Serendipity ↬ COMPLETE

Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Promise Me

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." -Robert Frost

Connor and I left his house in the afternoon to go out for lunch. We decided to go to Olive Garden; we both wanted Italian food. It was uncomfortably quiet for the car ride and I wanted to say something or do something, but I couldn't find words to say. I couldn't figure out what to do to make the tense atmosphere that was surrounding us.

"Leilani... I know... I know how hard the news is for you to accept. I'm sorry. I didn't know that this was going to happen right now. I knew that it was going to happen eventually, but I wasn't expecting it to happen now," he said, taking my hand in his while he continued to drive.

"Connor, I understand. You had no control over that decision or anything. I mean, yeah, it's upsetting and it's hard for me to understand, but I get that it's what you have to do. It's your job, Connor, and I can't take that away from you," I told him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. It was hard to hold back my tears, and I was succeeding so far. It was hard, but I was doing good.

"Leilani, I never wanted this to happen this early into the summer. I thought that I was going to have the whole summer off this year," he protested slightly.

"You can't control that, Connor. If you think that I'm mad and just won't admit it, you're wrong. I'm not mad, I promise," I said.

He didn't say anything as he parked in the Olive Garden parking lot. We climbed out of the car together and walked inside the restaurant. We got our table and sat down with the menus from the hostess.

"Can we just change the subject? Please? I don't want to talk about the tour and I certainly don't want our first fight to be about it," I said with a sigh as we opened up our menus.

"Sure. That sounds like a good idea," he said to me with a smile. We looked at the menus for a moment, before our waitress came over to collect our drinks.

She seemed nice... to Connor. She was quite rude to me; barely wrote my order down, gave me dirty looks, and purposely screwed up my drink. She gave me Diet Coke instead of the Dr. Pepper I ordered. When I pointed it out, she made it a point to smirk behind her fake apology before she took the glass away and brought me the right order.

"Well, she's a piece of work," I grumbled.

"I don't appreciate her doing that to you," Connor said, clearly as aggravated as I was.

"It's fine, Connor. I can handle her attitude," I assured him with a smile on my face.

"It doesn't matter. She isn't supposed to have an attitude like that," he grumbled.

I sighed and placed my hand over his. "I know that you're stressed, Connor. But please calm down," I said softly.

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Alright, I'm calm. But if her attitude gets worse, I'm taking you for ice cream. How does that sound?" he asked.

I giggled and nodded. "Sounds perfect," I said. 

The waitress came back with our food, and I inspected my food to be sure that she didn't do anything to it. It looked fine and I cautiously took a bite. It tasted like it was supposed to so I continued eating it, but slowly just in case.

Connor and I talked about absolutely nothing and everything in between, laughing and enjoying the afternoon out together.

When we were through with our lunch, the waitress came back with the bill. I spotted something at the bottom, and judging by the look on Connor's face, it had to have been little message for him.