Page 59 of Off The Ice

“What!”

“Nothing, it’s just—” I said through laughter. “Have you seen you? Or better yet, have you seenme?” I gestured between us to our drastic size difference. “In what world do you think you can eat more than me?”

She tsked, waving away my comment with a gesture of hand.

“You’ll see.” She smiled sweetly.

“Hi, sorry about the wait.” The hostess rushed over to the host stand when she noticed us waiting. “Table for two?”

“Yes, please,” I said and found myself placing a guiding hand on Cassie’s back as we followed the host to the table.

It was stupid, I thought as soon as I did it. It was a small place and nowhere near crowded enough for her to get lost. But I did it without thinking and then thought it would be weirder to rip it away, so I kept it there, reveling in the feeling of her beneath me and feeling like an asshole for doing it all the same.

“Thank you,” Cassie told the hostess as she sat us down with menus.

Cassie said ‘thank you’ a lot, I’d noticed. Over and over again for the littlest things. She said thank you when the waitress brought us to the table, thank you when she sat us down, and thank you when the waitress left, promising she’d be back soon.

Not to mention the dozens of times she’d said it to me for doing absolutely nothing.

She was really polite, something I could probably learn from, considering everyone loved to remind me what an asshole I was.

But around Cassie, I didn’t feel like such an asshole. In fact, I found myself feeling like the type of guy who was nice to people just because I wasn’t so damned tense about who they were, why they were talking to me, or what they wanted from me.

Something about her put me at ease in a way that almost scared me because why the hell did a girl I’d only known for afew days make me feel more relaxed than anyone I’d known in my entire life?

And how was I going to react when she was gone?

“So, what’s the move?” I asked, shaking the thoughts out of my head.

She was here now, in front of me. I wasn’t going to waste the time worrying about what would happen later.

“Um, well, extra cheese is a must,” she said very seriously.

“Obviously.” I nodded. “What else?”

“Um, I was thinking… mushrooms?”

“Why do you look shy about mushrooms?” I laughed.

“I don’t know,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes they’re a controversial topping.”

“Well, I don’t have anything against them, so if you like mushrooms, then load the pizza with them for all I care.”

“Okay, your turn to pick toppings.” She groaned in frustration. “You’re going to be eating it too, after all.”

I was about to tell her that I really didn’t care, that I’d happily eat anything she could possibly order just because of how excitedly she looked at the menu.

But by now, I knew her well enough that I could predict how she’d react to that. With a nose scrunched and protestations that would leave us going back and forth in circles. So I offered up a suggestion.

“Pepperoni?”

Her face fell. Barely visible, but some of that warmth radiating behind the smile fell away, leaving a distant, insincere look in its wake.

“Great. Yeah. That sounds good.” She nodded her head in agreement, but I saw right through her.

“You don’t like pepperoni?”

She shrugged her shoulders, looking at me bashfully. “Not really. But, of course, I don’t mind eating them ifyoulike them.”

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