I Never Thought

Chapter 19

Chloe's POV

I sighed in satisfaction as the image of Chase's astonished expression lingered in my mind. He was speechless, dumbfounded, and I couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. The thought of me having such a strong effect on him made me grin like a middle schooler who got asked out by her crush.

The fact that he still thought that I was oblivious started to seem ridiculous to me. Was he still even trying? If he was then he was a bad actor. I planned to test him more and more, I wanted to break him. I wanted the act to be over so that we could continue what we started because I knew we both wanted it.

I wasn't going to be the one to break it though. It was fun playing dumb. I loved how I could control him, how he tried so hard to keep his cool. What was he waiting for?

I showered and threw on the yellow dress that he chose and a denim jacket over it. I clipped in some silver dangling butterfly earrings and a matching necklace. I applied a single layer of lip gloss and fluffed my hair. When I hopped down the stairs, everyone was in the living room.

Mom had all the groceries that she got laid out on the kitchen counters and I went to help her pack them away. Chase grabbed the tub of Rocky Road ice cream before I got the chance to put it into the freezer. When I handed it too him, I saw his eyes dart down to my chest before he turned to the freezer. I couldn't help but smile to myself.

"The generator is up and running so if we have a power outage, we should be good," Dad said as he dropped himself down into the couch, causing the sound of leather rubbing together from his added weight.

"Good, because the last thing we need is to be stuck in the middle of the woods with no electricity," Mom said and handed me a carton of milk.

We finished doing our assigned tasks and began to head out into the town. Chase had changed into a black T-shirt and jeans, his sunglasses sat comfortably over his eyes. His hair danced in the wind as we drove since Dad had decided to drop the top of the car down so we could enjoy the scenic drive.

When we were all seated, I looked over the menu and ended up being stuck between getting chicken fried rice or shrimp Lo Mein. I was sitting between Chase and Christian at the booth and Mom and Dad sat across from us.

"Is this what made you shit yourself?" Chase asked as he pointed to the calamari.

"Language," Mom snapped and the three of us snickered.

"Yeah, that's the one. Take my warning you guys, it's not fun."

"I'll take your word for it," Dad told him.

"I think I'll get the Pecking Roasted Duck," said Mom.

I eventually settled on the Lo Mein and gladly so because it was delicious.

"So, Chase, what are your plans after graduation?" Dad asked as he cut into his pork chop.

He finished chewing before he spoke. "I'm thinking of going to college to study clinical lab science."

They both nodded in approval. For a brief second, mom's eyes darted to me and then back to her food.

"That's an interesting choice of study Chace."

"I know, I think it's pretty cool."

"Have you guys figured out what you want to do yet?" she asked both me and Christian.

We glanced at each other, and he looked back down and began twiddling with his chopsticks.

"I'm still figuring things out," I told her, and an unreadable expression covered her face.