Starting Over

Two Steps Back

I woke up at twelve the next day, surprised that my mom let me sleep in again; however, I did go to sleep really late the night before working on Kevin's baby budget.

I wiped the sleep from my eyes and slugged to the bathroom to freshen up. As I ate a bowl of cereal I remembered that my phone was upstairs. If I had the whole house to myself I might as well waste time scrolling through tumblr and watching YouTube videos.

When I got my phone I saw two missed calls and a text from Trevor. I suddenly remembered about our date - well not date but outing type thing - and rushed to put on a decent outfit. Since this was not a date, I didn't stress about my outfit and threw on a casual blouse and some dark skinny jeans. As soon as I grabbed my car keys the doorbell rang.

Puzzled, I cautiously went to the door. When I looked through the peep hole Trevor was standing there awkwardly waiting to be let in. I opened the door and gestured for him to come in.

He went into the living room and made no attempt of explaining why he was there. "Well," I questioned when silence continued to fill the air.

"You didn't get my voice mail?"

I burst out laughing albeit the tense silence that hung between us. "No one checks their voice mail anymore, Trevor. My mother doesn't even leave me voice mails now."

Trevor rolled his eyes, but I knew his mood was lighter as there was now a small grin on his face. "Yeah, yeah Cass. Well, I was just reminding you about our date... type thing, and telling you I was on my way to pick you up since you never clarified transportation in the text yesterday."

"Oh," I said as I was at a loss for words. "Well then let's go."

The car ride was quiet but comfortable. When we got to the ice cream parlor it was packed.  Because of all of the people there Trevor had to stand pretty close to me when we were in line.  When I turned to ask him what flavor he was getting I jumped back - and bumped into the person who was in front of me - because we were only a couple of centimeters apart from each other.

"Whoa," I said.  I tried to create space but there wasn't any.  I started to feel really self-conscious and wondered if the Frosted Flakes smell was still on my breath.

"Whoa," Trevor breathed. "I th-think I'm going to get mint ice cream."

"Mhm," I mumbled, refusing to fully open my mouth until I checked my breath.  I fake coughed into my sleeve and quickly inhaled to discover that my breath smelled perfectly normal. 

"What can I get for you," asked the cheery worker.

"May I have vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles please," I asked.

"You sure may." She must have been from down south because her accent was so adorable. "And for you sir?"

"Mint ice cream please," Trevor ordered with a smile.

"Coming right up."

"Are you together or separate," the cashier asked.  He was nothing like the other worker.  He didn't even look at us.

We gave different answers at the same time, which caused the cashier to look up and grin.

"Together," Trevor repeated as he gave the cashier the money.

"You didn't have to pay for me," I told Trevor as we looked for a seat.  We finally found one in the very back of the parlor.

"It's fine, Cass. I wanted to pay."

"Well... thank you," I said with a smile.

"Any time."  We ate our ice cream in silence for a few minutes before Trevor cleared his throat.  "So is everything okay? Between us?"