Page 8 of Chasing Elliott
“Johnathan,” I said in my best flirtatious tone as I leaned against the bar with a cheeky grin.
“Elliott,” Johnathan responded in surprise as he glanced down at the watch on his right wrist. “You’re in early tonight. I’m not off for another four hours.”
“What can I say,” I started to say with a shrug of my shoulders. “The heart wants what it wants, and this heart? It wants a burger.”
“Let me guess: Laura wasn’t very happy to see you?” He questioned as he wiped his hands off on his apron before walking out from behind the bar.
Rolling my eyes as he approached, he put a hand on the small of my back as we started walking back towards the hostess stand to meet the others. “Not in the slightest. It’s not my faulther boyfriend didn’t tell me he was seeing someone.”
“She’ll get over it,” Johnathan said with a dismissive shrug as we finally approached thegroup. “Hey, Kay.”
“Hey, John,” Kara said with a warm smile as he grabbed four menus. “How have you been?”
“Can’t complain,” he told her as he sent me a wink which caused a smile to pull at thecorner of my lips. “Want your usual booth?”
Kara nodded in response. Johnathan turned and led us to our favorite spot: a booth in theback corner of the restaurant that had an amazing view of the ocean.
As he placed the menus down, Kara slid into the left side as the boys slid into the right. Just as I was about to slide in, Johnathan grabbed for my hand and squeezed it gently beforequickly letting go. As I sat down, he was nice enough to take our drink orders rather than making us wait for the waitress before he disappeared, and I smiled across the table at Cooper only to seea small frown on his face.
“So, what happened back there exactly?” Benjamin asked, not skipping a beat. I opened my menu and began to scan over it before I reached for the build-your-own-burger sheet that sat in the wooden block against the window next to Kara.
“What are you referring to? Exactly?” I retorted which caused Kara to cast a sidelong glance at me.
“What are you referring to?” Benjamin repeated my question back to me. I huffed in annoyance, hating when people answered a question with another question, even though Irealized I had done just that.
“Not how this works,” I told him, pointing my pen at him before I went back to filling outmy order card.
“Okay, fine. Why does it look like Cooper is going to have a black eye in a day or two?”
I quickly looked up at his words and noticed a small bruise indeed starting to form underneath Cooper’s right eye. Guilt flooded through me, and it must have been evident on my face because he started to shake his head at me before putting his hand over the top of my own that rested on the table's surface.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a soft smile. “I’d take a thousand of these from assholes like that for you if I had to.”
“Marcus is what happened,” I mumbled, ignoring Cooper’s comment completely. Karaelbowed me under the table, but I only gave her a quick glance as I slid the sheet to my right.
“God, he can be such an ass sometimes,” Benjamin hissed angrily as he leaned back into the booth. “But don’t worry, we’ll make sure he leaves you alone.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully as Johnathan returned with our drinks. After everyoneordered, Benjamin started to make small talk.
“So, Elliott, what do you major in?” He asked as he took a sip of his beer.
I picked up my right leg to cross over my left as I leaned back into the booth and shrugged. “I’m currently in business but I want to start my own reporting company.”
“What do you mean by that?” Cooper asked as he folded his arms on the table across from me, leaning slightly closer.
“I want to have a journalism company that contains all women. Yes, there’s a good handful of women journalists and reporters out there but they don’t receive even half the pay or opportunitiesthat men do,” I finished with a smile.
“Ah,” Benjamin started to say, a playful tone to his voice. “So, you’re a feminist.”
I knew he was trying to bait me since I had been in and seen this situation unfold plenty of times before, but I’ve learned from experience that arguing gets you nowhere.
“I am a woman,” I informed him as I tilted my head and shrugged. “It’d be dumb of meto not be on my own side.”
“Maybe that’s why Marcus and Ryan seem to have a stick up their ass,” Kara said, finally putting her two cents into the conversation. “They didn’t think you’d be respectful of yourself, unlike most girls. At least Johnathan gets it.”
“You know Marcus?” Cooper asked suddenly which caught me off-guard. I nodded slowly as I glanced between him and Benjamin. “He’s my roommate.”
Kara’s phone started ringing, thankfully bringing a halt to the conversation before it led somewhere I definitely didn’t want it going.
