The remainder of the week continued on, and Asher never tried to talk to me. Even sitting directly beside me in the two classes we had together, he kept his mouth shut.
I continued to ponder whether I should give him a chance to redeem himself on the date he had arranged for tonight. Although he said nothing, I could practically hear him thinking about me recieving his letter. No I didn't claim to be a mind-reader, I could just tell by the way he would fidget when I opened the pocket in my bag that held his letter; but all I was doing was grabbing a pen or pencil which were in the same pocket.
When school ended Friday I walked out to my car with my keys shaking in my hand. I could not decide if I wanted to go on the date or not, and it was stressing me out. When I arrived at my car there was a note stuck in the crack of the door. I pulled it out and read the writing scrawled across it:
Turn around.
I froze in my spot, then slowly turned around, unsure of what was going to be there. For the second time this week, Asher pinned me to my car, this time with his lips pressed firmly to my own.
"I can't wait to see you tonight," he winked when he backed away. "Wear something nice, the restaurant is a more distinguished restaurant in town." With his final statement lingering between us, he walked away with a smirk on his face and a little too much confidence in his walk.
I huffed frustratedly and got in my car.
Back at my house, surprisingly, my mother was not in her office. She was sitting in the kitchen laughing with someone, the laugh that was reciprocated was of a deeper tone...there was no way in hell my mother had a man at the house.
To my horrifying surprise, there she was sitting with a small glass of white wine and a tall, tanned, dark-haired, fit man sitting beside her.
"Mom, who's this?" I inquired sternly.
"Scarlett, you're home!" she sounded surprised. I guess she wouldn't know since she was always locked away with her psychos.
"I am. Now who the hell is this?!" I replied, slightly louder that time.
"This is Mateo, Mateo, this is my daughter Scarlett," she introduced the two of us. He stood to shake my hand but I rejected it and glared at my mother.
"I wasn't looking for an introduction. All I wanted was a name." Then I stormed off to my room to get some nicer clothes on. I was definitely getting out of the house; whether that meant going on the date with Asher or finding a party to go to was still under consideration.
It was almost 6 o'clock by the time I was completely ready to go out, meaning Asher would be arriving any minute. It was time to decide.
As I descended the stairs I could hear a movie playing in the family room. I wandered in and saw my mother sitting much too closely to mister rico suave and he had his arm around her. I felt the tears flooding my eyes instantly.
"So dad means nothing to you?! He's only been gone five months and you've already moved on?! He was the best dad and husband in the world and this is how you repay him for all he did for us?! In case you didn't already know my dad died! He died! He's dead, and now my mother is trying to fill his spot with you! You will never live up to the man my father was!" I screamed with hot tears rushing down my cheeks.
"Scarlett Rose! That is no way for you to talk to your mother! And certainly no way for you to speak to a guest in our home! Whatever you got all gussied up for, cancel it; because you will be spending your weekend in your room!" my mother yelled back at me.
"No I won't! I'm going out and you won't stop me!" I shouted and stormed to the front door with my shoes in hand.
When I yanked it open Asher was standing there startled because he was just about to knock on the door. I grabbed him by his wrist and said, "Let's go," then tugged him back to his car, slamming the door behind me.
I hopped up into his Range Rover and buckled my seatbelt. When he got into the driver's seat he simply sat and looked at me worriedly. Then I remembered I had been crying. I quickly wiped away my excess tears and fixed my slightly smudged makeup.
"Are you going to drive or not?" I asked sounding much weaker than I had intended.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, now would you drive already, I would like to get some food in my stomach before it eats itself." He chuckled at my exaggeration, started the car, and drove off. "Where are we going?" I asked.
"Mache Bistro," Asher replied. My eyes widened.
"That's too expensive!"
"Your point?"
"I...it's too expensive!" I repeated myself because I really didn't have a good argument.
"And you're going to have to deal with it, because I already have a reservation for two," he smirked.
"Fine," I huffed and stared out my window.
The remainder of the ride was silent, but it wasn't awkward. He looked over at me a few times but I ignored it and avoided looking at him as much as possible.
When we got to the restaurant he jogged around to my side of the car and opened the door for me. His car was taller than most so I had to hop out of it. He offered me his hand and I took it, mostly hoping that I wouldn't fall out of the car.
