4

I hold the warm mug in my hands, trying to ignore the stares of Charlotte and the rest of the evening staff from the kitchen. But sometimes my eyes wander over to the small archway only to see four pairs of wide eyes staring back at me. I'm trying to decide if they're shocked to see me with a guy in general or shocked at how good-looking Caspian is. Maybe it's a little bit of both? In the time I have been here, I've never talked about relationships or shown any interest in anyone. It's not that I didn't have offers or even experience. Before my mom died, I'd had a boyfriend, and we had crossed off all of our firsts together. That all fizzled out after my mother died. I don't think Tony knew how to handle a grieving girlfriend, let alone one that was being bounced around from place to place. I didn't even know how to handle it. By the time he and I called it quits, I was fairly numb to everything. "Family?" Caspian voice snaps me out of my thoughts and breaks the silence that had settled over us. My eyes move to him as he leans against the peeling plastic of the booth, looking far more comfortable than anyone has a right to in a place like this. I can't help but stare at the muscles in his arms and chests as he raises the cup of coffee to his lips. Judging by the smile that plays on his lips, my observations don't go unnoticed. "What?" I can feel the heat flooding my cheeks as I stare down at my coffee. Which, if I'm being honest, needs more cream, but I don't dare ask Charlotte or anyone else to bring some over. Last thing I need is to give them an open invite to ask Caspian any sort of question that they are surely thinking from just behind the door frame. "Are they your family?" Caspian chuckles, his eyes drifting to the looky-loos that tried unsuccessfully to duck behind the wall like they weren't watching us, "Sisters? Cousins?" "Oh, um, no. Not really anyway," I shrug with one shoulder, "Charlotte took a chance and gave me a job when no one else would," "Where's your family?" he sounds generally curious as his fingers tap idly on the tabletop. Meeting Caspian has been weird, to say the least. He appeared, literally, out of nowhere, and instead of running scared, I followed him. A red flag pops in my brain and all I can say is, whelp let's see what happens. But this - telling him about my past, about my mom... I'm not sure if I can do that. Somehow, that seems too much too soon, and I'm not ready for that can of worms to open. "I'm alone," it's the simplest answer I can give, hoping that he won't ask me to elaborate. I don't have a ready answer if he does. "Interesting," Caspian tilts his head like he's trying to solve a math problem. I can practically see the gears turning in his head. "I guess?" I didn't mean for it to sound like a question, but normally that's not the response I get. Normally, it's some variation of, oh I'm sorry to hear that, or I'm sorry to have brought it up. But I get nothing like that from Caspian. Even the look he's giving me isn't the normal sympathetic one I'm used to. In a way, it unsettles me, but more than that, I find it refreshing. Maybe I'm on my way to being normal again, at least to Caspian. "Mia, can I ask you something?" Caspian's green eyes stare intently at me, pulling me in like a fly in a spider's web. I can't get my voice to work, so I settle for a nod. Caspian smiles and leans forward like he's going to whisper a secret that only I'm meant to hear. "What's keeping you here? In Crest Falls, I mean," His brow furrows, and his eyes search around the diner as if he's trying to figure out the answer himself but he cannot fathom a good enough reason to stay here. And it's not hard to blame him for that. Looking at the diner from a first-time customer perspective, it isn't great. The paint is chipping both inside the diner and out. The floors have cracks in the linoleum and in the bathroom, someone named Gretchen has been looking for a good time since probably before I was born. "I'm not sure," I answered honestly, "Money maybe, or perhaps I've just gotten too comfortable here," "Would you leave if you could? If money or whatever wasn't an issue, would you leave?" Caspian's voice is a rushed whisper, something close to excitement lighting his expression as he reaches across the table and takes my hand in his warm grip. Yes, my mind screams to answer, but the intensity of his gaze and the hopeful expression on his face makes me pause. Makes me question if this is more than some rhetorical question. Would I leave if money wasn't an issue? Yes, absolutely. But if it meant leaving with Caspian, a mysterious n***d man I met in the woods not even two hours ago, I'm not sure. What would it mean if I said yes? What would I have to do, to give, as repayment? Is it worth it - to be out of Crest falls and on my way to something else - something possibly better? "I don't know," it's the only thing I can think to say even though it's only half the truth, "I'd like to think that I would jump at the first chance to leave all this behind me. But with hypothetical, it's always hard to tell," "Interesting," he says, leaning back so casually, his arm going along the back of the booth, it cannot be comfortable leaning on the cracked plastic with no shirt on. But Caspian seems unfazed. "Can I ask you something now?" A slow smile spreads across his face as he slowly lifts his coffee to take a drink. He doesn't answer, his eyes just watch me as I try not to squirm under his gaze. But he's so focused, so intense that it reminds me of the wolf from earlier. In fact, his eyes do look eerily similar but - no, no it couldn't be, I must just be confusing one for the other. Everything happened so fast, I must not be remembering properly. "Mia, Honey," Charlotte called from a few feet away, breaking the stare Caspian and I were locked in, "It's closing time," Her eyes flit to the back of Caspians head and then back to me. "Oh um, okay," I hadn't realized that the diner had emptied since we sat down. I didn't even realize it was that late. How had time gotten away from me - from us? My eyes meet Caspian's green gaze, and I am sucked back into the vortex. He stands quickly offering me his hand to help me out of the booth. "Goodnight Ladies," he calls with a nod towards Charlotte before placing his hand on my lower back and ushering me out the door. "How are you not cold?" I playfully demand, burrowing into my warm coat as the night air nips at any exposed skin it can find. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Caspian laughs lightly, his breath creating little clouds as we walk around the building towards the stairs, "But I'd like to tell you. Maybe not tonight, but sometime. Mia -" He stops suddenly, his hands on my biceps gentle as he turns me to face him, our breaths mingling in the air between us. "No pretense or hypotheticals. Leave with me," his hands move to my cheeks, cradling my face gently as he watches my reaction carefully waiting for a reaction. Any reaction.