"You know, you'd probably strike out a lot less if you made even the slightest effort with girls that are throwing themselves at you," Charlie commented. "I wouldn't exactly call that a dry spell."

"Hey, my dry spell is your fault," Bass countered. "Three times now you've messed up a sure thing for me... Four if you count the twins separately."

"Okay, first. You're disgusting," she told him. "And, second, I'll buy the twins being my fault. But you're the one who chose to make me dinner over going home with that model. That's on you."

"Exactly, I chose to be here," Bass agreed. "I don't do that. I don't turn down a sure-fire chance of good sex for no chance at any sex. I blame you."

"Does that line usually work for you?" Charlie challenged.

"Haven't used it before, so you tell me," he responded. "Is it working?"

She blatantly ignored his question as she asked, "What about the other time? How did I supposedly block you from getting any the night you showed up at my place?"

"I went out to get laid and ended up at your place instead, Charlie," he pointed out as if it required no explanation. And yet, he still added, "Besides, I was about to take someone home. Right up until she saw all the pictures of you on my phone and freaked."

Charlie did not come off as overly sympathetic as she let out a laugh at his misfortune.

"Tell me you don't still have those pictures on your phone," she pleaded.

He gave her a non-committal shrug. "Maybe."

She shook her head at him. "If those get in your way again, that's your fault… In fact, I'm pretty sure it's already your fault now."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not really all that focused on other girls at this point," Bass pointed out.

"That was a pretty good line," she admitted. "Might have worked better if you hadn't led with a list of people you've been trying to sleep with lately though."

"Maybe that's because it's not just a line," he offered. "And, if I'd really wanted to, I could have gotten laid every night since meeting you."

"Modest," Charlie commented sarcastically, although she had to admit to herself that the evidence did seem to point in favour of his words.

"The point is that I haven't," Bass insisted.

"And I'm supposed to believe that it's because of me?" She asked skeptically.

"You get in my head, Charlie," he told her. "And it's driving me insane."

Charlie remained silent for a moment before she shifted her attention to what he was doing and questioned, "Do you even know how to cook?"

"You do realize that I can function on my own, right?" He retorted. "I'm not just a hot body."

"Right," she responded with a smirk.

Regardless of the fact that Bass had insisted that he knew what he was doing, and that the smell of the food actually had Charlie starving, she still hesitated when he set the plate in front of her as she stared down at it.

"So you'll drink anything some random guy hands you, but you're afraid to try my cooking?" He questioned.

"There's a reason that I'm not drinking tonight," Charlie retorted.

She wanted to switch from the subject of her embarrassing drunk incident, so she grabbed her fork and risked the meal.

"Edible?" He questioned.

"As far as I can tell," she responded. "I guess you can fend for yourself."

"I told you I'm more than just a hot body," Bass pointed out.

"So then what does that make you?" She teased. "A perfect Ken doll?"

"I can do a lot more than a Ken doll," he responded suggestively.

She let out a laugh at his defensiveness.

"You know, you're not the worst company," she told him.

"Careful, Charlie," he warned her with a smirk. "That was almost a compliment."

"You're right, we wouldn't want that," she agreed in an amused tone.

Charlie was on her way out the door when Bass commented, "You know, you still haven't told me whether this was a date or not."

Initially, Charlie hadn't exactly been sure why she was coming over. She hadn't known what she'd wanted the dinner to be. Sure, she'd grown tolerate Bass, and maybe even enjoy his company sometimes. But that didn't change his reputation or his ridiculous ego.

While she'd definitely gotten more ego out of him, she found that it didn't bother her quite as much as it had at first. And she'd even managed to get another glimpse at the Bass that was hidden behind the over-confidence.

So, when she was confronted with the decision as the night came to an end, she found herself doing something that she had been trying to convince herself she had no desire to do.

Bass hadn't entirely been an expecting her to give him an answer. He'd thought it was more likely that she would just ignore the question and leave with him still not entirely certain of what the evening had been.

Instead, she turned to look at him and hesitated, for just a split second, before walking back over to him and craning her neck up to bring her lips to his.

He moved to deepen the kiss, but she just smiled against his lips before breaking off the kiss altogether.

She paused for a moment, watching his reaction with a small smirk plastered on her lips, before she turned back around to head for the door.

A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, driver picks the music, LemonSupreme, and ShyRomantic for reviewing last chapter! :)