Chapter 19 #2
She rolled her eyes, determined to keep up appearances and pretend to be irritated with him. “I can’t argue with logic that flawed. You can sit if you’re going to sit.”
Theo grinned and swung into the seat opposite hers. “You going to eat all your fries?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied indignantly even though she wasn’t planning on eating all of them. She usually brought some fries home as leftovers and then didn’t want to eat them after they’d been refrigerated because they just weren’t the same even if she heated them up again.
“Just one?” Theo wheedled. “I’m really hungry.” As if on cue, his stomach growled so loudly that a woman sitting at the opposite table glanced curiously in their direction.
Michelle tried hard to repress a giggle and didn’t quite manage it. “Ugh, fine. Just one.”
“Yay.” Theo grabbed a fry, dunked it in Michelle’s ketchup dish, and plopped it in his mouth.
Michelle knew she needed to say something or she was going to start laughing again. Although she wanted to appear disinterested, the only question she could think of to ask him had to do with his music. “How are practices going with your band?” she asked primly.
“Really well.” Theo’s eyes lit up, and she didn’t know if it was because he loved talking about his band or because he was excited she’d asked about them. “I’ve even tried my hand at a bit of songwriting.”
Michelle picked up her sandwich and nibbled it, not knowing what to say. Finally, she said, “Yeah?”
Theo nodded, looking pleased. “Yeah. I’m going to play one of my original songs at our next performance at The Brick Oven. It’ll be great. It’ll be so great I think you might actually end up being a little impressed.”
Michelle shrugged, fighting the realization that she very much wanted to hear Theo’s original song. “I don’t know what I have on the calendar. I’ll have to see if I can make it or not.”
Theo tilted his head to the side as he gazed at her curiously. A few beats passed before he said, “Michelle, can I ask you a question?”
She shrugged. “Ask away.”
“Do you remember how our rivalry started?”
She burst out laughing—she couldn’t help it. That was the last thing she’d expected him to ask. He’d sounded so serious, and here he was asking about what ridiculous antic he’d pulled as a child that had first made her vow to be his mortal enemy.
“I don’t remember at all,” she confessed. “My first clear memory of you is when you threw that cardboard monster you made at me and I screamed. But I know we were already rivals then, because I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, not this joker again.’”
Theo let out a snort laugh. “I remember that monster. One of my finest pieces of work. That scream was one of your finest pieces of work too, by the way. I’m pretty sure you cracked a couple of ancient oak trees with that shriek.”
She made a face and swatted at him with her napkin. He dodged the blow dramatically even though her hand was nowhere near him. “Hey, that’s nothing compared to the squeal you let out when I put a fake frog in your lunchbox.”
He shook his head, grinning. “Your pranks were the best. You were always so quiet when I teased you, and I’d mistakenly come to the conclusion that you were mild-mannered. I remember at first, I didn’t even realize the pranks were you—I thought it was Tim Larson.”
“Psh, Tim Larson can’t hold a candle to me,” Michelle said. “He was a bully to everyone. I just bullied you.”
“Hey, it wasn’t bullying, it was a mutually agreed upon contract of consistent pranks and snarkiness.”
“See, that’s the thing, I’m pretty sure I never agreed to it.”
“Which leads me back to my question—how did it start?”
Michelle shook her head. “I have no idea. I don’t remember wondering if you were a nice kid or not—I just remember knowing that you were an absolute terror.” She threw her napkin at him. “And that hasn’t changed.”
He grinned. “I can’t remember either. It’s all a blur. I remember the first time I saw you, though. You were outside the Sutton mansion, playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. I remember I liked the shoes you were wearing—they were lime green.”
“Whoa.” Michelle’s eyes widened. “I remember those shoes.”
“We remember the shoes, but we can’t remember when our rivalry started.
” He shook his head, laughing. For a second he looked impish, as if he was about to tease her again, and then his expression shifted.
“I think,” he said slowly, his tone surprisingly vulnerable, “if we were ever willing to put our old rivalry aside, we’d have more reasons to get along—and maybe even really enjoy each other’s company—than we might think. ”
Michelle swallowed, suddenly acutely aware that her heart was thumping in her chest. “I wouldn’t be too sure,” she found herself blurting, seemingly unable to let go of her usual stubbornness.
She immediately regretted brushing Theo off—although she’d said it in a teasing way—instead of returning his vulnerability. She didn’t have a chance to say anything else, however, because at that moment a waitress walked up to their booth holding a to-go box.
“Here you are, Theo,” she said with a smile. “Your to-go order is all ready.”
Something about the way the waitress was smiling at Theo made Michelle realize in a flash that Theo must be considered to be one of the catches in Coral Sands, as far as young men were concerned.
The revelation made her blink rapidly and it rendered her speechless until several beats after the waitress had walked away.
Theo stood up, picking up the box containing his food. “I’m just saying, Michelle—I think if you’d keep an open mind about me, you’d be surprised.”
Michelle felt completely tongue-tied. Theo left before she could think of anything to say in response, and she watched him walk away across the restaurant.
She sat quietly for a few minutes, staring down at her food but forgetting all about it. She didn’t eat a bite as she thought about what Theo had said.
What did he mean by it? she wondered. Is he saying that he thinks we should stop teasing each other so much? What would our dynamic be if we weren’t always teasing each other?
She allowed herself to imagine such a thing for a moment.
She pictured herself running into Theo at the supermarket, or along the beach somewhere.
If she didn’t immediately say something snarky to him, what kind of things would she say?
Would she act all sweet and affectionate toward him—would she smile at him the same way the waitress had smiled at him?
What if he wasn’t saying something sassy to her that she immediately felt the need to counter-sass?
Would she spend more time noticing his mesmerizing dark eyes, or the way he liked to tuck his fingers into the pockets of his jeans, or the way his arms were so long the sleeves of his leather jacket barely reached his wrists?
Michelle kept picturing such a thing for another several minutes. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t realize she wasn’t eating her food and that it was getting a little cold. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, in fact, that she didn’t realize she was blushing.