Although her friends kept telling her she was beautiful, it did not count. Well, they were her friends. Friendship required them to say such things.
"I am sorry if my words came out wrong." He started apologizing, reminding himself he was not talking to his sister. "I did not mean to sound patronizing."
He slightly raised his hand in surrender, hoping the gesture would lessen her annoyance. He moved back a few inches away, giving her space and hoping she would not see him as an enemy.
If he wanted information about her, he should try to earn her trust and befriend her, not antagonize and annoy her any further. He had to salvage the situation before she shunned him for good.
"What do you want anyway?" She asked him, suddenly wary of his presence. She did notice his action, but it did not stop her mind from taking caution.
She decided to be upfront with him, not wanting to trust the man anymore. He might be good-looking, but he could be dangerous too. Who knew what sickness resided in that mind of his?
She abruptly remembered the incident that happened to her a couple of years ago. The terror that she experienced that night. She never wanted that to happen ever again.
"Honestly, I am hoping to make friends. You see. I am not from around here." He stated as he sipped his drink, letting his eyes settle on her face.
Of all the lines he said before, to convince a girl to go out with him, he had to use this one. He believed this was the lamest of them all, not that he planned to date her.
But everything he was doing had gone downhill from the moment he thought of her as his sister. He considered coming up with a better way of dealing with her to turn this around.
"That line is all used up and banned in this part of the state." She responded to him, not impressed with his excuse. She suddenly wondered what his true intentions were.
She was doubtful that making friends with her was at the forefront of his mind. Asking her out on a date was insanely ridiculous. So, what else could be his end game?
She kept looking at him from her peripheral vision, hoping to read something from his expression, but he was not showing her anything. Or, maybe she was just not good at reading people.
"Yeah. So, answer me this." Matteo leaned back on his chair and thought of a question, rubbing his stubbles for an idea. "Would it have been better to tell you that I fell in love with you at first sight? Would that be more acceptable?"
He shifted in his seat, looking at her from a better angle, waiting for her response to his ridiculous question. Well, he wanted to get a reaction from her. And he believed that should do the trick.
He knew he was gambling by antagonizing her further. Even though he said earlier that he would stop it. But this technic worked on his sister. He was hoping it might work on her too.
"No, of course not." She responded with a suspicious look. "But nobody in this day and age just comes up to a stranger and asks her to be friends." She stated it as a fact.
But she also had to consider that this man was not the same age as her. Maybe he was old school. Or he had never dealt with someone younger than him.
"And, of course, nobody believed in love at first sight anymore." Gav quickly followed her last statement before he could utter another word.
Honestly, she also had no idea of what happened inside a bar. She barely had experienced being in one, except for tonight. But she was not about to tell him that.
Shortly, she wondered what took her friends too long to return to their seats. But judging from the look they gave her, they intentionally stayed away so she could have some alone time with this stranger.
"Then, how can two strangers become friends?" He persisted with his line of questioning. "I am seriously interested to know how." He challenged her as he leaned forward a bit closer to her.
He found her amusing and intriguing. Something that he had never felt for anyone except. He suddenly cleared his thoughts, not wanting to taint her memory by associating her with a stranger.
This young woman might have intrigued him, but he believed she would not be enough to replace someone that had left a tremendous mark on his heart.
"By introduction with common friends." She said, not coming up with any other answer. That was how she had made friends most of the time.
She suddenly remembered her father. He would never consent to her making friends with a total stranger. On the contrary, he always warned her from talking to people she just met, constantly reminding her to be cautious.
Then, there was her brother and his overprotectiveness. He would probably lock her in a room if he learned how she entertained this man.
"What if we don't have common friends, like now?" He continued, still enjoying the banter they were exchanging. "Does that mean that we can't be friends?" He goaded her to respond.
He was intrigued by how she was going to react to his question. Would she accept his friendship or find a way to get rid of him? Every minute he spent with her became more appealing from his point of view.
But he had insisted that what he felt for her was pure curiosity and had nothing to do with attraction. His heart would belong to one person, and she was now gone.
He now waited until she accepted his friendship or shut him down completely. But he could not blame her if she tried to be smart about it. He also believed she should not hang around the City trusting a stranger like him.