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(hey, a girl has to keep up), another chocolate bar quickly getting soft in the sun, a pack of gum, a datebook, my own phone, a couple dozen receipts I’d stuffed into my purse with the hopes that—someday—I’d sort them out.
    “Not here,” I told Robert. I grabbed my own phone and handed it to him. “Call it.”
    He did. And neither one of us heard a ring.
    “Like I said, not here.” I figured it didn’t hurt to point it out again, just in case he missed it the first time. “You must have put it in somebody else’s purse. Even as we speak, that poor woman’s probably wondering who the phone belongs to.”
    “Maybe. So maybe she should just answer it.” He tried his number again, listened for a couple seconds, then handed back my phone. “So, you want to hit the bars again tonight?”
    I tossed my purse back in the Palace. “You’re kidding, right?”
    Roberto smirked. “What, a little trouble with the cops and you run the other way? Hey, Maxie, come on . . .” He edged closer. “That’s not what I heard about you. You know, before I asked you to go out with me last night. I wasn’t expecting you to be the shy type.”
    It wasn’t what he said as much as it was the way he said it. Like what he’d heard about me was secret and sleazy.
    I shifted the chili costume from one arm to the other. “It would take more than a fight and a few cops to scare me away,” I said, and while I was at it, I stepped out to the front of the Palace. It wasn’t like I was afraid of Roberto. Heck, I’d dealt with plenty of guys in my time, and plenty of those plenty were plenty more intimidating than Roberto. But remember what I said about not being stupid. If I was going to reject the guy, I didn’t like the idea of doing it in the too-private privacy between the RVs. My fellow chili cook-off travelers might ignore Karmen’s shrieks, but if push came to shove with Roberto, I knew they’d have my back.
    “Now a boring guy . . .” Just so there was no mistake who I was talking about, I looked him up and down. “That’s something that really could scare me off.”
    “Hey!” He grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. “Are you saying—”
    “I’m saying thanks but no thanks.” I yanked my arm out of his grasp and took a couple steps back, widening the space between us. It was the first I realized the guy with the camera was actually filming in front of the Palace. He wanted Americana? He was about to get an eyeful.
    “I’m saying no way,” I told Roberto. “I’m saying I’m not interested in a guy who cares more about his booze than he does about the woman he’s with. While I’m at it, I’m saying get lost, because you just grabbed my arm, and I’ll tell you what, Roberto, no guy touches me like that.”
    He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to. He closed the distance between us and the look in his eyes packed enough punch. “No girl talks to me like that,” he said.
    “My point exactly. Girl? You have the nerve to call me a girl? You’re a lowlife, Roberto.”
    “And you’re playing hard to get, right? That’s the only thing that could possibly explain the attitude.”
    Even I was surprised when I managed a smile. “The attitude is genuine. So’s the message. Hasta la vista, loser!”
    I turned and walked away, and honestly, I wasn’t sure where I was headed except that I was headed someplace Roberto wasn’t. Too bad my legs are so short and I can’t walk any faster. If I had, I wouldn’t have heard his parting shot.
    “Oh come on, Maxie,” he called out. “Everybody around here knows your reputation. Easy and not all that particular. Why do you think I asked you out yesterday to begin with? Don’t go getting picky on me now.”
    It was the proverbial straw that broke this Chili Chick’s back. I stopped, spun, and was up in his face so fast, Roberto didn’t have time to react. Me, I knew there was no use arguing