26. Elijah
Iwas grateful Alice accidentally let it slip that she was babysitting for Charlie whilst she was out on a date with Daniel. I couldn’t believe she was going through with it. After everything she has been through with her ex, she needed to stay far away from Taylor. He was no good for her, he didn’t deserve her.
I convinced my mother to meet me for dinner, trying not to give away the fact I knew this date was happening at the same time and place. I felt guilty pretending this was just because I wanted to spend time with my mother. I loved spending time with her, don’t get me wrong, but there was an ulterior motive here.
I immediately clocked them as we walked in, following the waitress to our table across the restaurant. The first thing I noticed was how beautiful she looked. I wished I was sitting across the table from her rather than him.
I kept my eyes on them the entire time. He seemed to be doing most of the talking, by the looks of it. To my surprise, she seemed to be taking it all in and listening intently. I’ve had to listen to Daniel talk before; most of what he says is about himself. How on earth could he be saying anything that interesting to her? I felt sick when I saw her touching his arm.
“Elijah James Weatherston.” My mother’s voice snapped my attention away briefly.
“What?”
“You only brought me here so you could spy on their date, didn’t you?” she accused, her eyes darting to their table and back.
“Why would I care about their date?” I snapped back a little too harshly. She paused for a moment as she also stared over at their table.
“Because you wish that was you,” she said softly.
“I don’t wish it was me.” I hoped my voice sounded more convincing out loud than it did in my head. “I don’t trust him and Charlie has been through enough. She doesn’t need someone like Taylor making everything worse for her.” My mother agreed, but I could tell she wanted to say more.
As the night continued, my eyes were almost fixated on their table. She was smiling at him, laughing at his jokes. It infuriated me. I wanted to go over there and pull her away from him, make her have dinner with us instead. I wanted to keep her safe, to protect her. I wanted to make sure her and Theo got everything they wanted out of this fresh start. I didn’t want another man to make her fearful like her ex did ever again. I didn’t trust that she wouldn’t find herself in the same place again if she pursued a relationship with Taylor.
I tried to eat the food in front of me, but honestly, I didn’t have much of an appetite anymore.
I pushed my dessert around my plate as I watched them get up and walk out of the restaurant.
“I’ll be right back, Ma.” Before she could protest, I was up and out the door after them. I kept my distance so they wouldn’t see me as I followed them to their cars. They were walking side-the-side, but not touching. I felt like that was a good sign. I couldn’t get close to them when they were talking by the cars, so I wasn’t able to hear what they were saying. I watched as he waved at her as she pulled away. At least they weren’t going home together.
I moved quickly across the street and he looked confused as I approached. I reached out my arm and pushed his back against his car.
“Stay away from her,” I said through gritted teeth. He looked at me in shock, as if not sure how to react.
“Why would I do that?” He was attempting to sound confident, but he was failing. I was a lot bigger and stronger than he was and he knew it.
“Because I told you to.” I pushed him harder. “Stay away from Charlie or you won’t like the side of me you see.” I shoved him hard as he hit the ground. I didn’t wait for a response as I turned and headed back to the restaurant.
“Everything okay?” My mother asked as I walked in and sat down.
“Yeah, sorry. Just realised I forgot to pay for parking. Didn’t want to get a ticket.”