Love and Food

xxxvii: back at the banquet

"I have banquet this semester on Wednesday if you would like to come and eat."

Cecilia looked at his message.

"I would love to do the afternoon shift. I did it last semester."

"Whatever floats your boat, milkshake."

On Friday after their date, Kyle and Cecilia were walking to class.

"Did you already start banquet?" She asked him.

"I did."

"I don't know, I think I might do it."

He started to grumble. "Why?"

"You know." She winked. "To see you."

"Cutie Pie, I just don't want you to be stressing yourself out too much."

"Likewise for you as well."

"When I'm with you, I don't feel stressed."

They walked into the building and attended their Friday accounting lecture.

On Wednesday afternoon, Cecilia grabbed her chefs clothes and headed into the banquet.

When she walked into the kitchen, she saw Kyle staring at her with many emotions flowing through him. All he could do was stare at her.

She did her usual tasks, bussing and doing dishes. It just didn't feel the same at all. For some reason, it felt empty and rather unsettling.

When she paused and took a breath, it seemed as if everything around her felt wrong.

It must have been the classmates in that class. With the first group, they were all bright minded and interesting characters who had big dreams and extravagent imaginations. However, only one person really had the same bright energy and everybody else seemed dull. They also had more of an attitude.

Cecilia kept her head down and decided to just focus on doing dishes.

One girl saw her after a while and when she stood to take a break, she walked up to Cecilia.

"Hey." The girl said.

"Hi." Cecilia replied.

"I'm surprised you're here."

"Really?"

"You're here to see Kyle, aren't you?"

She nodded. "How did you know?"

"It's kind of obvious that the two of you are always together."

"I wouldn't really say always."

"Are you two dating?"

She shook her head.

"Not yet."

"Do you want to?"

Cecilia bit her lip.

"I....."

"It's ok. You seem confused that I'm talking with you."

"Yeah...."

"I saw you before. We had some virtual classes together. And, I think you volunteered last semester. I did too."

"Wait, what's your name again?"

"Yvonne."

"Ohh, Yvonne!"

"I used to hang out with Kyle all the time, before you showed up. I'm glad you took him out of our hands."

"Who's ours?"

A few other girls appeared and Yvonne started to leave.

"Us." Yvonne walked away.

Cecilia just stood in confusion for a second and then went to bus dishes.

She went to the room on the side and felt a strange wave of nostolgia. For a second, she blinked and remembered her and Evan in the room.

The time that he almost kissed her, the "Distressed Again? Texting loverboy again?" conversation, the final banquet, Greece Week, the one of one moments they had together.

It's not going to happen. She shook her head. Just believe Kyle, any wolves are gone. Only focus on him; he's the only one that she had left.

That was when she stuck her head out and saw Kyle waiting at a set of tables, yet for some reason, when she looked at him, she felt nothing.

If it were Evan, he would stare at her, sneak to her, and make her smile, blush and go crazy.

Nothing felt the same anymore.

She went down the hall to where she and Evan were again. The "why don't we finish what we started?" conversation floated through her head.

"Why don't we finish what we started first?"

"What do you mean?" he had her pinned to the wall and she was blushing like crazy.

"You know what I mean."

"Do I?"

"Don't do me like that."

She gave him a flirty stare. "Are you jealous?"

"No."

"Don't play me, I know you are."

"I saw your man, he really isn't all that."

"Who are you? My brother?"

His hand started to slide down to her mouth and he wiped off something off her mouth.

"Don't open your mouth just yet."

She tilted her head.

"All done. It seemed like you were drooling over that guy."

Her eyes widened and she turned around, they both heard footsteps and walked opposite directions from each other.

After getting out of that vision, somebody bumped into her aggressvily.

"Watch where you're going!"

Kyle was walking back to the kitchen and walked past her, not exchanging a wink or anything at all.

She went back to drying dishes and back in the kitchen. More memories started to flow by her as well. This was where it all started. The meeting, laughing, chatting, eating, everything was all gone. Nothing felt like what it was.

"What are you doing just standing there in thought?" A girl yelled at her. "Continue drying the dishes!"

A plate went sliding her way and she dried a dish so clean to the point that she saw her reflection in it. She sighed.

At long last, family meal came and Kyle didn't want to sit near her at all. She felt like an alien in this room. It was hard for her to really eat too much, and she ended up leaving as soon as she finished with a quiet "goodbye" and a polite "have a nice day."

She didn't feel too much and just left.

Kyle texted her when he was done and they talked about it.

"Yeah, the only people that I liked were the 2 girls that are in my group. We're going to be doing our theme soon, in like 3 weeks."

"They all seemed a little off."

"That's because we are just trying to get by. We don't have passion anymore."

"Oh, I get it."

"It's difficult, we're trying to make it work."

"I understand. Did you see me today, I hope I made your day. :)"

"No."

Liar.

Cecilia just turned off her phone and tried to work on her quickbooks. But, something was always bothering her. It was like an itching in the back of her brain that never fully seemed to go away.

Kyle texted her a little bit later that he's struggling with allergies which is why his mood might seem a little worse than usual. She did notice his puffy eyes, runny nose, and for some strange reason, he's more irritable than an old grandpa.

After a while, she started to drift to sleep at her desk, and Kyle wasn't racing through her mind.

Evan was.