My Wild Flower

ch.3

I took the last few bites of my funnel cake, wiped my mouth then looked at Cody to ask if I had anything left on my face. I got a no and out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone from staff making their way over to me.
"And that's my queue," I say as I dust my butt off in case there's anything on it. With a final wave to Cody, I turn and walk with the staff member sent to collect me and get my mic situated. I truthfully don't know how they planned this so that whoever the rider I got paired with wouldn't have to be warming up for a ride right after this. I'll just call it witchcraft for now.
As I get to the same gated-off area that I was in earlier, I come up to my 'match made in heaven' as Cody jokes earlier. With a polite smile his way, the lady that led me back here starts to instruct me on how to make sure it clipped on properly, and what to do if it comes undone. The same talk that I had with a different person earlier.
I thank her for her help and wait as both of the staff linger until the clear signal that we are ready to be the next rodeo clowns of the night.
This is truly awkward, I don't know if we should converse whilst waiting or if should I keep my silence. I glance over, I guess I'm not the only one who is thinking this because Dallas is looking right at me; and when I catch him, he looks away with a grin.
"Well this is awkward" He mutters, but he still has the grin, it's a nice grin I must admit. There's nothing wrong with thinking your fake date that's incredibly attractive is attractive, right?
"Very," I agree and smile with a silent laugh. I don't know why, but I'm feeling prone to giggling, like a lot. I've always thought of myself as a harsh critique of my choice of men. I don't want someone that will fold over and just be a pushover. I want someone who will have a backbone with me, and I know I'm a difficult person. I know I take my time during selecting people, yet I know that I'm discarding the warnings I've given myself.
"You ready for this fiasco?" The question was a simple yes or no, but it felt like more. So much more. I choose to nod.
I pause between my nod and my next question, "We never really got a proper introduction earlier despite the whole name-announced thing." I hope he accepts this as a personal chance to actually tell me who he is, and I can do the same. The way a person introduces themselves says a lot about who they are. Are they humble? Are they loud and boisterous? You can never tell until you talk to them and ask.
"Why do you want to know more about your match made in heaven?" he snarks back.
"No, I'm trying to make this less of a degrading and inappropriate show for me." I roll my eyes and sass back. "Although I was going to say sorry for this all, now I hope you despise this event more than I will."
I look away from him and stare ahead as I adjust my shirt so it's tucked in all the way around. I can feel his stare burning into me but I wilfully ignore him at this moment saving my pleasant energy to be fake.
The crowd is as energetic as before and I hear the loud cheers for certain things the announcer makes and for a moment I envy them. I wish that I was one of those people for a minute, a minute of being your average human who's oblivious to the behind-the-scenes work that just drains the enjoyment of the event from you.
It takes him a moment to respond but when he does and walks over to me looking me in the eye and grabs my jaw gently as he says, "The attitudes not needed, sparks, now drop it before I do something about it."
I have three words to describe my reaction to that sentence. My three words being: What. The. Fuck.
I hate how I instantly blush a little. But I also question the choice of nickname, who the hell does he think he is!
"Mhm well then Mr.Briggs, fuckin do it because we both know you wouldn't dare do anything while there at least 100 people watching with their phones out recording this very moment."
"And why would that stop me Sparky? If I really cared about those other people's opinions then I wouldn't be this close to you and making it seem like I'm desperate to kiss you."
"Sure." I say with a sweet smile and a glare. For being so attractive he sure is a dick.

Maybe I was a fool for not seeing that flag right there. Flags are meant to catch our attention, warn us, divert us. I wasn't supposed to be so intrigued and just follow him oh so blindly.