Our Autumn Fire

Seventeen

    “You always do this! Seriously! It’s not that difficult to get dressed!” Cassidy was getting irritated that Elliot had made them late for the dinner reservation for the umpteenth time. Her patience had been running thin with him ever since he blew up at her right after the play, but that wasn’t the first time warning signs issued in her mind. Elliot had seemed too eager to please her to the point of it feeling insincere to her, and his constant half-serious attempts to get into her pants were not what she wanted in a relationship - not to mention Hayley’s original warning about him when they first met. Granted, the last month had been wonderful having someone to call her own, but Elliot had a way to get right under her skin.

    “Okay, okay.” Elliot promptly quit fiddling with his hair and grabbed a jacket before getting close to Cassidy with a smirk. “I’m sorry.” He lifted her chin with a finger and gave her a quick kiss, but she pulled away.

    “You don’t get to just kiss me and pretend everything is peachy keen.”

    “Oh, I don’t?” He smirked again and gave her another kiss that she pulled her face away from - slightly slower and staying closer this time.

    “Yeah, that’s right.”

    Elliot smiled and looked directly into her eyes without saying anything. He let the corner of one side of his mouth curl up to match his raised eyebrows. His deep brown eyes were surrounded by eyelids opened to a seductive width.

    Cassidy held off for as long as she could before sighing. “Oh, shutup. Just kiss me.”

    Elliot let his smirk turn into a grin before planting his thin lips on Cassidy’s soft ones. Cassidy brought up her hands to his face, but this time Elliot pulled away. “We don’t wanna be late for that dinner.”

    Cassidy sighed but followed him out the door.

    Elliot had picked a quaint cafe on the outskirts of town for the meal. It was one of the lesser known places in the area, but the food was worth the trek. When they finally arrived half an hour late for their reservation, Cassidy gave Elliot a look that screamed “I told you so.” Luckily, the restaurant had a few open tables, and they were promptly seated.

    “Have you heard back from your dance group yet?” Elliot inquired.

    Cassidy shook her head. “Not yet. They said it would be a couple months, so I should hear in the next few weeks.”

    “Oh.”

    The couple sat in silence flipping through their phones until the waitress arrived to take their orders. Once she had gone, Elliot ventured to ease the tension that had seemed omnipresent for the past couple weeks.

    “You’re not planning on doing anything later tonight are you?”

    “Not really. Ali wanted to do some last minute preparations before the wedding, but I don’t think there’s really anything left to do.”

    “I still can’t believe there’s no bachelor party. I would totally have gotten Andre a couple dancers before he got shackled.”

    Cassidy gave him a look of disbelief. “You mean strippers?”

    Elliot chuckled but agreed. “Well, yeah.”

    “He doesn’t need strippers. He’s getting married to Ali.”

    “Yeah but the man’s gotta get his last hurrah before he’s stuck for life.”

    “Um, no. They’ve been together for over two years. Just because they’re not married yet doesn’t mean it’s not cheating.” Cassidy’s annoyance at Elliot’s ridiculous ideas of faithfulness was beginning to show again.