Out of the Flames

Chapter 6. Surprise Date

Chapter 6.

"I will have a mint ice cream cone please." I said politely to the girl standing behind the counter.

"And I will have," Edi paused trying to decide, "a peanut butter cone." He smiled obviously pleased with his decision. Suddenly his face dropped. "Unless you are allergic. That would be a terribly tragic first date." He added as a side note.

"So this is a date now?" I asked him with a playful tone, but underneath I was anticipating his answer.

"Of course, it is what I call a surprise date. I only tell you it is a date once we are already here and once you have ordered so that it is harder to refuse." He tapped his temple with his finger in a way that made him look all knowing and I had to shake my head at his answer.

"You're a clever one I see, I'll have to watch out for you." I said with a smirk.

"You better." He said with a wink of his blue eyes. I smiled before noticing that the girl behind the counter had our ice cream cones waiting for us.

"Oh sorry, here, I'll take those and you can pay for them." I said as I took the cones and walked out onto the patio. I found a small table with two chairs that looked clean and sat down. I waited for Edi to join me before I tasted my ice cream.

"Do you like it?" I asked referring to the ice cream.

"Yes, it is really good. Do you like yours?"

"Yup, I haven't had ice cream this good since I found a little ice cream shack back in Kansas-I mean...um." I panicked and licked my ice cream hoping bit would me a second to think.

"Back in Kansas? When were you in Kansas? Did you live there?" Edi asked innocently, not know that he was digging into dangerous territory.

"No." I said maybe a bit too rushed. "I've never been to Kansas." I said slower making an effort to act natural. "I meant to say Kamloops, my family went on a camping trip there a couple years ago." I smiled andtried to look like I was at ease.

Edi raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Ok, lie to me if you want." He looked away from me and ran his hand through his flaming red hair. Then his eyes snapped back to mine and stayed there looking into my soul. "I am sure you have a good reason." He added not braking the searing eye contact.

I squirmed under his gaze before replying. "I do have a good reason. If I told you, I'd have to kill you." I whispered the last part with a slightly menacing tone before winking at him to lighten the mood.

Edi took the hint and dropped the subject. "Pretty and dangerous? You are sounding to good to be true."

I was a bit taken aback at how forward he was being, but I didn't let it show and responded as naturally as I could despite the fact that I was sweating bullets trying not to give anything away. "I'm not dangerous, but I know people who are." I said knowing that was the complete truth. I just didn't mention that if they found me, they would probably kill me and my family and anyone else I had talked to in the past month.

"Should I be concerned for you? Or are you buddies with them, in which case should I be concerned for myself?" He asked watching my face for a reaction.

"Some of both, but mostly just me, you didn't do anything to them so they probably won't care." I spoke carefully trying to pick my words carefully as to not expose what really happened.

"So, you are saying you did something to make these dangerous people mad at you?" Edi asked leaning forward with intrigue.

I pulled back and glanced around looking for a reason to switch the topic. "Yes, but that's really not important." I drummed my fingers on the table nervously.