Push Me Away : Book 2 of the Teeth Series

2

"Fallon!"

The sound of her name had the newly-blue-haired girl skidding to halt as she made her way across the parking lot towards her Chevy SUV. She blinked and then turned to look over her shoulder, finding Calum staring back at her as he took a few tentative steps forward so they could hear one another, his hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his sweatpants. "Do um.." His left hand appeared from beneath the black fabric and rose to scratch and the back of his neck, a nervous tick. "Would you wanna grab dinner?"

"Dinner?"

"Yeah, it's the meal that comes at the end of the day. In the U.S. it's customarily between the hours of five and eight PM and given that it is currently..." He raised his hand and shook his wrist to read a silver watch that adorned it. "Five past seven. I think it might be appropriate."

She muffled a laugh with thinned lips. "Do you think that's such a good idea? In case you haven't heard, I'm kind of the town pariah at the moment for what I did."

"If you're embarrassed to be seen with me you can wear a disguise." He replied.

"No Cal, that's not it. I j—" "It's fine Fallon. I was messing with you. I just thought it might be good to talk about the stuff we went over with Felicia. Or really, just to talk in person at all."

Fallon tucked her bottom lip between her teeth and frowned as she thought about what to do. Ultimately, she decided It was just dinner, it couldn't hurt anything. Besides, their dynamic felt odd, she was the one that had ruined things and yet Calum seemed to be chasing after her.

"Where were you thinking about going?"

"Well, I know you like Denny's but I was thinking something a little nicer, quieter, than that." He said.

"But I love pancakes." She pouted.

"Yes, but you also love pasta."

"Everyone loves pasta." She defended.

"Not as much as you love it. So do you have any objection to Alodia's?"

"I guess I could make do with Insalata Caprese and Tortellini."

"I thought you might say that." He hit the button on his key fob unlocking his car behind him. "We aren't far from your place. Do you wanna drop your car off and ride with me?"

"Are you sure that would be okay? What if things don't go well?"

"If things go south I can always get you an Uber, but I think we can manage a dinner."

A beat passed before she spoke. "Today's going too well, I'm scared that we're tempting fate." She admitted honestly.

He pursed his lips and seemed to deflate in front of her eyes. As if it had just hit him that things weren't normal. Even if they had kissed a few weeks before, they weren't the people they had been when they first met and like their therapist Felicia had just told them, they had to embrace the new versions of themselves.

"I—I'll follow behind you." He said gruffly before stalking towards his car, visibly less enthusiastic about the prospect of dinner than he had been moments earlier.

God, she really did know how to ruin everything.

*

Alodia's was busy enough that Calum and Fallon were able to enter the restaurant unnoticed thanks to the constantly moving people but still they asked for a booth in the back hoping they wouldn't be noticed. Being recognized certainly wasn't on their to-do list for the day.