I finally got a good look at what Asher was wearing - black dress pants, a navy button up shirt, and his classic black converse. He looked really handsome. When my eyes met back up with his he had a cute smile on his face and my face was instantly bright red.
"Like what you see?" he chuckled.
"No," I grumbled and started walking towards the restaurant entrance. He caught up to me after locking the car and grabbed my hand.
"Well I think you look stunning; absolutely beautiful." I bit the inside of my lip trying to conceal my growing smile. The little things he says to me make me feel something weird; they almost give me butterflies.
The hostess lead us to a table set for two and we took our seats. When she left we opened our menus to choose which overly-priced meal we were each going to order. I was looking for the cheapest one possible.
"What looks good to you?" Asher asked, peeking up from his menu at me.
"Whatever is the least costly," I chuckled. He simply scowled at me.
"No, choose whatever you want! Pretend there are no prices attached to the choices." I nodded in response, but was definitely not going to listen.
In the end I chose the cheapest entree, portabella mushroom stuffed with goat cheese and carmelized onions, served over lentils with shitake mushroom confit. Sounded quite fancy, but pretty tasty as well.
After ordering, Asher scowled at me again. "That was the cheapest entree on the menu."
"And it looked the best to me!" I argued.
"Fine, but since you got that, we're getting an appetizer too." He called the waitress back over and ordered the mussels. I wouldn't say it out loud, but I absolutely love mussels and when I spotted those on the menu I was practically drooling.
"How do you know I even like mussels?" I said and crossed my arms.
"You do, right?" he asked worriedly. I didn't see why it would have made him worry...
"I do actually," I laughed lightly. He sighed in relief. "What if I didn't?" I asked.
"I would have felt bad for ordering them without asking you your preference first! I told you I wanted to show you that I'm not the type of guy you think I am. I want this date to be perfect." Those 'almost' butterflies appeared again and I found myself biting back a grin. But this time, Asher noticed. "You know, you're allowed to smile and have a good time on this date." My cheeks burned a bright red and I nervously sipped my water. "So do you want to tell me what was wrong earlier when I picked you up?" Suddenly I wasn't sipping my water, I was choking on it. I didn't think he would have remembered that.
I sat silently avoiding eye contact as I mentally argued with myself over whether I should explain what happened or not. The side that was for explaining what happened won.
"Well, my dad passed away five months ago from lung cancer. It all happened very quickly becasue the doctors didn't find it soon enough, so when he was diagnosed it was already terminal. He managed with an oxygen tank for a couple months and he even took me to do a sunrise hike in Colorado before he passed away. It was something that was on both his and my bucket lists. He was the best dad I could have ever asked for," at this point I began to tear up; I had never explained to anyone what happened with my dad. Asher was sitting silently, fully engaged in the words that were coming from my mouth. "Today when I got home from school, my mom was sitting in the kitchen, laughing with some guy, sipping on white wine. At first I was just angry, but then I saw them sitting, cuddling, watching a movie and I lost it. I was so upset, and all I could do was scream at them. My mother told me I wasn't allowed to go out this weekend because of what I said. And that's when I walked out and found you on my porch."
"So that's why you were crying," Asher replied, mostly to himself for confirmation.
"Yeah," I whispered uncomfortably. I hated when people saw me cry; it made me feel so weak.
"Well I'm very sorry that happened. But I'm glad I could be the one to take your mind off of it all," he smiled sympathetically.
"I'm glad this could take my mind off of it; but now I have to stay out of the house for the weekend, otherwise the warden will lock me away until I apologize. So I'll probably just stay at James' house; that's usually what I do when I can't stand to be around my mother," I lightly chuckled trying to make the conversation slightly less serious.
"Well, my parents took my sister to North Carolina for a long weekend while my sister participates in some dance competition. You're more than welcome to crash at my place for the weekend," he offered nervously.
"I think I might actually take you up on that. I really don't want to go home."
"Then my home is your home, and any other time you need to get away from your mom you can come to mine," he smiled excitedly.
Conversation and dinner continued and the thought of sleeping at Asher's house was constantly burning in the back of my mind. What had I gotten myself into? I did need a place to sleep...
After dinner, Asher paid the bill, and since he is a stubborn boy he wouldn't allow me to toss in any of my own money. Then we walked back out to his car. When we got in we simply sat there for a moment.
