When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(86)
“Oh shit, here we go,” Violet whispers under her breath. Dan shoots her a look to tell her to shut the fuck up before I can even open my mouth to reiterate the same to her.
“Girlfriend,” I say the word trying to emphasize how serious I am.
“You’ve got to be shitting me?” Veronica shouts out above all of the chatter that’s surrounding us making everyone to stop their private conversation to watch the show that’s bound to unfold with her outburst. “Graham ‘The Man Whore’ Black has a girlfriend. Write it down in the books. This is a fucking first.”
Veronica eyes fall over to Kennedy with a look of disgust. Surprisingly Kennedy doesn’t bat an eyelash at her tantrum. She’s the depiction of cool and collected.
Veronica addresses Kennedy resting her hands on the table directly in front of us. “Let me guess? He told you how special you are, how no girl holds a torch to you? Then once he worked his magic on you, you found yourself with your pants down but your shirt still on, right?” Kennedy doesn’t say anything but looks at Veronica with pity. “Don’t waste your time sweetheart. Guys like Graham don’t have girlfriends, especially not innocent ones like you. You’re a flavor of the week. You’ll never be anything more than that.”
“That’s enough Veronica,” I put a hand up to stop her tirade with a stern and demanding tone. I just want this to be over with. Not exactly how I imagined our first date going.
Kennedy pushes my hand down. I can feel the steam rolling off of her as she and Veronica stare each other down. Kennedy’s angry and I have never seen her like this. I have a feeling I’m going to need to buckle up for the ride. Kennedy is anything but a coward.
“No Graham, she’s right,” Kennedy’s voice is low, almost a near whisper.
“What?” I’m more confused now than before. Kennedy places a hand on my cheek landing a kiss on my lips quickly before turning her attention back to our waitress.
“Graham Black doesn’t do girlfriends is what everyone keeps telling me, but here I am. So perhaps maybe everyone else is wrong. You must be wrong,” Kennedy glares up at our waitress with a smile. “Everyone’s wrong because here I am on a Friday night sitting in this booth while some girl who I’m sure dropped her pretty little lace panties without much of a snap of a finger telling me something that I already know. The best part is that I don’t give a shit what you have to say because you’re standing their taking our order while I’m sitting here next to the guy who doesn’t do girlfriends.” Kennedy does air quotes when she says girlfriends.
Each of us stares at Kennedy. All of our mouths gaping with surprise. I grab Kennedy’s hand under the table squeezing it in appreciation of her jumping to both of our defense. Veronica watches the two of us together. She must think that if she stares long enough that something will change, but it doesn’t and it won’t.
“We’ll have a large meat lover’s pizza and a medium pineapple and ham. Thank you,” Kennedy orders without dropping her defensive eyes from Veronica. Violet stifles a laugh but it’s loud enough for everyone to hear. Veronica storms off back towards the kitchen.
“She’s going to spit in our food, right?” Dan offers laughing at his own joke making the rest of us fall in with him. We all go silent once the situation sets in.
Kennedy turns her body to face forward keeping her hand entangled with mine. I think I’m still in shock at Kennedy’s brazen reaction to Veronica. Spending nights worrying over how Kennedy will respond to my past doesn’t matter now. I’m pleasantly surprised with her reaction. She handled herself with her head held high not allowing someone to take anything away from our relationship.
“Okay, I’m going to say it since no one else will. Who the hell are you and what did you do to my best friend?” Violet eyeballs Kennedy from across the table. “That was impressive.”
“I think she’s still right here,” Kennedy smiles with a prideful gleam in her eye and a smirk to match it.
“I thought you were going to get up and beat that girl’s ass,” Dan addresses the elephant in the room a little less subtly. “Remind me to never piss you off.”
“It seems that jealousy reared its ugly head at a certain waitress,” Violet sneered in the direction that Veronica had headed.
“I don’t think it was jealousy. She was just protecting what is rightfully hers,” I correct them. Kennedy kisses me on the cheek as I lightly elbow her in her side in appreciation.
Veronica never comes back to our table. However, we did get our pizza unscathed as far as we can tell from first inspection. Trust me, we double checked. The conversation veers off of Kennedy’s battle with the unexpected waitress and quickly turns towards something lighter. We talk about baseball mostly. It doesn’t go unnoticed that Kennedy’s body freezes up at the mention of Georgia.
I look over at her and she quickly diverts her eyes focusing on Violet who’s giving her the look. You know the one? The one that passes between two people like a silent conversation---I think the female population has this tactic down to a tee. Violet excuses herself from the table and Kennedy follows quickly behind her. I make an effort to ask her if she’s okay. Of course, she says she is. I watch Kennedy as her figure recedes into the back corner of the restaurant. My eyes stay on her until I can’t see her anymore.