Chapter 5

Eli takes in a deep breath before walking into the diner. He only hopes that she’s read his note and her will has bent even just a little. Both Jake and him were running out of ideas to win the woman over and even Eli feels his own inner strength cracking. How can he carry on pursuing like some fool when she doesn’t even give a hint to weakening to him?

“You’re here,” gasps Ivy as she sees the man walking in.

“Yeah, can I talk to you?” asks Eli lowly. Ivy blinks her eyes, shocked at the serious tone of the man.

“Um...sure, I’ll take my break now,” responds Ivy, telling the others that she’ll be back in half an hour and grabbing her coat.

Buttoning up her coat, her and Eli step out into the street and awkwardly waiting for the other to speak.

“Shall we go to the park?” she offers, receiving only a nod from him.

Ivy has to admit, she’s nervous. He hasn’t said a word. And that’s something that’s confusing her. He should be spouting out some generic chat-up lines he found on the Internet or..or, doing some other cocky thing. Not just walking beside her in silence. As they sit down on the park bench, Ivy can’t take it any longer.

“Okay, what’s the deal? Why are you so quiet?” she finally asks.

“Why won’t you give me a chance? The real reason. Have you been hurt before? Is that it?”

“No that’s...that’s not it...Look, I can’t-I can’t be in a relationship at the minute. I have other...things. I can’t afford to have that responsibility too-”

“You don’t have to. I’m not asking for marriage. I just...go on one date with me. Pretend we’re even friends, or that you even remotely like me,” half-smiles Eli.

Ivy feels her heart squeeze unconsciously. She can’t help feel bad for causing that spark to dim in him.

“I guess...I guess I could do that. I mean, pretend to like you that is,” teases Ivy. Eli chuckles and shakes his head. Okay, maybe this is working...he thinks the light rekindling in his heart.

“Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have to pretend too hard...you know, seeing as I’m so likeable and all,” retorts Eli smiling widely and flashing his pearly straight white teeth.

“Sure...But there’s conditions to the date,” points out Ivy.

“Conditions?” Well this is new, he thinks to himself.

“Yep. I get to choose where we go. And you...have to stop with the false pretences. No fake serenading and lying, okay? You have to completely be yourself. Can you do that?” she challenges, eyebrows raised in question.

"Easy," shrugs Eli with confidence. After all being himself is the easiest thing he can do. And then at least if she still insists that she doesn't like him, he can just honestly say it was her not him, and that the univervse must have screwed up.

"Good. Then meet me at the diner at 2pm on Friday evening."

"Sure...But where would we be going?"

"You just leave that to me, Stud," retorts Ivy.

" 'Stud'?" grins Eli widely in teasing. Hot, sexy, handsome those were the typical descriptions of himself that he's heard before, never 'stud'. He can't help grin at her description of him and although he knows she meant it as an insult, he can't help feel that it's progress.

"Shut up," mutters Ivy blushing bright red in mortification. She can't believe that she even let that slip. Where did that even come from?! Oh well, at least she didn't let slip something else like 'sexy'; now that she would never live down.

"'Stud and Tinks', got a nice ring to it, don't you think?" laughs Eli winking at his embarrassed mate.

Ivy's blush dims and she raises an eyebrow trying to convey a less than impressed expression but with the smile plastered on her face it looked more of an amused emotion.

"Not really," she mutters.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm not sweet. I'm hot, sexy-er anyway...So what am I supposed to be wearing for this mystery date?" coughs Eli quickly changing his previous topic seeing her flat look.

"Casual clothes will be fine...Now I have to go-"

"I'll walk you back," he offers quickly. His mind's reeling at the mystery of this date. He's never had a woman offer to take him somewhere. But besides that he could feel a smudge of excitement wondering where they'll be going. With it being casual clothes he's pretty sure it won't be to a restaurant or anything so fancy. A good thing too since he hated the stiff, boring nature of those kind of formal places and events.