Dinner had taken longer than I assumed it would! We were actually having decent conversation, and I hate to admit it, but I was enjoying myself. It was now 9 o'clock and the sun was long gone.
"How did it get so late so quickly?" I asked in disbelief.
"Time flies when you're having fun," Asher winked at me. "So I didn't really have anything planned for after dinner; do you want to just head to my house and watch a movie?"
"S-Sure, that sounds fine," I stuttered nervously. Why the hell was I nervous?!
By the time I realized that I didn't have any extra clothes to wear, we were much too far from my house to turn around. I was in a nice, yet comfortable outfit, so I suppose it was possible to live in it for the weekend.
We arrived at Asher's house around twenty after nine and he jogged around to my side of the car to open the door for me after he parked in his massive driveway. The driveway was proportional to the house; it was even larger than my house and I was a bit intimidated.
"Are you alright?" Asher chuckled.
"Yeah, it's just...your house is huge," I gaped.
"So is yours!" He retorted.
"Fine," I grumbled. He grinned and shook his head, then kissed me on the cheek and took my hand leading me to the front door.
"Welcome to my humble abode," Asher said as we walked into the house. It was beautiful. "I'm going to grab some things for the movie, you can head downstairs to the theater room, it's the fourth door on the left."
"Okay, fourth door on the left, got it!" Asher walked up stairs and I wandered the downstairs trying to find how to get to the basement. Finally I found an open doorway that lead down a flight of stairs. I walked down reminding myself "fourth door on the left." It wasn't difficult to find. I walked in and saw several arm chairs and bean bag chairs in front of a large screen. I sat in one of the arm chairs and gawked at the room.
"Blankets, pillows, and cheddar pretzels!" Asher listed the items he brought for our movie. He was now clad in black joggers and a blue and black striped bro-tank that showed off his impressive biceps.
"Perfect!" I smiled and stood from the chair.
"Oh, and here, you can wear these; I realized you didn't have any extra clothes so I brought you some of mine. They'll be big, but hopefully they work." Asher handed me red flannel PJ pants and a dark grey v-neck. I thanked him and then walked down the hall to find the bathroom. It ended up being the second door on the left.
Once I was changed into the PJs I rejoined Asher in the theater room. He was seated on one of the bean bag chairs with a pillow behind his head and a blanket on his lap.
"What movie did you choose?" I asked to gain his attention when I walked into the room.
"Have you seen Divergent?" He asked as he turned to face me. When his eyes met mine they trailed down my body and I nervously rubbed my arms. It appeared as though his eyes were going to pop out of his head. When they finally met back up with my eyes he cleared his throat, lifted the blanket from his lap, and stood up. He neared closer and I kept my focus set on the floor. When I saw his feet only inches from mine I looked up into his golden brown eyes.
"I have seen Divergent," I finally responded to his question.
"Did you like it?" he almost whispered.
"I loved it," I almost whispered back. His face was mere centimeters from mine. He started leaning in but I turned my face slightly and carefully walked around him to the bean bag he had previously been sitting on.
"Hey, that's where I was sitting," he laughed. I lifted the blanket, scooted over a bit and patted the spot next to me. He chuckled and walked over to sit with me on the bean bag chair. When he sat down he wrapped his arms around my back and my legs and lifted me closer, laying my legs over his. He kept his arm wrapped around my back pulling my torso as close to his as possible. "I hope this doesn't sound weird, but you smell really good."
I giggled, "That doesn't sound weird at all."
"Good, because it's true."
We sat and watched most of the movie in silence, with the occasional comments and laughs here and there.
There was still plenty of time left in the movie and Asher let out a deep laugh at one of the character's lines in the movie. I glanced at him, loving the way his nose crinkled as his grin expanded. He looked at me and locked our gazes. He started to lean in again and I turned back towards the movie. I couldn't kiss him; kissing him would mean giving in, proving that I knew I was wrong about him.
"Scarlett," he whispered desperately. I refused to look at him. "Scarlett, please," he repeated. It was so difficult to ignore him, to continue staring at the screen. "Scar," Asher whispered right into my ear and nudged my cheek with his nose.
I caved. I slowly turned to face him and our gazes locked once more. He slowly began leaning in yet again; I hesitated but slowly leaned in as well. Once our lips met I felt him smile. Honestly, the kiss was perfect. I loved every moment of it.