Falling in Love Backwards

A cliché date?

I remember that I said Kade could make the dinner plans. I never thought that he would decide to actually make the dinner.

I found Kade at my front door at 4pm. He carried in several bags of groceries.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm making us dinner." He stated matter-of-factly.

He began emptying the bags and basically making a mess of my kitchen counters.

"What exactly are you making then?" I sat at the island to watch what I could only assume to be a disaster in the making.

"Sun-dried tomato and chicken pasta. Ma recommended it and I thought I couldn't mess it up too bad." He said rummaging through the cabinets.

"The cutting board is in the cabinet left of the stove."

"Oh, thanks." He rubbed the back of his head with one hand setting the board on the counter. Then he began looking around again.

"Knives are in the drawer in front of you." I hide my smile behind my hand as he finished pulling out the utensils and pans he needed.

I watched him diligently chop and stir, and it was nice to just sit there and not have to do anything. He was so focused on cooking that he seemed to forget that I was there for a while, at least until he heard me uncork a bottle of wine.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Where did you even get a bottle of wine?" Kade asked frowning slightly.

"Cara and Jen, they said that we needed it." Kade and I were both just few months short of the drinking age, but Cara and Jen decided that maybe a little alcohol would help to loosen things up. Our relationship had been a little strained lately, but was slowly getting easier. Maybe tonight's date would help to really bring us together.

"That was nice of them." He laughed, reaching for the glass I offered him, but made a face after tasting it.

"It can't be that bad." I said taking a sip and making a similar face. "I was wrong."

We both laughed and Kade poured out our glasses while I went to the fridge for some sweet tea.

"Thanks, cupcake." Grinning and taking a long drink from his glass.

"I told you not to call me that." I said scowling from my seat at the island.

"Sugar-pie? Honey-bun? Sweet-cakes?"

"STOP! Stop, oh god!" My face in my hands to hide how red it had become. "Why do you do this to me?"

"Because I love the faces you make when I irritate you." Kade laughed, turning back to cooking.

"Then you're really going to like the face I make when I kick you square in the shin." I told him pointedly, pulling plates down from the cabinet.

He just smirked at me as he started to dish out the pasta. Truthfully it looked really good. Also by this point I was starving so that may have been a factor.

It tasted better than expected and I really enjoyed having a nice dinner with Kade.

***

Being by ourselves and away from prying eyes we were both able to relax more.

We started to joke more freely with each other, and that brought back memories from years ago when we where just starting out high school. At the time I still had the biggest crush on Duke and Kade was just a good friend. Kade knew that I liked his older brother, but it never seemed to bother him. Duke was a senior at the time and wouldn't even look my way, plus Kade was busy dating every girl in our year and the year above us.