Beyond Trust

Part 9

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You are forgiven."
Jace places 3 drinks in front of us and extends his hand.

  Tristan hands him a fifty and Jace walks away without another word.

"I could pay for my own-"
  "Never thought you couldn't."
"Let me pay you back." I say.
  "Not necessary."
"Wasn't a question. I'll go to the car and-"
"It's fine. Can't a man pay for a pretty girl's drink?"
"You called me girl again." I growl.
"I did it on purpose." he chuckles.

"Is pissing me off amusing to you?" I ask.
"Just a bit."

Asshole.

"Regardless they're not for-" before he could finish I grab one of the small glasses and drink. When I look at Tris he looks...off. He runs his hand through his hair while mumbling a bunch of curses.
"Why- fuck! Jace. Jace! God dammit Joslyn."

Jace walks back to us, nods, makes another drink, and places it where the previous one was.

"What happened?" I ask.

He slowly removes his hand from his hair while staring intensely at the drinks before drowning one down.

"Are you okay?" I ask again.

He doesn't move his mouth to talk, just makes a disapproving sound I barely heard.
Just then, Ava comes towards us with a smile until she sees her brother. She frowns but quickly replaces it with a smaller smile.

"Who's hungry? We should all go out to eat! And yes, you too Jace." Ava says.

   "I'm working." Jace replies.
"There's more than one bartender, tell him to get off his ass. Let's go and no you do not have a choice. Joslyn, go get Brooklyn and meet us at the Capital Grille. I'm just going to talk to my brother for a minute, we'll meet you there."

A heavy guilt is dropped on my shoulders. I don't understand, I just playfully took one of his drinks. Why did he react so strangely?
Regardless, I give her a nod then leave to find Brooklyn.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~
I'm sitting at a table with only Tris and Ava. Jace refused to leave his post and Brooklyn, of course, was getting laid again. We all placed our order and are silently sitting at the table.
  Ava is on her phone and Tris is staring at the clock while I sit across from him awkwardly.

"Uh I'm sorry about..you know.. the whole drink thing." I say. He looks at me then back to the clock. "Can you explain to me what happened? I've been trying to figure it out but-"

"It was nothing, forget it happened." he cuts me off.
    "But-"
"Forget it." he growls.

  "She's apologizing, don't be rude." Ava chimes in.
"Would you still count it as rude if I don't forgive her?"
   "Yes, yes I would. She didn't know, okay?" she whispers that last part.

"Should I go?" I ask them.

"No. I'm sorry, he's just in a mood right now. He's not usually like this."
  I nod in agreement. Before the incident, he was teasing and laughing at me.

God, I wish I could see that side of him again.

"I saw a glimpse of it." I say with a smile. "You're actually cute when you grin, you should do it more often."

Ava smiles at this and looks at his brother while he stares at me.

"What? Was it something that I said?" I ask innocently while batting my eyes.

"Well shit, should I give you two some alone time?" Ava says while laughing.
   "No!" Tris and I say in unison.

"Sounds perfect! I'll just take my plate to go! You two need to talk it over, mostly pertaining you Tris-"
   "I understand." he cuts her off before she can say his full name.

"Wait Ava.."
I'm tempted to ask for his name. I could right now in this moment.
"Thank you."
But I don't. With that, she leaves with a smile.

"Knew you wouldn't do it." he says.
  "Will you tell me now?" I ask.
"No."
    "Will you tell me what happened back there?"
"No."
    "Okay, how about your last name?"
"Absolutely not."
     "So you're the mystery man?"
"Possibly. Here I'll give you an age. I'm 23."
      "Wait, you're only a year older than me. Then what's that bullshit you were saying about my age the first time we met?"

He chuckles at my comment and drinks from his cup. He takes 3 sips before speaking again. 

"What are you in school for?" he ask.
  "Marketing and you?"
"Business administration."
   "Oh do you know Mason...uh what's his last name? Hensley! Mason Hensley?"

He raises an eyebrow.
"No.. should I?"
  "You've probably seen him. He has long, but not too long, blondish hair. Maybe like a bronze almost. He's tall, broad shoulders, really nice. He has-"

"Is he your boyfriend?" he interrupts.
  "What?"
"You pay a lot of attention to his physical features so is he your boyfriend?"
   "No."
"Don't lie to me Joslyn."
   "I'm not! He's just a friend."

The waiter comes with our food and tells us to enjoy however Tris has his full attention fixated on me.

"You're blushing." he says.
   "Well when someone stares at you the way you are doing right now... one has a right to blush."

"So you're not interested in him?"
    "Why are you asking this?" I ask him.
"Didn't you want us to get to know each other more?"
      "Damn you."
Shit, I didn't mean to say that out loud.

"It's complicated. He's interested in me but I'm not looking for a relationship."
   "Did you tell him?"
"Yeah."
    "And what'd he say?"
"He's fine with just being friends."

I pick up my fork and start eating the fettuccine pasta. He does the same with his grilled chicken.

"Why didn't you order it with shrimp? Are you allergic?" He asks me.
 
"No."
That's all I'm willing to give him. I'm not allergic to shrimp however I will never eat it again.

"Oh. So he invited me out to tacos one day and the first bite I took I accidentally let out a moan. When I did it's like a switch went off, his eyes darkened and his voice got lower like in the movies." I bring up to lighten the mood once more.

"So if the food is good, you'll moan?"
  "Not all the time, I kept this moan in."
"So you'll moan for him and not me?"
   "Uh.."
"Kidding."

We both go back to eating and talk about small things. He prefers the heat than the cold and enjoys traveling. He also likes art and his favorite color is red because of the many shades it comes in.
He now knows I prefer the heat and hate long drives, I like drawing from time to time, and that my favorite color is a soft purple.
When we finish, he pays for the meals and walks me out to my car.

"Thank you Tris."
"Tris?"
"That's what 2 people have called you today so I'm assuming that's just part of your name or a nickname."
"Oh. Well goodnight Joslyn."
"Goodnight Tris."