Page 9 of Chasing Elliott
“I’ll be right back,” Kara announced as she pushed me out of the booth so she could exit. Once I sat back down, she pointed a finger at me. “If the food comes while I’m gone, don’t you dare eat my pickle.”
I rolled my eyes as she walked away and chuckled, knowing damn well that was exactly what I was going to do. Taking a sip of my Mojito, I glanced up and saw both the boys on their phones. I shook my head as I rested my elbows on the table and raised a brow at them.
“You two really need to learn some better manners,” I said which caused them both to look up at me as if they forgot I was still here. “We are at the table.”
Cooper chuckled while Benjamin rolled his eyes at my banter but they both put theirphones back in their pockets. Smiling with satisfaction, I clapped my hands together and rested them on the table in front of me.
“So, what about you? What do you boys’ study?”
“Shit, I have to go,” Cooper rushed out suddenly as his phone started ringing. “Wherewill you guys be in an hour or so?”
“Well, Kay and I will probably be at home,” I replied with a shrug.
As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt a foot kick my shin from under the table and looked over to see Benjamin looking at me with a cocked brow. I stared back at him with aconfused expression no doubt covering my face but didn’t say a word as I waited for him to speak.
“I was just thinking we could go back to the beach for a latenight swim,” Benjamin informed us. I nodded and smiled, not wanting to show my disdain. All I wanted was to go home and lay in bed, but I was trying to be a good wing-woman for Kara, and I knew she would kill me if she found out I turned down the opportunity for her to spend more time with Benjamin.
“Perfect, I’ll meet you lot there,” Cooper said as he exited the booth so he could make adart for the door. I was curious about the quick departure but decided I could always ask him about it later.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked, filling the silence.
“I have two things, actually,” Benjamin started to say as he rested his hands on the tableand I suddenly felt like I was in an interrogation. “First things first, I know you’re really good friends with Kara and I’ve heard some things about the two of you, so I was just wondering if she was looking for a relationship or not.”
“What things have you heard, exactly?” I asked incredulously, interested to see what has made him so uptight and nervous.
“Just that you both tend sleep around,” he replied nonchalantly with a simple shrug of his shoulders, but his eyes never left mine, trying to gauge my reaction.
I couldn’t help as a laugh escaped me which caused him to jump slightly. “She does notsleep around,” I informed him, my laughter dying down to a light chuckle, still finding humor in the thought. “Just because that’s how I am and she’s friends with me doesn’t automatically mean she’s that way, too. She’s definitely more of the relationship type.”
Benjamin fell silent at my answer before I heard him curse softly under his breath as heleaned back into the soft cushion of the booth. Leaning forward in my seat, I rested my arms on the table-top and tilted my head at him, waiting for him to say something with slightly narrowed eyes.
“Sorry about that,” Kara said loudly as she returned to the table and pushed me further into the booth so she could sit down. “Where’d Cooper disappear to?”
“He had something he needed to do but he’ll meet up with us later,” Benjamin told her dryly. Kara didn’t seem to notice the obvious change in his demeanor, but he stayed that way forthe rest of dinner.
Once we paid for our meal, we began to make our way out of the restaurant when Irealized I had left my wallet back on the table. Quickly walking back to retrieve it, I saw that Kara had left her box of leftovers as well. Rolling my eyes at the predictability of it, I grabbed them both and turned back around to catch up with them.
As I was walking past the kitchen, a pair of hands wrapped around my forearm that was holding my wallet and I was pulled through a set of double doors. Before I could comprehend what was happening, my back was suddenly pushed against the cool tile wall and a pair of lips were on mine. Startled, I abruptly pulled back but smiled with relief as I looked into a pair offamiliar dark green eyes.
“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to grab a woman like that?” I reminded Johnathan with a raised brow and somewhat narrowed eyes, but I wrapped my arms around his neck nonetheless, making sure not to spill Kara’s leftovers.
He continued to cup my face with one hand while the other absentmindedly played with my hair before he tucked it behind my ear. Johnathan’s eyes stayed trained on my lips and the look behind them almost made me breathless. “I’m sorry, I’ve just really missed you.”
Not saying a word, I pushed myself up on the balls of my feet and connected my lips to his. Johnathan wrapped one of his hands into my hair as I dropped the food and my wallet on thefloor, intertwining my own hands firmly into his dark locks. Before we got too sucked in, a knock on the door pulled our lips apart.
Laura suddenly came strolling in and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw us entangled in one another. I closed my eyes for a brief moment to remind myself to bite my tongue - after all, I had no one to blame but myself, well and the guy I slept with, for the feud that we had.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she spat out as she folded her arms over her chest. “You already came here with two guys. Were they not good enough for you?”
I stepped out of Johnathan’s grasp and placed one last quick kiss to his lips beforepicking up what I had dropped earlier, walking past Laura without a word. Stopping at the door, Ilooked over my shoulder to exchange a wordless glance with him before he smiled and sent a wink my way. Slipping back into the restaurant, I quickly made my way for the exit to find Karaand Benjamin waiting for me, leaning against his car.
We pulled into the parking lot of the beach we were at previously and I noticed only a few parked cars still lingering. It had grown plenty dark outside, but we saw the familiar glow of the bonfire a few yards away. Climbing out of the vehicle, the three of us made our way towards the beach but I stopped on the sidewalk and took off my shoes before walking into the sand.
Kara wasted no time in running toward the water, kicking off her shoes as she went. Ichuckled as I watched her stumble before finally stepping into the chilling waves, following behind her to grab her Birkenstocks. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turned to see Benjamin and I followed his eyes out to where Kara stood, her arms out to her sides as she stared up at thestars.
“So, what exactly was that back at the restaurant?” I asked, breaking the silence as Iturned to face him and rested a hand on my hip.
“Look, he’d kill me if he knew I was telling you this, but Cooper went to that party tonight to meet you and potentially ask you out because he wants a relationship, and I told himallthe great things about you that Kara told me.” I couldn’t help but smile softly at that as Ilooked back out at her standing knee deep in the water. “If you’re not going to be able to commit, can you let him down gently? He tends to get wrapped up in others rather easily, so thesooner you can tell him you don’t want that, the better.”
