It took a total of three seconds for Alex to conclude that Chad had about as much intellectual depth as a cucumber. He prattled on and on about his job as a firefighter, how much he could bench at the gym, and his high-rise apartment in the city that he’d apparently bought with his winnings from some bullshit lawsuit he’d won against a restaurant that had given him food poisoning… or was it that he’d burned his tongue? She had a hard time remembering the details when his stories were all so dull that she spent her time counting down the seconds until she could find an opening in his endless jabbering to leave instead of paying attention.

Dully swirling the remains of her cocktail in its glass, she rotated between responses of “oh” and “yeah” and “is that so” while he boasted about some sort of award he’d won for something or another. He may have been objectively more handsome than Unibrow Paul, but she was starting to wish she’d switched guys with Whitney after all. They wouldn’t be going home with either one of the men, so having a conversation with substance was better than listening to an attractive mouth that spewed nothing but conceited crap. If he didn’t stop talking long enough for her to make an excuse to get away, she was going to take the toothpick that had held up her olive garnish and shove it through her ears.

“Speaking of awards, I should tell you about the time the guys at the station and I competed to be featured in a shirtless calendar. Spoiler alert: You’re looking at the face of February.”

[i]And that’s my cue to get as far away from here as possible,[/i] Alex cringed, not even remotely interested in hearing the story that went along with that brag. She’d done her part by sticking around long enough to repay him for the drink he’d bought her, but she didn’t owe him any more of her time. Some of the men she met at the bars around NYC were genuinely interesting people who she could chat with for an hour without getting bored. Chad wasn’t one of them, so ten minutes of his self-centered company was more than enough for her for a lifetime.

Fresh out of patience, she opened her mouth to interrupt him. “Actually, I—” she started and then stopped when someone else finished the job for her. The sound of another male voice seemed to bring Chad back down from whatever planet he’d been on. He stopped rambling and turned at the same time she did to see that two new guys had walked over and asked to join them.

Recognizing the blue button-down on the man standing in the front, Alex quirked a brow. He was the same person she’d spotted across the bar just before she’d been swept up in the torturous conversation with Chad. From a distance, she hadn’t gotten a very good look at him, but now that he was standing close by, she could tell that he was even more well-groomed than she’d first thought. He must have either just come from an important meeting, or he really cared about his appearance. Not that he needed to. With a tight, athletic-looking body, bold jawline and million-dollar smile, she had a feeling he could roll out of bed and still be hotter than damn near every other guy in the room. And he’d just waltzed across the bar to talk to her.

[i]Hello, tall, dark and handsome.[/i] Concealing a smile behind the rim of her glass, Alex’s green eyes swept down and up his masculine frame. There may have been other people standing nearby, but she hadn’t missed the fact that his eyes hadn’t left her face the entire time he’d spoken. This man was here to play ball, so who was she to deny him the chance to step up to the plate? She’d been thinking about approaching him anyway, and now he’d just made her job a whole lot easier by talking to her first. The only question was whether or not he was the cash cow she had been prowling for.

Her eyes flicked down to the Rolex on his wrist. [i]Jackpot.[/i]

A part of her was tempted to blow off Chad in exchange for this promising stranger, but she hadn’t planned to end her game this early. There was no rush when she still had the whole night ahead of her. She supposed she might as well see how things played out. The human brick standing next to her seemed to be on the same page too.

“Actually, man, we do mind,” Chad crossed his muscular arms over his box-like chest, brazenly sizing up his competition. “We were kind of in the middle of a conversation, so you should go find someone else to interrupt.”

[i]Bold of you to assume you can speak for a woman you just met ten minutes ago, jackass,[/i] Alex sipped her drink again as she fought the urge to roll her eyes. While she watched her alcohol benefactor square up to the well-dressed challenger, Whitney, ever the opportunist, had already slipped away from Paul to chat up the better looking man who’d tagged along. Although Alex had a personal rule that she wouldn’t go so far as to sleep with anyone she’d just met at a bar, her friend had no such restrictions. She wouldn’t have been surprised if Whitney had been hoping to get some strange while they were out. If nothing else, it meant the homeless girl could sleep in a real bed for the night.