Chapter 8

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Chapter 8

Eli breezes past his mate who was leant against the wall, lost in thought and as he does so he gives her a wink and a small knowing smile.
“Okay no more fooling around-”
“Fooling around? Tinks that was nothing, if you really want to-”
“No. No, stop it. Work...Time to work. This way, let’s go,” orders Ivy swishing past him and through the steaming kitchen into the front of the diner. She calls over Laurel and Vanessa to introduce them to Eli so they don’t freak out at the sight of some random man starting to serve their customers.

“Eli this is Vanessa and Laurel. Girls, Eli’s going to be working today as part of a poor choice he made. But that doesn’t mean that anything’s going to be any different. You guys will keep to your sections so you needn’t worry about him interfering. Alright?” explains Ivy to them.
“So how did Ivy lure you into the den, then?” teases Laurel, the 16 year old student.
“Oh you know, it must have been her incredible charm and charisma. She could talk a fish out of water,” grins back Eli taking a small dig at Ivy. Something which she doesn’t appreciate judging by the frown she gives him.
“Thanks Eli,” she comments sarcastically before clapping her hands and gazing around the filling diner, “okay, enough chit-chat, time for work.”

“It’s very simple. Here’s a notepad and pen. Just ask them what they want from the menu, give the order to Frank, when it’s ready go collect it, give it to the customer, clear up after and then give them the cheque. Any problems just find me. Um...you can start with those three tables in the corner, okay?”
“Sure..” shrugs Eli taking the pen and notepad before going to ‘his’ tables when Ivy lightly pulls him back slightly.
“Hey...thanks, for this,” she tells him quietly before letting go of his arm and strolling to her own tables.

“Hi there, I’m Eli and I’ll be your server today, so what can I get you?”
The girl’s bright blue eyes gaze up, a sly grin forming on her red lips. Eli looks at the her friend’s and realises that they’re doing exactly the same-checking him out subtly with the same glint in their eyes Eli’s seen in so many. But for some reason, he can’t feel but a little disgusted. They look like they’re still in high-school trying desperately to act older but even if they were the age they try to be, he can’t bring himself to feel the same amount of lust he once had. And he knows why...one word-mate.
“A salad and diet coke, please-”
“Actually make that 3,”
“Okay, no problems girls. It won’t be a minute,” he flashes them a quick fake smile and goes over to the other table and giving the order to Frank. Eli has to take a double look when he swears he sees Frank glaring almost stonily at him. What the hell has he done to the man? His mind screams at him in confusion. Before today, he’s never seen the man before in his life. Maybe he knows his daughter or wife...oh shit. That’s probably it. He’s probably boned one of his female relatives, and so he’s pissed at him. That’s usually the case. The reason why he’d have to dodge punches or kicks from random angry males.


As lunchtime rolls by so do the hungry customers. Eli barely has to think of anything else than following the procedure he has drilled into his head from the short morning he has to practice them. Only problem is the tween girls from his first table just would not go. For every little thing they’d call him over only to giggle and give him stupid requests. He has the urge to go complain to Ivy but seeing the woman practically fly around the place he can’t do it. There were only 3 servers including him now as Vanessa had finished her shift which just meant Ivy had a impossible amount of work to do and Eli can’t bother her anymore.
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude but are you girls quite finished?” he asks with a tight grimace.
“I don’t know, are you going to finish me? I can’t quite do it myself,” winks the blonde one. Eli blinks at her in shock. How the hell do 16 year olds know about stuff like that? That’s taking sex ed way too far, he muses.
“Jeez, how old are you kid?”
“For you, I’ll be as old as you want,” she retorts with a smirk. That’s when Eli notices the girl has freaking clear brace things.
“Yeah, we’re all legal age, don’t worry,” pipes in her friend. Eli’s eyes pop and he nearly snorts. Okay...now it’s time to get a woman to sort it out.
But like a physic Ivy floats over and Eli has the strong yearning to cry hallelujah.
She had been confused when she’d seen Eli just standing around the table of girls and typically drawn the conclusion that he was flirting on a job. However as she glanced again she spotted just who the little troublemakers were and easily recognises the look of surprise and horror on his face.

