Free Soft Shock by Nicole Green Page B

and
one very overly dramatic sister, being loud was the only way to be heard.
    “Nice to meet
you, Camille,” Owen said as they pulled back from the hug.
    “You, too.” She
gave him an approving, appraising look and then nodded. “This place is only a
three-star, but I guess we have to make do with what we have. We’re not exactly
in a buzzing metropolis, now are we?”
    Owen thought
about how eerily that was like something Kristin would say. “I guess not,” he
said. “We should go in.” One thing Owen didn’t like and could not stand. People
who thought they were better than others because they had “good taste” that
they had subjectively put above the taste of others and a little money. He’d
gone through enough of that with Kristin and her parents. But he only had to
get through one date. No one was proposing marriage here.
    The three-star
restaurant thing was definitely a signpost of how the evening would go. Camille
spent most of the night talking about how brilliant she was and looking down
her nose at most everything in the restaurant. After she sent her first entrée
back and in such a condescending manner, Owen wanted to apologize to the
server. After she sent the third one back, he wanted to crawl under the table. That
time, he did apologize to the server. When he did, Camille gave him a disapproving
look that didn’t faze him.
    He guessed
maybe her elitist attitude was her way of trying to impress people. He wondered
if it worked on other people. It definitely was not working on him. Or maybe
she wasn’t worried about impressing him and just assumed he should feel grateful
to be in her presence. Was this what Dante thought of him? That he liked
shallow, self-absorbed girls? Was this payback for ditching Brynn who’d seemed
like a pretty decent human being—at least for the brief time they’d met
at The Hops? Or maybe he’d just taught Dante to think of Camille as his type by
dating Kristin for so long.
    While Camille
was sneering at the dessert menu, Owen held up his phone and said, “I should
really get going. I just got a text from my brother. He needs me to come over
right away.”
    “I didn’t hear
your phone go off.” Camille frowned up at him.
    “I keep it on
vibrate.” Owen stared down at his phone screen. At least the vibrate part wasn’t
a lie. “It seems pretty urgent.”
    “I don’t see
anything inspiring on this dessert menu anyway.” She stood. “I’m going to run
to the restroom. You have the check, right?”
    “Sure.” He
would have paid regardless, even though she’d chosen an expensive restaurant that
she’d looked down her nose at all night . But the way
she’d just assumed she was entitled to it rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it
was just the accumulation of so many things that rubbed him the wrong way that
had him so miffed.
    When they
parted ways that night, she said, “I really had a great time tonight.”
    Could’ve fooled
him. “So did I.” He lied.
    “Call me. We
should definitely do this again.”
    “Yeah.” He
forced a smile.
    Camille stood
there for a while, smiling expectantly at him. When he didn’t make any moves
toward her, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. Pulling back, she smiled,
revealing dazzling white teeth. Probably bleached. Her black hair shone under
the lights in the parking lot. If he hadn’t been burned by Kristin ,
would he feel differently about her? He didn’t know. He’d like to think he’d
have better judgment than to end up with a girl like this, but hindsight was
20/20.
    But maybe there
was more to his standoffishness toward Camille than he wanted to admit. After
all, during their date, he’d spent a lot of time thinking about Marci. His mind
wouldn’t stop slipping back to her. And it was crazy. There was no way she was
thinking about him this much, the guy she’d only wanted to sleep with because
of a bet. Was there?
    He could’ve
been imagining it, but last night in the TA section, it seemed that every