"So why a waitress at a diner?" casually asks Eli. Ivy's spine stiffens slightly but she tries to maintain composure and casualness.

"Oh well you know, I'll always dreamed of waiting on people at all hours of the day with minimum wage," dramatically explains Ivy.

"Such high hopes," dryly comments Eli, slightly pissed off that she wouldn't answer his sincere question. It's not like he mocked her for being a waitress he just wondered why?

"Yep...2pm Friday, I'll wait for you for 10 minutes and then that's it," concludes Ivy spinning around and entering the diner.

Eli watches the woman go and shakes his head. He hopes the date will be a better success than his skills to get her to go on one.

Eli smirks to himself in the mirror as he brushes his hand through his blonde hair. The strands messing up slightly in that sexy way the girls seemed to love. Dressed in light blue jeans, sneakers, a navy t-shirt with a logo and his usual wristbands, he truly hopes that Ivy’s not going to pull any tricks and actually take him to a fancy restaurant or anything. Worse than being rejected is humiliation. Rejection, like any good play-boy Eli doesn’t have that much of a problem, he just preservers that much harder, but humiliation is...awful. He hates it. Thankfully, he’s never been humiliated much in his life.

Ah well, if she does pull any tricks, he’s confident he can match her.

Grabbing his sunglasses, phone, keys and money, he exits his apartment to head down to the diner.

The walk to the diner takes only 10 minutes, which is just as well on the warm day. Eli saunters in and scans the place for his mate.

Behind the safety of his sunglasses he’s free to perv to the max on the gorgeous woman. Even wearing just faded denim shorts and a tank-top, she manages to look beautiful. Her slim legs are toned and tanned and compared to her frame they’re so long. The tank top hugs her tiny waist and enlarges her small, perky breasts. God...he would fuck her so hard. He could easily just throw her petite body over his shoulder now and lead her somewhere private to screw her brains out. Shit...snap out of it Eli! He yelps to himself. You’ve seen better, you’ve boned better. So why get so hard for her?!

“Finally!” breathes Ivy rolling her eyes. Trust him to show up one minute before his ten minutes are up.

“I got here, didn’t I?” retorts Eli with an easy grin, “so where are we going?”

“You’ll see...just follow me, we need to catch the bus,” explains Ivy breezing past him and out of the diner. Eli quickly follows her, catching her arm and spinning her around.

“The bus?! Why do we need to catch the bus? I’ve got a car. I can drive us there.”

“No point. We can just get the bus,” shrugs Ivy before her eyes narrow in suspicion and a smirk tugs at her lips, “wait a minute. You...have been on a bus before right?”

“Yeah, of course I have!” snorts Eli.

“Really?”

“Well...once or twice, I think,” adds Eli as an after-thought; his words causing Ivy to shake her head in disbelief. Already she can tell this isn’t going to work. Clearly he’s from money and she...she is from penny-saving. It’s never going to work. Even going on this date is pointless. Still she may as well humour him.

“Unbelievable. Well, we’re getting one now, so come on,” she insists causing him to groan melodramatically.

“Ivy...people are staring,” mutters Eli nudging her shoulder with his as he leans toward her. Ivy snaps her head up and looks around to see people minding their own business.

“Don’t be silly. They are not,” she retorts feeling like a mother telling off their toddler. First, he’s never been on a bus, then it’s that he wouldn’t take his ticket from the driver and now...now people are apparently staring.

“Hey...check out that woman’s piercings...I wonder if she has her nipples done too-”

“Eli!” hisses Ivy, smacking his arm in disbelief. The boy has no filter on his mouth!

“What?”

“Don’t...don’t say stuff like that,” she squirms embarrassed.

“You asked for this, remember,” he points out.

“Really? When did I ask for comments on people’s appearance?”

“Not their appearance...Me. You said I had to be myself.”

Ivy has nothing to say to that, because it’s...unfortunately true. She clicks her tongue against her teeth and gazes out the window, watching the roads pass by and gazing at the smug reflection of her date.