him was unexpected and caused his confidence to wane a bit.
“Listen, I only have the one bottle. Surely you don’t mind me going first.”
“Shirley may not mind, but I certainly do,” the woman quipped.
Oh, this lady had a ripe sense of humor. He liked that about her. He turned all the way around now, taking a good look at her. He had been so consumed with her shoes and outfit before, but now he was looking at her. Even with the scowl on her face, the woman was stunning. She had smooth skin the color of gingerbread. Her piercing brown eyes captivated him. And those curves. My god, the woman had a body that was made for sin. Hips. Thick thighs. Nice round ass that he could see from the front. A set of boobs that had him about to drool down the front of his shirt. Damn, she was the total package.
“That was cute. I saw what you did there. Listen, I am sorry your shoes got ruined. How about you give me your number and I’ll replace them.”
“No thank you.”
“Oh come on. This is me being nice. I said I would replace them, and it wasn’t even my fault.”
“Sir…”
“My name is Max. Max Shine.”
“Well, Sunshine or whatever they call you, I don’t need you to replace my shoes. What I need is for you to be more careful in the future.”
“What do you mean be more careful? I wasn’t the one who dropped the wine.”
“Maybe not, but you had no problem dancing your little jig getting that girl so excited that she couldn’t control herself. Plus, you’re being a dick about it by laughing. Just because you are on a billboard or two around town, doesn’t give you the right to go around demeaning people.”
Oh, so she knew who he was.Max was angry now and wanted to get back at the woman. He had seen her type before. The pretty ones always had issues. Either they were rude with bad attitudes, or they wanted money. He was not going to be her whipping boy because he had done nothing wrong. He decided if she wanted to be rude, he would too.
“Speaking of dick, I saw you looking at mine. The billboard didn’t exaggerate the size either. Let me know when you want a personal tour. I’d be happy to show you around. Seems like you need something to shove in that mouth of yours to shut you up.”
The woman’s face contorted and Max thought for sure she was going to hit him with one of the wine bottles in her basket. Instead she stepped around him, placed her basket on the counter and paid for her wine. She snagged her items and marched out of the store without a glance back. Well, that went great, he thought to himself as he plucked a gift bag from the display next to the register.
“Would you like for me to wrap this up for you, Mr. Shine? It won’t take but just a minute.”
“Sure that would be great. Thank you.”
Max tapped his credit card on the machine to pay for his items. He grabbed the bag that the cashier so kindly put together for him and trudged out of the store. All the anger he felt a few moments earlier had dissipated and he felt bad for reacting that way to the sexy woman. What he really wanted was to make a connection with her. Making her smile would have made his day. Instead she hated him even more.
As he sauntered out of the store, he wished he could find the lady and get another chance to make it up to her. He would apologize to her for being a dick, as she said. He didn’t want to be known as the rude weather guy, plus it felt wrong to be mean to such a beautiful woman. After all, she hadn’t done anything to warrant his wrath. She had a right to be angry. Maybe those were her favorite shoes. He hadn’t thought about that.
Max made his way back to his apartment building and headed to Lattimore’s penthouse. He loved that apartment. It was ten times better than his. He would give his left arm to have his own pool. He rang the doorbell and was welcomed by Lattimore.
“Max! Great to see you. Come on in, man. Let me get you a drink.”
“Thanks again for the invite. I’m looking forward to meeting PJ.”
“Yeah, man. PJ is great! She’s in her room changing. She’ll be right out.”
“Wait. What? PJ is a woman?”
Lattimore chuckled before answering. Max’s face turned red as he looked down at his shoes. All this time he thought Lattimore was talking about a male best friend. He felt stupid but tried to recover by smiling. It was his go to defense mechanism.
“That’s hilarious. PJ will get a kick out of that. I always told her she was more like a dude than a girl. You’re going to love her, Max. As a matter of fact, there she is.”
Max looked at the stairs where Lattimore was pointing to see none other than the woman from the wine store. She was a vision floating down the stairs. If pretty in pink was a person, she was it! Instead of the white jumpsuit she was wearing earlier, the woman he now knew as PJ was wearing a hot pink number identical to the last outfit. That was definitely her color. She had switched up her shoes too. This time she wore the same style of shoe only they were black with a white toe and pink stripes.
He gasped as soon as he saw her. Max had to admit that he was enamored with the woman. Lattimore was right, he was going to love PJ.