Page 11 of The Ruse

“Is that Carter and his new girlfriend?” Rosa asked in an excited tone as we watched the group scoot into the booth.

“Yep,” I said, not feeling nearly as enthusiastic about seeing them again as she was.

“They haven’t been here for a couple of weeks.” She wiped her hands on her apron. “I’m going to go say hi.”

Since she was probably going to chat with Carter in Spanish for a few minutes, I decided to check on another table.

As I refilled drinks for the elderly couple visiting from Australia, I found myself watching my classmates in the booth as Rosa chatted them all up. Carter sat on one end next to the twin who must be Ava, based on the fact that he had his arm draped around her shoulder. I’d guessed they were dating from the way they’d flirted endlessly at dinner yesterday. Carter had always been a bit of a grump. Not exactly the type of guy to make easy conversation with. But Ava seemed like the bubbly and fun type, which was probably perfect to balance out Carter’s standoffish tendencies.

Beside them were Mack and Cambrielle. Yesterday, I’d been curious about their relationship status because Mack was a serial dater who never settled down with one girl for more than the weekend. But from the way he was looking at Cambrielle tonight, I was pretty sure they were a thing, too. I’d heard Mack’s mom had passed recently, so it was probably good for him to have stability and someone to lean on right now, and Cambrielle was a sweetheart.

Next to them on the other end of the booth were Elyse and Nash. They’d blushed and seemed somewhat awkward all through Thanksgiving dinner, so I would guess that them being out together like this was a pretty recent development. I’d always been good at reading people, so I could tell that they were both into each other and it wasn’t another one-sided thing like Nash’s infatuation with Bailee last winter. But from the way they still sat with a few more inches of space between them compared to the other couples, I would bet tonight was more of a first-date type of situation for them both.

Which would make tonight something like a triple date.

AKA: a safe first date.

If they ran out of things to say to each other, they had the other couples to bounce off of and ease the awkwardness.

It was exactly the kind of date I hated. I’d always been a more private person—aloner,as the kids at school had labeled me before I’d started dating Bailee. But if I were going to ask someone on a date, I would want to get to know them without all the distractions.

Rosa left their table just as I was delivering the drink refills to the Australian couple. After giving them a few extra napkins, I headed to the corner booth with my notepad and pen to get this over with.

“Hello,” I said. Deciding it would be weird to introduce myself to people I’d known since kindergarten, I just jumped in by asking them what drinks they’d like to order.

“Dr Pepper for me,” Ava said.

“Me too,” Cambrielle added.

Carter and Mack both asked for water—probably trying to be at their health peak since it was basketball season.

Nash glanced at the drink menu for a second before saying, “I’ll take a horchata with no ice.”

I looked at Elyse, waiting for her drink order. I didn’t know what to expect after our short interaction yesterday, but I really must have scared her because you’d think I was the boogie man from how obviously she was trying not to make eye contact.

“Do you know what you’d like to drink, Elyse?” I asked when she still didn’t say anything.

Did she think I was going to poison her food and drink or something and figured it was safer not to order anything? I guess that joke I’d made yesterday about claiming to be innocent before I found my next victim had gone a little too far.

I tended to make light of situations to ease the tension sometimes, but I supposed joking about being guilty of murdering your missing ex-girlfriend wasn’t exactly the best thing to break the ice with.

After looking the menu over again, she finally said, “I’ll just have water.”

“You sure you don’t want anything else?” Nash asked, like he thought she might have ordered water because it was a date and he was paying.

But she said, “I don’t like carbonation, so I really just want water.”

She didn’t like carbonation?

Interesting.

Bailee had basically lived off diet coke.

I pushed the thought away. I really didn’t need to be thinking about Bailee right now. Just because this restaurant was the last place I’d been with her, didn’t mean I needed to think about her or any of the time from when we’d dated.

I wrote Elyse’s order down and was about to leave to get their drinks when Carter cleared his throat and said, “Actually, I think we’re ready to order, too.”

Fine by me. The fewer times I needed to come back here, the better.

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