Page 12 of Love or Leave (Mapleton #4)

nine

C ara sat across from Jalen and resisted the urge to fidget with her bracelet as her mind flitted, trying to remember the topics she'd read to bring up on a first date.

She'd felt good at the start of the date, excited even.

But now that they were there, sitting across from each other in silence, she was panicking.

She made a mental note to look up how to cope with silence when she got home, then cleared her throat. "So, what do you do for work?"

Jalen looked up from his menu and put on an arrogant smile. "I'm a lead software engineer for a tech startup."

Cara nodded, searched for a follow-up question while he went back to reading the menu.

"What are you engineering?"

Jalen looked up again, then glanced around as if it was a stupid question.

Was it?

"I just work on code all day."

She wanted to say “coding what?” but didn't want to face his arrogance again, so she kept her mouth shut.

To say it wasn't going great would be an understatement.

Well, maybe that wasn't fair. He hadn't done or said anything problematic to her. He just didn't seem that interested in speaking, which made her incredibly uncomfortable.

She pretended to peruse her own menu, even though she could recite it like the quadratic equation.

When he'd suggested “this great new place called Keller's,” she'd agreed, expecting him to see the connection, but then realized he didn't even know her last name.

Then she was sure he'd figure it out when both the hostess and waiter greeted her by name, but he just smiled obliviously and sat.

It was clear he wasn't that curious about her. In fact, he hadn't asked her a single question in the ten minutes they'd already spent sitting across from each other.

Cara glanced at her watch. Nope, it had only been four minutes.

Why was time moving so slowly?

She hoped their conversation would become more organic as they settled in and became comfortable, but it wasn't looking good, and she was getting more and more fidgety.

"I'm gonna try the cabbage roll sandwich," he announced, placing the menu down and taking a drink of Willow's new ale.

"Solid choice," she said with a smile. "It's delicious. My grandmother's recipe."

Jalen's eyes slowly lifted and met hers, and he stared at her for a moment. "Your grandmother's recipe?" he asked with a wince, as if he'd just realized he was sitting across from a completely unhinged person.

"Yeah," she said with a laugh. "This is actually my brother’s and his girlfriend's place. Keller is my last name."

His face relaxed—albeit slightly—as he sat back. "I didn't know."

"Are we all set to order?"

Jalen looked up at the waiter who'd appeared beside their table. "Cabbage roll sandwich, please."

"And for you, Cara?"

"I'll have the maple bacon burger but be sure to tell Luis it's for me. He'll know what to do."

"You got it," the waiter said with a wink, then turned and disappeared.

Jalen relaxed fractionally but stayed quiet as the awkward silence returned. This time it swept over them like an avalanche, cutting off air.

Cara searched for something to ask him to fill the void as she fidgeted with the bottom of her shirt. She'd sworn off the fidgeting but could not put an end to it.

Should she tell him what she was working on at school? Mention the once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower that was coming next week? Start blathering on about how cold it had been?

Ugh.

Finally, her mind landed on golf.

"Have you been out on the links lately?"

On the links?

What on earth was she saying? And why was she bringing up a topic she knew nothing of?

His eyes met hers, as if he’d been waging his own silent battle for conversation and she’d just cast him a lifeline.

He smiled, opened his mouth, and started blathering on about handicaps and eagles.

She followed along, trying to gauge an appropriate time to laugh or nod, trying to keep up the ruse.

If she was going to go on another date with him, she'd need to broaden her golf research beyond little throwaway terms she didn't fully understand, like “links.”

Suddenly, the door opened, and an icy breeze blew in, followed by Max.

His eyes met hers briefly before zeroing in on the guy sitting across from her. A millisecond later, he changed his trajectory and turned toward her, gobbling up the distance between them while staring daggers into the back of Jalen's head.

She rolled her eyes at him, then realized he was wearing gym clothes.

And the ends of his hair were wet.

And it was Thursday.

Shit.

Hockey night.

That meant that not far behind would be—

The door opened and in blew Adam, Ethan, and Antonio. Adam followed Max and when he saw her and Jalen, his ridiculous face broke into a smile.

Here we go.

She braced herself, all the while Jalen droned on and on about some golf course she was supposed to care about, oblivious to the storm brewing behind him—her brother, and his two friends who were practically also brothers, and their newest friend, who definitely wasn't like a brother at all.

Jalen trailed off as Max moved to the side of their booth and stopped, effectively cutting off the view of the restaurant behind him.

"Cara," Max said in a fake intimidating voice.

She rolled her eyes.

Jalen twisted to look up at Max, then glanced back at her with an expectant look.

"Jalen, this is my brother, Max. Max, Jalen."

"Hey, man," Jalen said in a shaky voice as he extended his hand toward Max.

Max looked at her first and she widened her eyes, so he took his hand and played nice.

"Well, well, well! What have we here?" Adam asked with a big gotcha smile as he pushed aside Max. "Cara, are you on a date?"

Ethan laughed and shook his head.

Cara sighed. "This is Adam and Ethan and—"

Fuck.

She finally realized what she should have realized the second she'd realized it was hockey night.

Jalen had already met Antonio. But Antonio definitely shouldn't have already met Jalen.

She searched for an explanation, but Jalen had already spotted Antonio and spoke before she could.

"Hey, Antonio, right?"

Shit, shit, shit.

Antonio nodded but stayed silent. He spared her one glance, but his face was completely neutral.

"You two know each other?" Max asked, staring at Antonio.

Before either could answer, Cara interrupted.

"Anyway!" she shouted, way too loud than the situation called for. "You guys want to go, so you should. Go, that is. Now."

Max frowned as Adam laughed, and Ethan pushed the two of them along. But when she looked at Antonio, she caught him staring at Jalen.

Actually, staring wasn't the right word for what he was doing. It was more like… glaring?

"You two have fun!" Adam said.

Antonio snapped out of it and followed the group through the restaurant to a table in the back near the brewery doors.

It wasn't as good as them leaving entirely, but at least they were out of sight. Besides, she and Jalen would have to get used to them all if they were going to figure out some common ground and date each other.

"That's your brother?" Jalen asked as he turned back toward her, his brows sky-high.

"He only looks mean."

Jalen gave her an unconvinced nod. "And Antonio? He's…"

She waited for him to finish.

"A friend of your brother's?"

Cara nodded. "Yeah, they've known each other since they were young."

"So, is he… like a brother to you?"

Cara snorted and immediately regretted it.

"Uh, I haven't known him as long," she said, trying to recover.

But it was futile. Antonio was as much as a brother to her as Mars was a moon of Earth. But given that Jalen looked nervous and seemed to grasp that there was something else between them, on her side at least, she shook her head and tried again.

"We're just friends," she said.

Jalen nodded but stayed silent.

Cara started fidgeting again.

"Okay!" the waiter said as he came to a stop next to their booth. "I have the cabbage roll sandwich for you," he said, placing a loaded plate down in front of Jalen. "And a maple bacon burger, just how you like it, from Luis, for you,” he said, placing the plate in front of Cara. “Enjoy."

They both said thanks, and the waiter turned and walked off. Cara almost wanted to ask him to pull up a chair and stay.

Silence fell upon them again, but at least this time there was food to distract her and give her a buffer to think of better directions to steer the conversation toward.

"So, what did you think of the concert?"

He launched into a funny story about his friend Paul buying fake tickets from three different scammers before getting legit ones, and she forced herself to forget about Antonio sitting just across the room.

She relaxed into the comfy booth, and picked up her burger, and gave all her attention to Jalen.