The Wallflower Game

Chapter Twenty-five

Keith arrived fifteen minutes early and was beginning to get restless. He ran his fingers through his hair again to make sure that it was neat, pulled his button-down shirt straight and checked his watch again. He hoped she hadn’t changed her mind at the last minute. 

He had spent a good part of last night just grinning and laughing to himself, feverishly happy that she had finally decided to bring their relationship a step further. It was amazing he even managed to fall asleep, with so much excitement in his veins. 

Keith scanned the crowd again. Emily had to be here somewhere...

“Keith.” He whipped around in shock to see Emily standing behind him with a cheeky smile on her face. 

“Hi,” she smiled. Keith smiled and his eyes roamed over her. She’d dressed up (for him!), wearing a dark blue dress with a thin golden belt. She wore heels so she was taller, closer to his height, and her hair was curled up in that way girls managed to do their hair. In the end, he managed to make eye contact and asked her where she wanted to go, before looking at her long legs again. 

“What do you have in mind?” Emily asked him back while looking around for inspiration, pretending not to notice he was staring. 

He shrugged, looking back at her face. “I was thinking of shopping, since girls like it so much.” 

Emily turned back to face him and rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah? You gonna sponsor my shopping spree?”

Keith winked and whipped out his wallet, holding out his credit card. “Of course! You can max it out, baby.”

Emily laughed, then in a spur of impulse, snatched his credit card and dashed off. 

“Hey!” Keith ran after her. 

Emily was at a disadvantage given that she was wearing heels, plus she couldn’t outrun him even in track shoes, but she managed to weave her way through the crowd quickly enough to stop at a restaurant. She was laughing and panting and when Keith caught up a second later, also breathless, she told the waiter “for two”, then dragged Keith in. 

“A buffet?” Keith tried to catch his breath. “Really?”

“You said I could max out your card,” Emily giggled, pushing her hair behind her ear. “Might as well put it to good use.’

“Wise girl,” Keith nodded as they sat down. Emily passed him back his credit card then they both went to fill their plates with food. 

“The food isn’t all that good, actually,” Keith commented as he moved his plate aside to make space for the next one. 

“I’m sorry,” Emily replied in an unapologetic tone as she stacked her plate on top of Keith’s, shifting them aside. “I saw the sign outside that read ‘buffet’ and my heart was taken.”

“And here I was thinking it took a lot to win your heart.” Keith gave a sad look while pouring ketchup at the side of his plate. 

Emily shrugged. “I’m a heartbreaker.” Keith smiled at that. Even though Emily didn’t mean it seriously, he had no doubt she could break his heart if she so wished. 

“What’s Katy doing now?” Keith was curious.

“Probably with her friends,” Emily guessed. “Painting nails, calling boys up, something like that.”

Keith raised a brow at that. “Surely she has better things to do?”

Emily shook her head. “She’s shallow like that. She does all these pointless things and they make her happy, I guess. It’s all she ever does, anyway, these useless stuff.”