“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.
“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.”
“Thanks!”
“No problem. Have fun on your date!”
Elliot clicked the call off, and turned his attention back to Cassidy. “You’re off the hook.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked her to the kitchen. “But I think you owe me a drink.”
Out of excuses, Cassidy relented and took a vodka cranberry from him before sitting down on the stool next to the island while he turned on some music.
“So now that you have the night free,” Elliot positioned himself in front of Cassidy and leaned in close to her face. “What do you want to do?”
Cassidy sighed and leaned away. “I don’t know. I just want to quietly read a book or something.”
Elliot took her cup from her and placed it on the countertop behind her. “Forget the books, you don’t need to read Fifty Shades of Grey when you can experience it.”
Cassidy’s subsiding anger spiked again, and she responded harshly, a bit offended. “Um, what? I don’t read that pulp. I read literary classics like Victor Hugo and Dostoevsky.”
Elliot backed off. “I’m sorry, geez.” His tone was devoid of all the well-practiced seduction he had employed earlier.
“You’re sorry?” Cassidy lifted an eyebrow as a challenge, but it went over his head.
“Calm down, it was just a simple comment. Why are you getting so mad?”
Raising her voice, she stood up from her seat. “Why am I so mad?” She couldn’t believe that Elliot had the potential to be so dull as to miss every cue she had been giving him for the past few weeks. She wasn’t sure if she was giving him too much credit thinking that, but the alternative was just as bad. “I’m not mad about the stupid comment! I’m mad about you! Everything! You don’t listen. You’re too caught up in your own damn life to realize that the people around you have their own lives they’re concerned with, and all you ever try to do is get into my pants!” She was huffing with emotion flowing out of her like a cannonball.
Elliot was taken aback, and his own defensive nature initiated. “So you’re just mad I want to have sex with you?”
Cassidy’s suspicions that Elliot did not have the capabilities of sincere and honest compassion were only growing stronger with every passing moment. She rolled her eyes and lowered the volume of her voice to an icy calm. “No, I’m mad because that’s all you ever think about. Hayley was right about you. Maybe you should figure out if you even want to be in a relationship or just a girl to fuck every night!” She quickly grabbed her purse and stomped out the door slamming it behind her. There was no way anyone in the world could be so stupid, so she knew that all Elliot wanted was a good lay.
Elliot stood in the same spot that Cassidy had left him, wondering what the hell had just happened. Things had seemed to be going so smoothly, and he had never seen Cassidy so upset. That’s all you ever think about was what she said. He had to admit that he did fantasize about her, but he wouldn’t say that it was the only thing he thought about. His initial attraction to her had been her cute looks, but it was her quiet yet spunky personality that had cemented his decision to pursue her so adamantly. He loved the way she dance and their witty exchanges had seemed like amusing foreplay to him, but maybe she had been serious when she said all those things.
You’re too caught up in your own damn life to realize that the people around you have their own lives they’re concerned with. Elliot wasn’t sure if she was talking about herself or referring to the blow up he had had when Wesley had gone missing. She knew he already felt extremely guilty about the whole thing since it was indirectly his fault that Wesley was in such a terrible predicament right now, but maybe he wasn’t showing enough remorse. He hadn’t really done anything to try and rectify his best friend's position, but he wasn’t even sure about where to begin. However, he was sure the whole thing would blow over soon, so he began to wonder if she had gotten word back from the dance company or if something had happened to her father.
The dew on the gin-filled cup in his hand dripped to the floor while he tried to sort out the scene that had gone from calm to category 5 hurricane so quickly.
“Meow,” Tartar the tabby sat on the windowsill outside the kitchen window looking at Elliot and licking its paw.
Elliot sighed and put his glass down without removing his eyes from the cat. “What’s up buddy?”
Tartar continued to lick his paws, so Elliot sat down at the counter and watched him.
“I thought I got women, you know. I’ve always had a way with them, but I just dont know, man. Am I losing my touch?”
The cat ignored him, so he silently sipped his gin and tonic.