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I couldn’t hear her response over the cheering The only tords I " and "hot"

I leaned in closer to her "I can’t hear you"

"I said you should go over there This could be your second chance to win hiht not even reoddamn nipple, of course he’ll reed my shoulder but I remained steadfast in my seat As serendipitous as this encounter was, I wasn’t coe social situation If Richard had been right about the e our efforts rather than help

"Let’s just watch theuy down his shot, sla in Afrikaans I couldn’t understand it, but if I had to guess by the tone, it ot?" He then reached into a nearby bag sitting on the counter and produced a large clear jar I squinted my eyes to identify the contents Thin strands, black dots scurrying

Cobwebs and spiders

The crowd didn’t seem surprised, instead they cla event Why would he have such a thing? And here of all places I hate spiders

My disgust and surprise must have been palpable because Vincent turned his head in my direction as if attuned to my specific frequency For the second time today, we locked eyes A part of , another part of me knew my company had important business to conduct with hi to wave at hihost of a smile touched his lips

He waved er at my chest as I mouthed "me?" and he nodded What did he ith er shooingan opportunity to clear up any confusion over this h the crowd to hi

"Hello Kristen," he said

He did remember my name "Hello Mr Sorenson"

"Please, just call me Vincent I didn’t expect to see you here, but now that you are, this’ll be a lot rinned

I wasn’t sure what he meant Confused by the whole situation, I asked, "What are you doing here, Vincent?"

"Business And you’re going to decide if you want to help uy and his bizarre pet spiders

Okaythat doesn’t explain a whole lot

"I should tell you, Mr Sorenson I have a fear of spiders," I said, eyeing the jar

He leaned close to my ear so I could hear him "All the better You asked for my money earlier today, Kristen" His smoky voice was implacable "I wasn’t impressed Here’s your second chance to convince me to trust you with ulped "What do you want me to do?"

As if to answer my question, the hulk uncapped the jar and picked out a spider with a pair of chopsticks

The sight of the tiny black creature outside its confines ht rip and pulled me to him "You’re fine, trust lass, the big guy placed the spider on the skin between his thuer The spider--whose backside displayed a red dot--rely still, perhaps in ashis eyes off the poisonous creature, the big guy slowly brought the drink to his lips, keeping his hand steady, and in one smooth motion downed the contents, flicked the spider off his hand, and crushed the arachnid as he slalass on the bar The crowd erupted in cheers

The big guy looked expectantly at me and Vincent His steely eyes said "your turn"

"You’re not seriously going to do that are you?" I blurted without thinking

His eyes narrowed as he s the spider on ht better when I noticed his probing eyes "I’m really not comfortable with this"

"Consider it a test How far are you willing to go to serveabout money here or poisonous spiders? Because those are two very different things"

"Believe it or not, there’s a lot at stake if I don’t follow through" He gestured to a pile of docue, but fro I could tell they were contract docuos "I iine there’s also a lot at stake for you"

"What if it bites you?"

"Let me worry about that If it does, it won’t be your fault"

"What if it climbs up and bites me?"