“Hi, my name’s Ken, and I’ll be your server today. Would you like to order now or wait?”
Elijah glanced at me and waited for my nod before answering.
“We’ll order now.”
He looked over the menu and gave his order out. Then they both turned to me. Ducking my head, my face feeling warm, I took a quick glance at the sandwiches and ordered whatever sounded good with a mocha.
“Would you like any desert?” Elijah asked.
“A slice of red velvet cake, please,” I said quietly.
“All right,” Ken said with a smile at the both of us. “I’ll be right back with your order.”
He walked away, and awkwardness descended on our table. I clasped my hands together on top of the table, playing with my fingers. Then, I heard Elijah clear his throat and looked up.
“I wanted to talk to you,” he reminded me quietly.
“Right,” I sighed. “Well, get on with it.”
His fingers tapped a rhythm on the table. “I guess I could start with the whole dating site thing?”
“You probably should,” I said, arching an eyebrow and folding my arms over my chest. “It’s a surprise that you of all people would need to go to a dating site.”
“It’s not that I needed it or anything, but I wanted to. And then I found your profile, and we just started chatting…”
“There is something I’d like to ask,” I said cutting in. “How did you know it was me?”
I frowned because I didn’t think I’d given it away at any one time. And if I had, then he would know it was me, and wouldn’t he have stopped chatting with me? I got the impression from Elijah that he didn’t like me any more than I liked him, so why would he still talk to me while knowing?
“It was…” He shifted his eyes around. “Uh, I figured it out. From some stuff you told me.”
My frown deepened. Had I said something to give myself away at some point? I didn’t think so…besides the fact that we were the same age, the same school year and in the same major, we hadn't shared a lot of personal information. Well, I did tell him about my past a little, but no one else knew about it, so it wasn’t like he could figure it out from that. And I couldn’t even check, because I’d already closed my account, and I would have to open a new one to get into the site, all the info I’d had on my old profile would still be gone.
“How long have you known?” I asked, putting the other issue aside.
“I’ve known for a while.”
“And…you still kept talking to me?”
He shrugged and said honestly, “When it’s online, I like talking to you. You treat me like a person instead of a walking meathead and we actually get to talk. I loved getting to know you, so…even knowing it was you, I didn’t mind. And I wanted to meet you to tell you face to face that… I like you.”
I inhaled a sharp breath, leaning back in my seat and gaping at him. My face felt like it was burning. Elijah was a straightforward kind of guy, or so I’d heard around, but I hadn’t been on the receiving end of it like this before. My heart started beating wild in my chest. Luckily, before I could figure out what to say, the waiter showed up with our orders.
“Here you go,” he said, setting everything down. “I’ll be keeping a look out for you guys so please raise your hand to let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” Elijah muttered, picking up his coffee and looking down as he took a sip.
I was relieved that he looked down because I needed some time to compose myself. I took my own mug and took a sip of mocha, sighing at the sweet taste. Though I wouldn’t have minded more cream and sugar.
We ate our meal silently, and Elijah paid afterward. We left the café and walked around a little. There was a small park not far from the café, and we ended up there, seated on a bench under a tree. Like the spot in front of the library when we were supposed to meet. Which reminded me of something else.
“Why did you ask me to meet you when you knew you had a game?”
He smiled sheepishly at me. “Actually, about that. See, we kept chatting so much that I wasn’t thinking much about hockey, so when I asked to meet, I gave you the time we’d be having the game. I didn’t even realize until we were about to start, and it was too late to message you. Then after the game, I was held up a little. I did stop by the library, and you’d already left by then. I went back to my dorm to get showered and changed, and came to look for you.”
Elijah was so honest and frank; it was hard to remain mad at him about it. I could forgive it if it were an honest mistake, and the tone of his voice, as well as the sincere look in his eyes, told me he wasn’t lying to me. Slowly, I was starting to change my mind about Elijah. I was already attracted to him, so realizing he was a nice guy was icing on the cake.
We chatted lightly as we sat under the tree, then got up to walk around some more after a bit. Before I realized it, nearly two hours had passed, and Elijah offered to buy me dinner. I didn’t want the day to end yet, so I agreed. We talked through dinner, and the conversation wasn’t awkward or stilted at all. After a while, I even forgot all about my social anxiety. I discovered that Elijah could be a funny guy if he wanted to be, making me laugh over and over.
By the end of the night, he walked me back to my dorm. It was dark already, and we were both quiet again, but it felt much more comfortable than earlier. He walked me all the way up the stairs and to my door, and my heart started beating fast once more as I grew more and more aware of him. We were a lot closer to each other than earlier, and though we didn’t touch, I could feel his warmth. My body felt all tingly, too, and I could remember the last time I felt this way around a guy.
I forgot just how much I missed it.
I unlocked the door and pushed it open. The room was dark, and when I hit the light switch, I realized it was also empty. Dana must have gone out, probably to stay with Logan. I turned around, and Elijah was still standing there at the door stop.
“Well,” he said slowly, his eyes never meeting mine. “I guess this is it.”
For a long moment, we just stared at each other. My heart was beating so loudly I thought he could hear it. When I saw him shift like he was about to turn around and walk away, my hand shot out and grabbed onto his arm. His eyes widened in surprise as I dragged him into my room and closed the door behind him.