Trust Me

Chapter 2

My blood froze at the name.  Had we really chosen to walk right into this?  Of course, it definitely could’ve been a different Aidan.  It wasn’t that uncommon a name, right?

Even still, my heart stopped when I looked up at him.  Black hair with red tips, blue eyes, exactly how the picture had depicted him.  In fact, it was almost as if I was looking at one of those pictures now.

“Uh, I’ll just have a Coke,” I said, trying not to look weird or suspicious.  It wasn’t easy.  He had caught me completely off-guard.

“Make that two Cokes,” Persephone agreed.  He scribbled it down on the notepad that he pulled from the pocket of the black apron he had tied around his waist before running off to fetch our drinks.  I couldn’t stop myself from allowing my eyes to linger on him as he moved swiftly away from our table.

“You knew he was going to be here,” she accused.  I shook my head violently.  

“I swear I didn’t,” I replied.  A dirty look was shot across the table towards me, but I chose to ignore it and do my best to rework the plan I had been forming in my mind.  How could I have possibly met him this early in the game?  Now there was no time to study him.  He had already seen me.  If I studied him now, he’d just call me a stalker.

“Sure.  Don’t think I didn’t see you staring,” she growled.  

What was I supposed to do now?  Maybe I could just get my money by tomorrow.  I could just screw the workings of the normal way to do things and go completely rogue.  Just wing it?  Had anyone ever tried that before?  Well, first time for everything.  As long as I didn’t screw it up.

“I’m trying to study this guy.  Of course I’m going to be staring,” I pointed out.

“Yeah.  That’s exactly why you were staring,” she said.  A flush worked its way up to my cheeks from my neck.  That wasn’t why I was staring.  I just needed to know more about him if I was going to get him back to whoever was in my office earlier.  

Two glasses of Coke landed on the table in front of us, so cold the drops of condensation were falling to the tiles on the table.  I had to pretend to be very focused on my menu just so Persephone wouldn’t make me blush in front of this guy.  If I had to wing it, I couldn’t have her messing things up for me.

“Are you ladies ready to order, or should I give you another minute?” Aidan offered.  

With one final glance at the menu, I folded it shut and placed it in the center of the table.  Persephone gave me a subtle glance of suspicion at how I was going to play things out, but I ignored it and continued on with the plan that I only had worked out for a step or two ahead of the game.  Nowhere near prepared enough to handle this.

“I’ll have the crispy chicken tacos,” I requested.  

“I’ll have what she’s having,” Persephone added.  Aidan scribbled again and read back our order to make sure he had it correct. 

Number one on my list of observations: he was an excellent server.

Number two: he seemed pretty nice.

Number three: who cares what Persephone thinks?  He’s hot.

“All right.  Your food should be ready in about twenty minutes,” he said, getting ready to leave our table.

“Say, Aidan.  I swear I’ve seen you somewhere before.  Do you go to our school?” I questioned, realizing instantly that he probably wouldn’t recognize us dressed like this.

“Well, you look familiar,” he said, pointing to Persephone.  “I can’t say I’ve ever seen you before.  What school are you from?”

“Roosevelt,” I answered.