how to catch feelings

50

We were just barely out the door when Damaris elbowed me. "Isn't that Cole?" she asked, pointing to our left.

I was hoping it wasn't, just because I wasn't sure whether or not I was still mad at him and I didn't want to have to make that decision on the spot.

Dang it. It was him.

"Alright, let's go," I said, grabbing them by their coat sleeves and pulling them in the opposite direction.

"What? You don't want to say hi?"

"Not particularly. Move it."

"Oh, come on, Nat. It'll only take a minute."

"No thanks."

To my horror, Damaris whipped around and yelled, "Hey, Cole!"

He looked up with a start.

I had two choices: run for my life or pray for the earth to open up at my feet and swallow me. One seemed more likely than the other.

Unfortunately, my standing between Damaris and Meg to drag them away just made it easier for them to keep me from running away.

So we stood there until Cole was close enough for us to talk without having to yell.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Nothing much, you?"

He shrugged. "Just going for a walk."

"We were gonna go to Olive Garden," Damaris said. "Do you want to come?"

Oh, I could've killed her.

Instead I settled for a plan to kick her under the table a good half a dozen times when we got to the restaurant.

"Nah, that's okay. Thanks, though."

"Are you sure? They have some specials going right now."

Oh my God, shut up. Shut up. Shut uppp.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Meg winked at me.

She was gonna get kicked too.

"I dunno, I don't want to intrude..." He was looking at me when he said that, but I casually ignored meeting his eyes.

"You're not intruding. Lez go."

***

One uncomfortable car ride later – thank you, Damaris, for driving a tiny Jeep that required Cole and I to be just about crushed in the backseat – we reached Olive Garden.

Go figure, Meg and Damaris then set me up to have to sit next to him at the table.

At least Damaris's shins were well within range of my angry feet.

The others joked about ordering cocktails but ended up settling on lemonades and a root beer. Basic me got a water.

As usual, Damaris was just about drooling as she craned her neck looking around for our breadsticks.

"Breadsticks, breadsticks, breadsticks," she said under her breath.

I gave her a good kick.

"Ah, just like in chem lab." She grinned at me.

I meant to kick her again, but the server brought our breadsticks and, needless to say, my attention shifted elsewhere.

The moment the last breadstick left the basket, Damaris flattened the napkins and just about tossed the whole thing to the edge of the table. "They need to be able to see we need more breadsticks," she said, for Cole's benefit.