Page 51 of Love at First Sighting
“Just let Bex roll with it and enjoy your crab cake.”
When it comes time to order dinner, I’m starting to panic over what I’m supposed to get. I don’t think anyone expects me to pay the bill, but I’m calculating how quickly I’ll need to find a drive-through if I go with a little gem salad and a cup of soup, the cheapest things on the menu.
Meanwhile, Jet orders the two-hundred-dollar tomahawk steak for two and I think he plans to eat it all himself. El notices my apprehension and leans over. The graze of her fingertips on my pants sends a shiver up my spine.
“What’s wrong?”
“I am a federal worker, El. I can’t afford any of this stuff.”
“Don’t worry about it. I got you.”
I’ve never been able to stomach being a charity case. In fact, I think I liked it better when people didn’t treat medifferently because of what I’ve been through. I didn’t like the awkward way friends in high school skirted around talking about life milestones because they worried I’d suddenly be sad my parents would never be there for mine. I know that up against El, I’m nothing, with all her followers and glamour and attention. What I like most is how she’s never made it feel that way.
I feel like I can be so much when I’m around her.
“That’s not fair.”
She waves me off. “I’m making up for it. Grilled cheese, that drive-through meal. Ourdrinks.”
This isn’t exactly how I’d want it to go. If I’m ever lucky enough to get El on a real date, I want to pay. I want to take her somewhere nice but not too flashy. I would want to make it aboutus, not about the money. But, of course, that’s what someone who makes hardly above minimum wage would think.
“Fine. Next time—” I catch myself.
“Next time?” El’s brows raise. I worry I’ve jumped the gun and read this all wrong, but she smiles. “All right. Next time, you can pay.”
I can’t figure out if I’ve accidentally asked her out or if this is all a joke.
Regardless, I still order the cheapest steak on the menu.
“So, Colton,” Jet begins. His voice bellows across the table. This man’s entire being is Full Capacity.
“Carter,” I correct.
“That’s a cool face scar you have there.”
I would love to tell him it came from a traumatic childhood car accident, that it required eighteen stitches, but after years of therapy, I can admit it does look kind of cool, soI’m not annoyed with Jet. I’m confused by him and maybe a little scared of him, but he’s not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. His head might just be full of packing peanuts.
“Um…thank you?”
Jet doesn’t get to ask me about the rest of my trauma before our meals arrive. I eat my small filet in a few bites, and I’m done by the time Sam summons El backstage to prepare for the show. She leaves me with a smile, and when I open my napkin, I see she’s left me a little note with a heart on it. Before anyone at the table can see it, I smile and keep it just for me.
A few minutes later, a puff of smoke erupts at the center of the room. Oh goody.
The lights dim and jaunty circus music plays over the speakers. Spotlights swarm around the room. I hate to admit it, but I think magic shows are kind of fun. I’d enjoy it more if it weren’t El’s smarmy ex doing card tricks.
A microphone crackles and a booming narrator comes over the loudspeaker. “Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves to be mystified. He has traveled across the globe, bewildering audiences with all the tricks up his sleeves. He can guess your card, make items vanish and reappear, and then, by the end of the show, he will do his most famous, death-defying stunt where he saws a woman…in half!”
A blue beam of light strikes through the center of the smoke cloud, and from it emerges none other than Alaka-Sam. As he enters, doves fly out of his sleeves and I have no idea where they came from and I hate myself more for actually being wowed. There’s something about birds flying out of people’s sleeves thatreallygets me.
Sam starts off small with a few card tricks and El slinksonstage, presenting him with his magical deck of cards. Her smile beams, her eyes glimmer under the chandeliers, and her red sequined dress sparkles. It’s clear El is naturally magnetic in a way most people have to try to be. She justis. She attracts looks from across the theater just by being seen.
Everyone takes notice. Even Ian Forte.
El keeps her eyes focused on Ian’s private box near the back, and I wonder what she can see from the stage. Is Ian watching her as intently as I am? Is she even going to have toaskSam for the intro? I begin sweating for a new reason. Men like Ian Forte don’t ask for things. They simply get. And if he wants El, that’s what he’ll get. He’s rich, suave, and probably has a couple of yachts. How could anyone want someone like me when they could have that?
Sam pivots to pulling scarves out of his mouth, and then there are more doves. I still have no idea where these doves are coming from and I don’t know where they go when he releases them. As cool as they are, I hope one doesn’t either (a) shit or (b) nest on my hat. His next trick involves interlinking rings he takes apart and puts back together again.
Then, to finish off the show, he invites El onto the stage once again.
