Finding Elise

Chapter Nine

        The ride to the restaurant was so incredibly bad. If you took all the awkwardness out of every first date and applied to this one, it would still fall short of the disaster it really was. Okay, okay maybe I'm exaggerating, but only a little. Blaine had asked to ride with us, you know to save gas and all that. I felt like someone had dumped gas all over this date, lit it on fire and was now enjoying the destruction it was causing. Blaine was the elephant in the room, all cramped in the back of Hector's little red truck.

     Once we got to Lemon Tarts, another uncomfortable situation arose in the form of seating. It ended up with both guys sitting across from me, Hector directly across and Blaine next to him. What is intimate and romantic when it's just two people suddenly made me feel like I had some weird disease and was shunned to my own bench.

     Someone please kill me now.

     Hector opened his menu and leaned in towards me. "Their pancakes are really good here. I also like their omelets."

     "That sounds good. Do they have any crepes?" I asked.

     "Yeah." Blaine said, reaching across and pointing to my menu. "Right down there."

     "Thanks." I said stiffly. I was trying to pretend that he wasn't there. Epic fail.

     A waitress came by and took our drink orders. She gave me a weird look, like she was trying to figure out why I was alone with 2 hot guys. Believe me lady, I'd rather be anywhere but here. Well no, I wish Blaine were somewhere else.

     "So Elise, where are you from?" Hector asked.

     "Flagstaff, Arizona." I said. The waitress brought our drinks over and took our orders.

     "Oh so hot country." Blaine chimed in. He had leaned forward, his arms resting on the table

     Shut it, tag along. "That's a common misconception." I said. "Flag is in the northern part of the state so we get snow. There's actually a ski run there."

     "Cool." Hector said. "Do you ski?"

     "Snowboard actually. My whole family does except for my mom. She used to but had some knee problems so she sticks to skiing now." I answered.

    "That's awesome. I've never been skiing or boarding so I would have no clue how to do either." Hector said.

    "It's not that hard, it just takes some practice to get the hang of." I said.

    "It sounds like you're really close to your family." Hector said.

    "Yep, I'm the youngest of four so they all kind of dump on me but we all have a fierce love for each other."

    Blaine kind of sat back and let Hector and I talk for a bit. I could tell that Hector was a genuinely nice guy because he kept bringing Blaine into the conversation. To an outsider we probably looked like a group of friends just hanging out. There was a tension there though. I'm sure that both guys felt it. Hector looked a little strained, probably from an internal war between being polite and going all crazy on our date crasher. I know I was feeling an internal battle.

     I was mad at both guys for this situation and mad at myself for not being brave enough to tell Blaine to take a hike. People pleaser, party of one. It didn't help that I liked Blaine and didn't want to ruin any future chances we might have but I also wanted to give Hector a fair shot. He had asked me out after all and it certainly wasn't fair of him to have another guy there, competing for attention.