Clarke ran her finger through her hair and let out a long breath. She tried to loosen up her shoulders and failed. "He's hit on me every day for the last six months or so. It's now gotten to the point of feeling harassed." She said the last word loud enough so that others could hear. She saw Vince get a nervous look for a second before digging into some peanut butter crackers he got.
"Shouldn't you be flattered? I wouldn't make such a big deal about it." Vince shrugged and popped another cracker in his mouth. "So, what is it that I need to know about this dinner or your mother or whatever it is we're meeting about?"
As if she wasn't already upset and annoyed enough, how casual he was being about the whole thing just made her feel like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. "Look, I gave you an out, and you're still welcome to take it if you can't take this seriously."
"Clarke, I can tell this is a source of a lot of negative feelings for you, but if we're going to be pretending to date, then you're going to have to learn to relax and let go just a little and do something a little more care free and less planned once in a while."
She was about to snap at him again, but it wasn't really him she was mad at. He was almost a stranger, and he'd come to her rescue. The least she could do is give him the benefit of the doubt. "Fine. I'm sorry. It's just that for the last 33 years she's been making me feel inadequate, and she'll tear you down just the same if we aren't ready for this."
"She's really hurt you, hasn't she? And yet you still care what she thinks. It's funny how that works, isn't it?" She nodded at his statement. It was her harsh reality. "So, what's so bad about her?"
"Nothing's good enough, and she doesn't believe I'm truly capable of anything. I thought the shop would prove her wrong, but it hasn't so far." Clarke shrugged. "Anyway, she's a lawyer and is all about perfection and arguing the winning side and all that. She has made a lot of really high society friends over the years, but don't ask me how. She goes to these parties with them. They're really formal and stuffy with lots of weird and expensive food and banter about money and vacation homes. Sometimes they talk about their children, bragging about their accomplishments. She tends to compensate for the fact that I don't have any by having some thinly veiled insults passed across the table. Anyway, I think she invited you because she was calling my bluff. She knows I don't really date like that. She wants to expose us in front of everyone somehow; make one of us break and tell the truth maybe."