Cracking the Dating Code by Kelly Hunter

don’t want to be too trusting or too naive. No one likes getting hurt.’
    ‘Finally she sees reason,’ he muttered. ‘Tellhim you’re just passing through. Ask him where’s a good place nearby to go and eat.’
    ‘What if I’m not hungry? What if I live nearby?’
    ‘Nobody’s saying you have to eat
now.
And you do
not
say you live nearby. It’s an opening. The barman will know what to do with it.’
    Poppy played another shot. Striped ball to side pocket, with the white spinning off exactly where she wanted it.
    ‘Where’d you learn to play?’ asked Seb suspiciously.
    ‘My brother’s beach house. It’s his wet-weather entertainment when he’s really bored. We play for favours. He currently owes me three bathroom cleans and a deck oil.’
    Her next shot ran fractionally wide of the pocket. Poppy sighed. This was what she got for paying attention to the breadth of a man’s shoulder and not the ball.
    ‘The barman’s giving me a bar menu. He’s moving away. No impromptu invitation to dine is forthcoming. He’s not interested.’
    ‘He’s making your drink. Relax, he’ll be back.’
    ‘Probably to take my fish and chip order,’ said Poppy. ‘I’m all flirted out. The barmandid not make me blush. You think he could make my Tom Collins to go?’
    ‘This isn’t working, is it? I’m not sure the barman was such a good choice for you. Let’s assume he gives you your drink and you pay him and return to your table. Some work colleagues are with you. Tom’s there and he’s smiling at you. What do you say?’
    ‘Why aren’t you at work?’ she said immediately.
    ‘Well, it’s a start,’ he muttered dryly.
    ‘The gin is gone,’ said Poppy. ‘And there’s no way I’m flirting with Tomas. I’m sorry to have misled you earlier, but I can’t do it. I value my working relationship with your brother far too much for that. He’d be impossible to replace. Flirting with Tomas is out. Even in an imaginary bar.’
    ‘Bear with me,’ said Seb. ‘Tom’s brother’s just walked in. Tom’s introducing him to you. What do you do?’
    ‘So…you want me to flirt with
you
now?’ Poppy eyed Sebastian uncertainly. ‘As in here by the billiard table? Or are we still in the imaginary bar?’
    ‘Doesn’t bother me.’ Sebastian’s grin came slow and easy and laid waste to any sensible conversation Poppy might have thought to be going on with.
    ‘I think the bar,’ she murmured. The bar was not real, ergo any flirting she attempted in it was not real either. ‘You go first, though. I’m too busy staring at you and coming to the conclusion that you’re a lot bigger than your brother and a great deal more—’
    ‘Docile?’ he offered.
    ‘Disturbing. I’m sensing you swim with sharks on a regular basis. Laugh in the face of gushing oil wells. Break hearts every other day.’
    ‘You don’t know that yet.’
    ‘
Do
you break hearts every other day?’ she asked.
    ‘Not if I can help it. This is a point in my favour, I might add.’
    ‘I’m also trying to figure out if you’re already in some kind of romantic relationship,’ she murmured. ‘You’re not wearing a ring, but I’m sceptical about your being unattached. I think I’m going to pass.’
    ‘I’m unattached,’ he said. ‘Tom’s probably told you this in passing. I’m asking you what you’re drinking and whether you’d like another.’
    ‘I’d like a mineral water this time, with a slice of lime.’
    ‘You realise the addition of lime pegs you as high maintenance?’
    ‘Does it? Maybe I am.’
    ‘You’re really not.’
    ‘Then it’ll come as a pleasant surprise to you later on. The lime stays.’
    ‘Recalcitrant,’ he murmured.
    ‘Maybe you like that. I can see a wayward woman appealing more to you than a mousy one. I’m all for ditching my current mousy image.’
    ‘Really?’ He stared pointedly at her light blue short-sleeved T-shirt and slimline grey trousers. ‘What are you wearing?’
    ‘An outfit I