Our Autumn Fire

Seventeen

    “He wouldn’t be having sex with them!”

    “It doesn’t matter. He shouldn’t need any other girls dancing around trying to get him off.” Cassidy folded her arms and leaned away from the table unable to believe that the conversation was still going on.

    Elliot rolled his eyes and sighed. “I don’t get why you have to be so prude.”

    “I’m not prude! But there’s a thing called respecting the person you’re with!” Her voice was louder than she had intended, and some of the other guests in the restaurant looked over at their table. Cassidy quickly realized that she had drawn undue attention to herself and returned to leaning back in the chair, a bit flustered.

    Elliot was about to speak when the waitress returned with their food. The delicious meal was enjoyed much less than either of them had wanted or expected. Cassidy was too busy jamming her fork into her plate with a vehemence that reflected her anger towards her boyfriend, and Elliot was too busy replaying the conversation in his mind wondering what he had said to get his girlfriend so upset.

    When the waitress returned to ask for dessert, Cassidy flatly refused. “No.”

    The waitress turned to Elliot, who decided some chocolate ice cream might ease the tension between them. “Bring two spoons please.” Cassidy sat staring at Elliot without saying a word, but he smiled at her with half his teeth showing. “I know how much you love chocolate ice cream. You’re gonna want some.”

    Cassidy said nothing but furrowed her brow more in a determined attempt to convey to Elliot that she could not be bought off so easily. When the dessert arrived, she inevitably picked up a spoon and silently ate trying to keep up her fading look of displeasure.

    “I told you.” Elliot cocked his head to the side with a sly smirk, eyes showing simple happiness rather than a sense of any victory achieved.

    “Whatever,” Cassidy mumbled and continued to enjoy the rich slowly melting cream.

    The drive home was filled with Elliot’s attempts to get Cassidy to forget her vexation with him, but the constant jokes only made her feel like he wasn’t taking her seriously. By the time they had gotten back to his place, she was ready to drive home and curl up in a warm blanket with a nice book to read. Unfortunately, she remembered that Alicia had asked for her help.

    “Thanks for dinner. I’m gonna go.” Cassidy mumbled half-sincerely when they got back.

    “You’re leaving already?” Elliot thought he had been making progress and had hopes of spending some “quality time” with her.

    “Ali needed help with stuff. Yeah.”

    Cassidy moved towards the door, but Elliot cut her off before she could go. “Hold on, I can get you out of that.” He quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Alicia.

    Cassidy folded her arms and waited wanting to get out of the work she had promised to do but also not wanting to stay with Elliot.

    “Hello?” the voice on the other end of the line spoke.

    “Hey, Ali? It’s Eli.”

    “Hey, how are you?”

    “I’m good, but listen. How badly do you need Cas tonight? We kinda had a date, and I don’t want her to just leave so early if she doesn’t need to.”

    Alicia thought about the request and shuffled through her checklist. “Yeah that’s fine. I only have a couple things left, and Andre got some time off so he’s been helping me.”