Page 8

We all eat our food in peace and quiet because we all love the great meal. I eat half of my burger and a handful of fries before I’m full while the boys eat their double orders and the sides. Jaxon wipes his hands on his napkin, looks at me, and then at my plate. When he sees the total and complete mess on my plate, his head spins. My burger’s bun fell off, and the different sauces were all over my plate in a messy way. It looks like an animal, not a girl, ate the burger.
“I told you!” I tease Jaxon and push his shoulder lightly.
Skyler laughs, “Pfft, and you call us monsters?” “Look at you! What the hell did you do to that poor burger?”
“Okay, do you see these hands?” I ask Skyler as I hold up my small hands. “I can’t hold the whole burger, so things fall out. It’s not my fault!” I complain. Jaxon takes one of my hands and holds it in his. His big, rough hand covers my small one completely. He mumbles, “I like your small hands.” His words make me blush. His hands are so attractive. They are very large and warm. And strong. Is that real? Strong hands? I guess it’s a thing.
“But since you like trying new foods, maybe you can eat something on our next date that doesn’t kill it,” he says with a small smile. Skyler goes crazy after hearing that. Half of the people in the restaurant come over to hear him laugh, which makes Ezra laugh loudly too. Ezra, who is usually quiet and reserved, is laughing out loud at me! I make my face look “angry” and take my hand off of his. Then I cross my arms. I try to give him a dirty look, but Jaxon’s smile just gets bigger. That makes me think of what he said: that I look like a cute kitten when I glare at him. That just makes me more angry.
“Stop the presses! Jaxon Rowan just told a joke!” Skyler yells. “Oh my god, this will go down in history, people!”
“Shut up,” Jaxon says.
The waiter comes to take our plates away a little while later. He looks at the mess on my plate twice, but Jaxon growls softly, and the waiter doesn’t say anything. Instead, he cleans the table. The waiter comes back with dessert menus, and even though I’m not hungry, I still look at them.
Jaxon asks me, “I thought you said you were full.”
“Tsk tsk tsk. Jaxon, do I have to teach you everything?” I ask. “Okay, I’m going to teach you about the body.” I move back a little on the bench so Jaxon can see my stomach area. “This is important, especially for you, Skyler, since you’re pre-med,” I said, pointing to Ezra and Skyler. I point to different parts of my body and say their names. “Here are the ribs, then the small intestine, then the large intestine, and finally the stomach.” I then point to a spot just below my stomach. “And this is the dessert stomach. It’s a little bit bigger than the regular stomach, but no real food is allowed in it. Only sweets. So I’m full, but my dessert stomach is still ready for dessert.”
Skyler laughs at me again. Skyler can’t go more than a minute without laughing at something, I don’t think. Jaxon shakes his head at me, then suddenly grabs my hips and moves me so that I’m almost sitting in his lap on the bench. I scream when he suddenly moves, and my hands quickly go to his chest to steady myself. When I touch him, I can feel the muscles in his chest tighten a little. I can see every single eyelash on his face and the different shades of blue and Jaxon in his eyes. Our noses are almost touching. He mumbles, “What am I going to do with you?”
I’ve never been in a situation like this with a guy before. I really want to kiss him, but I know I won’t have the guts to do it. He has to kiss me first if we ever do. I know I’m too shy to do anything. The longer we look at each other and stay close, the more tension there is. If he just tilted his head up a little bit,
The waiter asks, “Have you guys decided on a dessert for tonight?” without knowing what we were doing. I jump in surprise, but then I remember where I am right away. I was in a busy restaurant with another couple across the table from me, and I was going to kiss someone! What’s wrong with me?
I quickly and awkwardly got off of Jaxon’s lap and went back to the bench to get some space from him. His jaw tightens right away, and he glares at the waiter, who starts to shake in his boots because he knows how angry he is.
Ezra says, “We’re still thinking,” but he doesn’t seem to be able to look away from Jaxon. The waiter hurries off to give us more time, and our table is quiet again. Skyler seems to find the situation funny, Ezra seems to be paying attention to Jaxon and making sure he doesn’t attack our waiter, and Jaxon seems to be really angry… I don’t understand what that means. What made him so mad? I guess my nickname, “Broody,” was pretty close.
When my phone rings, I jump in surprise for the second time in ten seconds. I see that my mom is calling. When I answer the phone, I say, “Sorry, guys, I have to take this. It’s my mom.”
“Hey, Mom, I’m still out to dinner. Is everything okay?”
“Hey, honey. I’m sorry to call you, but I thought you might be on your way home soon,” she said. I can hear Maisie crying loudly in the background while I’m talking, which makes me tense up right away. “Oh my god, Mom. Is Maisie okay? Why is she crying? Is she hurt?” I start to freak out. What if she really hurt herself? She’s just six! The guys are all paying attention to me and are ready for my sudden panic.
“No, sweetie, she’s fine. Just enjoy your dinner, and hopefully, Maisie will have calmed down by then.” I sigh in relief, but my calmness doesn’t last long because Maisie’s cries only seem to get louder as time goes on.
