My Dark Romeo: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance(124)

My stomach rumbled. We needed to stop talking about food.

“Well, maybe it is a type of bread.” Dallas wrapped her arms around my shoulders, joy plastered all over her pretty face. “Anyway, I win.”

“Great. Let’s go grab a bite and check into a hotel where we can pretend I’m a stranger you picked up at a bar.” I needed to make up for the fact that she would never be with another man, because there was no way I was letting her go.

“Oh, do we have to?” Dallas’s face fell. “I wanted you to see my favorite lake. I wrote a poem about it, and it was published in the local newspaper.”

I hadn’t eaten in ten hours.

Not a big deal, I reminded myself. You’re a grown man. You can go without.

“Let’s do that, then.” I pressed a hot kiss to her jaw. “And then, I’d like you to read the poem for me.”

She lit up. “Really?”

“Naked.”

She swatted my shoulder. “Pig.”

Great. Now all I could think about was bacon.

Off we went to her favorite lake, where we rested against her favorite oak tree, and Shortbread did her most favorite thing in the world—talked about food she wanted to try and where she would try it. Japan, Thailand, India, and Italy topped her list.

An hour passed, then another.

My stomach began to physically hurt.

“We need to get going, sweetheart.” I stood, offering Dallas my hand. If I didn’t eat soon, I might commit capital murder.

She rose to her feet, her face clouded. “Do you regret coming here for our date?”

“No.” I frowned. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you’ve wanted to go ever since we started it.”

I felt like a childish idiot. “I’m just a little hungry, that’s all.”

She laced her arm through mine. “Okay, let’s go eat, then.”

Unfortunately, Chapel Falls’s residents were as incompetent as they were judgmental. The first three restaurants we tried downtown did not have any availability.

The fourth had temporarily shut down due to remodeling. By the time we nestled into a sticky booth at a small, unremarkable diner, I shook with hunger.

I ordered a burger and Diet Coke. Shortbread requested pancakes. She tried to engage me in conversation, while I pretended to pay genuine attention.

Twenty minutes after we ordered, the waitress swept by our booth, tacky pink uniform and inflated blonde hair intact, and announced that they’d run out of burgers.

“How does a burger joint run out of burgers?” I seethed, lips pressed tight to avoid roaring.

She shrugged. “Ask the owner. I’m just here taking orders.”

“Then, take this one—get your ass to the kitchen and bring me the manager. Now.”

Shortbread gasped, spinning to me. “Romeo, is everything all right?”

“No, nothing is all right.” I slipped out of the booth, striding to the kitchen myself.

Surely, they’d have something to eat. At this point, I was open to gnawing on someone’s leg if it meant feeling satisfied.

Throwing the saloon doors open, I waltzed into the sizzling kitchen, bypassing the cooks and the dishwashers, marching straight to a man in a cheap suit.

Dallas and the waitress pursued at my heels.

“Hey!” He swung in my direction, holding a clipboard. “You can’t come in here.”

I cornered him to the wall. Clanging pans and rushed shouts filled my ears. I hated noise. The only noise I could ever tolerate was of Dallas’s making.

“You ran out of burgers.” I fisted his shirt and lifted him in the air, slamming him against the industrial freezer.

“Romeo!” Within seconds, Dallas heaved herself over my arm. “Let the man go. Jesus Christ, what’s happening to you?”

“W-w-we still have steaks.” The McManager’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “S-sorry about the burgers. We had an office party earlier. A lot of people ordered it—”

“I don’t want a steak. I want a fucking burger.”

“I’ll see that someone goes to the grocery store to buy more—” A red rash unfurled across his cheeks, sweat hailing down his temples in buckets. “In the meantime, we’ll send complimentary onion rings and fries to your table.”

Shortbread finally managed to push me away. “Romeo, let him go.”

Reluctantly, I disconnected from him.

She wedged herself between us, her face singed pink. Her expression pulled me back to earth.

What the hell just happened? Edging a few steps away, I raised my hands in the air, signaling that I’d finished manhandling the staff.

Dallas flashed an apologetic smile. “Thanks for the offer…and the onion rings, but we’ll go someplace else.”

She shoved me out of the kitchen then the restaurant. Dazed, I let her drag me into the passenger seat of Natasha’s car.

Cold sweat itched at my neck. Dallas slid into a drive-thru and purchased two massive burgers with all the frills, fries, and sodas.

She thrust the food into my hands before she even slipped her card back into her wallet. “Eat.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

“Eat right now, or I’ll shovel it down your throat, Rom. I swear to God.”