The New Separation (Book 2)

Chapter 22

Elliot

Colton was much better dressed this time. No jeans, no old sweaters. Instead, he had on his nice dress pants and a navy blue button-down shirt under his jacket. He even brushed his hair, which I was proud of him for, although I'm not going to say that out loud; he'd just get defensive and deny doing so.

"Hi," he said, smiling. "You looking amazing."

I smiled back. "You look quite handsome yourself." Then I turned around to call into the house, "I'm leaving! Be home later!" I didn't wait for a reply before I was closing the door and walking down to the driveway, hand in hand with Colton.

It was weird, holding his hand like this again. It's been so long without any kind of contact with him. It was almost a foreign feeling now, but I wasn't about to let go, not until we needed to get into his car, at least.

The drive to wherever we were headed was nice. We chatted about random things, like we used to. I wasn't pressuring him to tell me where he was taking me. I learned a long time ago not to make him ruin the surprise. because he'll get upset. It was okay though, I didn't mind surprises.

But when he pulled into the parking lot of the skating rink, I was really shocked. Why were we going here? And why are we dressed nice if we were just going to be falling down on the ice anyway?

"Colton..." I started, "what are we doing here?"

"Ice skating. Now come on. We're cutting into the free skate time."

Before I knew it, he was out of the car and opening my door. He grabbed my hand and practically pulled me all the way to the door.

"Colton," I said just as we were walking through the front door of the place. "Neither of us know how to skate!"

"So we can both fail together. Come on, it'll be fun!"

I sighed, unable to resist him. It'll be a memorable date, that's for sure. I just hope we don't look like fools out on that ice.

Once Colton paid for our skate rentals, it was a challenge just getting the things on our feet then trying to walk with them on. We kept holding onto each other for support, which only made us more unstable. And we hadn't gotten to the ice yet!

Finally stepping onto the ice, I clung to the wall. Colton was a bit braver than I was, choosing not to use the wall and instead go about three feet out into the middle. It only took him about a minute before he fell over.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing. The look on his face was absolutely priceless.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked, getting back to his feet. "You try this. It isn't easy." The next second, he had grabbed my hand and pulled me to him.

I felt like I had no balance whatsoever. Being out on the ice with skates on was even harder than trying to walk across the floor. Glancing around the rink, I watched so many people skating by like it was nothing. There were even little kids who looked like naturals. How was that even possible?

"This was a bad idea," I said, clutching onto Colton's arm. "We're never going to get anywhere."

He just smiled. "We'll take it slow. We'll be fine."

And slow we went. We did eventually make it around the rink. By that time, we were getting the hang of moving forward and weren't clinging to each other so much. Although we still held hands. Both of us fell a few times, but by the end of the hour on the rink, I didn't care that I was soaked or that my feet hurt. I was just really happy that it turned out to be so much fun.

There was still one question in the back of my mind though that I couldn't seem to forget, and that was whether or not I could really trust Colton anymore. I wanted to, I really did. But how can I be sure that once he goes back to school again next month that he wouldn't cheat again?

Colton

I wasn't so sure ice skating in these nice clothes would work, but it turns out it didn't matter too much. So what if we got a little wet? The clothes we were wearing ending up being the least of our concerns. Although I wasn't exactly thinking of how bad we'd both be at skating when I decided going to dinner after was a good idea.

"So," I began as we were taking off our skates. "My original plan was to go out to dinner after this, but I don't think that's such a great idea anymore."

Elliot chuckled, patting his wet legs. "Yeah, I'm not sure any restaurant will let us in like this."

"I still want to get dinner with you, though. Any suggestions?"

He thought for a second. "Nah. That's all up to you tonight."

I inwardly groaned. How was that helpful? Was he really expecting me to come up with something right now when my other plan totally failed?

Somehow, within all my mental complaining, an idea did come to me. By then we had already returned our skates and gotten back into my car, so I just turned in on and pulled out of the parking lot.

"Where are we going?" Elliot asked.

I shook my head. "Dinner."

"That's not a place."

I glanced at him quickly before watching the road again. "Since when are you so impatient? Quit asking, babe, I don't want to give it away."

He got really quiet after that, not even changing the topic like I had expected him to. It couldn't have been because I called him 'babe', was it? Even as the word came out of my mouth, I felt like I shouldn't be saying it, not until we were officially back together, at least. Did he think that too?

"Sorry," I said quickly. "That just kinda slipped out."

"It's fine but..." He paused for a second, so I looked over at him, glad to have been stopped at a light. He was staring straight ahead, biting his bottom lip, which meant he was nervous about something. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Well... Green light, Colton."

I snapped my eyes back to the road and drove forward. "Go on. Sorry."

He sighed. "Never mind."

I didn't want to hear that. Obviously something was bothering him and I wanted him to share it with me so that I can help him work out whatever is on his mind. If it was about me - which was likely - then I wanted to know if I could do something different to make him more open with me again.

But at the same time, I couldn't push him. So instead, I reached over and grabbed his hand that was resting in his lap. I just held it for a minute, neither of us saying anything.

"How about," I started, just to make sure he'd be okay with it, "we stop by a fast food place to grab something quick?" I'm sure Elliot was giving me a weird look, but I didn't turn to check. "I know, I know. Not exactly date night food. But trust me on this. I have a place in mind to go to once we get our food. You'll love it."

He took a few seconds to think it over before replying with a simple 'okay'. I squeezed his hand a bit as I pulled into the parking lot of the nearest fast food joint.

We'd work out whatever weirdness was between us, I just knew we would. I had to prove to him that I wasn't going to mess up again. I was his, completely 100 percent his. I just needed him to see that.