“Mom, tell me what’s going on. Maisie doesn’t usually act like this,” I say.
My mom sighs on the phone and finally tells me what’s wrong. “I was playing with Maisie and her dolls before bed. We were in your room because the dolls were there last time we played. Maisie bumped into your dresser while holding one of the dolls and knocked over one of your snow globes. It broke on the floor. Maisie is fine, but she thinks you’ll be mad at her. I’ve tried to calm her down, but she’s been crying for thirty minutes.”
“Okay, I’m on my way. Tell her I’m coming and that I’m not mad at her.”
“Okay, sweetie. I’m sorry to ruin your dinner. I didn’t know—”
“Mom, it’s fine,” I say to her. “We were almost done anyway. I’ll see you soon.”
I turn to Jaxon after I hang up with my mom. “Hey, I’m sorry, but I have to go home. Maisie needs me right now,” I say to Skyler. “Can you please take me home now? I’ll make it up to you.”
“I’ll drop you off,” Jaxon says as he tries to get out of the booth. But I’m still in his way.
“Oh,” I say, shocked. “Are you sure? I don’t want to ruin your night.”
“I’m sure.” Jaxon pulls two hundred dollar bills out of his pocket and puts them on the table. Then he tells me to stand up. I get a little shocked by the amount, but I still get up and leave the booth. Jaxon stands up next to me, which makes me remember how tall he is again. My head only goes up to his chest!
After saying goodbye to Skyler and Ezra, I go to Jaxon’s Tesla. He opens the door for me, gets in the car, and then drives toward my house. I hope Jaxon isn’t too scared of how Maisie is doing…
We get to my house in less than ten minutes, and I quickly unbuckle my seatbelt and get out of the car. Jaxon stays close behind me, and my mom opens the door for me before I get to it.
“Hi, Mom,” I say. She smiles at me gratefully and opens the door even wider so I can come in. Her smile gets even bigger when she sees Jaxon. Maisie starts crying again, so my mom says she’ll go check on her and leave us alone on the front porch.
“So… I had fun tonight,” I say quietly, almost in a whisper. I don’t understand how talking to someone can be so easy and so hard at the same time. I had to tell Jaxon how I felt, but I was still very nervous around him.
He smiled at me and said, “I had fun tonight, too.” At that moment, I completely forgot where I was. I forgot that Maisie was crying in the house. I forgot that my mom was just on the other side of the door. I forgot that I was outside my house in the dark with a guy I had only met a few times. I forgot everything because it didn’t really matter. I was here with Jaxon, who has become very important to me in the short time I’ve known him.
“Sorry, we didn’t get dessert.” I scratched my head and looked down for a second before remembering that Jaxon doesn’t like it when I look down. I looked up and saw that Jaxon’s eyes were on mine. It’s time for the butterflies.
“It’s fine. That just means we have to go out for dessert another day.”
“Another time?” I asked while playing with the hem of my dress.
“Yeah. Date number two,” he said with a smile, which made me blush even more. At this point, my cheeks probably looked like two tomatoes. I had no idea that one person could have this much of an effect on me. This is terrible! I like him a lot more than he likes me. I can’t get enough of what he says. I’m scared that I’ll get even more attached now that we’re going on another date. When he gets bored with me, I’ll be heartbroken.
“Hey,” Jaxon whispers and takes my hands in his. His big hands stop mine from moving. That’s when I realized that the crescent marks on my skin were from pressing my fingernails into my palms. He asked softly, “What’s wrong? What are you thinking?” but I could still tell that he was in a hurry. I was about to say something when Maisie’s loud cry came through the front door.
“I’m sorry, I have to go take care of her.” I pulled my hands away from his, even though I didn’t want to, and started to walk toward the front door, which was still open. I turned the handle and was about to say goodbye when I saw Jaxon standing right behind me. I let out a squeal of surprise. “Oh my—what are you doing?”
Jaxon put his hand gently on my shoulder to warm me up. “You seem upset. If it’s okay with you, I thought I’d come in with you. You can talk to Maisie, and then we can talk after that. It’s not too late right now, though,” he said.
“Yeah, that’s fine with me. Let’s go inside before the cops get called by the neighbors. It sounds like she’s being tortured,” I say jokingly. Jaxon laughs.
When we get inside, I follow the sound of crying to the living room, where Maisie is lying on her stomach and crying into the rug. I call out “Maisie?” in the softest voice I can. I want her to know that I’m not mad at her and that I’m trying to get her to talk to me. She stops crying right away and looks up to see me kneeling next to her. I put my hand on her back and gently rub it up and down. “Hey, why are you crying?”
Maisie gets up quickly and runs into my arms, which knocks me to the ground. I made a small “oof” sound when a six-year-old knocked the wind out of me. Yes, that wasn’t my best moment. Especially when both my mom and the guy I just went out with started laughing at me for not being strong or balanced.
I quickly get better and hug her back, wrapping my arms around her completely. I start to rub her back in a soothing way, and my nails lightly scratch her back through her shirt. “I’m so sorry, Calla! I promise it was an accident! I was playing d-d-dolls when…”