“Melissa, Gina, Hanna, I should have known it was you guys. What have you been saying to him?” grins Ivy with a roll of her eyes.
“Aw come on Ivy, you know us-innocent as angels!” cheekily smiles the blonde. Eli’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion at the exchange as the cogs turn and the switches click on.
“Yeah right. Alright, girls, that’s enough. Don’t you have homework or something to do?”
“Homework? Not due until Monday, so I’ll do it Sunday night...And we were just welcoming your new waiter. He’s cute, you should keep him.”
“Thank you,” pipes in Eli before Ivy can launch her rocket to his ego.
“Girls don’t boost his ego anymore. As it is, it’s in outer space.”
“Pretty sure that’s verbal abuse- something you can’t be doing to your employee,” comments Eli.  
“Then please, feel free to leave at any point and never see me again!” cheerfully retorts Ivy.
“Er-so are you guys like dating?” Melissa remarks.
“Yep-”
“No.”
Melissa flickers her eyes from Ivy to Eli and back to Ivy. If it were Melissa she wouldn’t deny the claim the hot guy has to dating her. But then again, Ivy’s always been slightly peculiar.
“Oh...okay. Anyway, the girls and I are going to be going now,” responds Melissa looking to her friends in agreement.
“Alright. And tell your sister to call me back! I haven’t spoke to her in ages,” Ivy tells her with a soft hug.

As they go she returns to her table just as Eli returns to his. But a small nagging feeling in him kept echoing that there’s something familiar about her. However underneath the badly done make-up it’s hard to tell. The voice is pushed to the back of his head and there it remains until the afternoon rush dies down.
As only a few people are loitered around the diner, Ivy strides over to Eli and pulls him towards the quiet corner next to the long bar.
“You can finish now, if you’d like,” she nods to him.
“What about you?” he asks.
“Don’t worry about that. I need to stay but thank you so much. I’ll admit I wasn’t quite sure you’d turn up today,” grins Ivy.
Eli’s not made of stone and seeing that small smile on her face makes him feel that little bit lighter.
“Tinks, I don’t go back on a deal. I’m staying ‘til five so don’t think you can get rid of me that easy.”
“Drat,” mutters Ivy clicking her fingers mockingly gaining a wide smile from the man before him, “in that case, we’ll go on our lunch break now. Denise and Jo-Ann will be fine until we get back.”
“As long as you agree it’s our second date,” he bargains with a cheeky smile. His insistence this time is something Ivy can’t help laugh at.
“Sure, whatever. I guess you’ve earned it,” she shrugs. She well and truly did feel grateful for his help. She’d been worried all week how she was going to manage to get through Saturday since Maya had called in and said she needs the week off desperately. Ivy hadn’t had the heart to tell her no when she explained that it was to go to her grandma’s funeral and although she’d asked around she could find no-one to do an extra shift. But it seems nowadays that’s always the case. Extra-shifts were a daily occurrence for Ivy and with their current state it’s not like they can employ another person. It just isn’t affordable. Still, Ivy has to admit Eli has been so useful. Even if she did have her doubts. Of course, she’d thought that it would be a disaster but surprisingly he’d not messed around once and acted like an actual adult rather than the kid she’s used to him behaving as.

“What are those?” he points to the plastic bag.
“Those are some of the best sandwiches you’ll have, made specially by Frank for us,” beams Ivy.
“Frank?” Eli’s own smile slips off his face. Shit, he can’t eat that. The man’s probably laced it with laxities or poison or even powdered weight gain tablets or worse women’s hormone tablets...His face pales at the thought. Oh god! What if he...what if he starts crying and growing man boobs and...
“Yeah, you know the chef...Hey, what’s wrong?” she asks attentively noticing his blanching expression.
“Uh...well, I’m not quite sure. He was giving me evils,” he confesses feeling like a kindergarten kid. ‘He was giving me evils’...fucking hell, man up, Eli, he tells himself.
But Ivy just laughs and Eli’s not quite sure what at, he was completely serious; Frank was staring so hard, Eli had thought that perhaps the man’s imaginations of Eli’s death would start to magically happen.
“Don’t mind him. He’s just trying to be an overprotective dad,” Ivy explains with a roll of her eyes.
As they start their walk to the park, Eli can’t help ponder about that.
“...Isn’t that what your dad is for?” he enquires as they sit themselves down on the grassy bank.
“I wouldn’t know. He passed away a while ago,” she despairingly replies gazing down at the grass and busying herself by unpacking their lunch.
Eli takes a moment to think carefully the next thing he says while internally cringing at bringing up the sensitive topic.
“Oh....Sorry for bringing it up,” he murmurs hoping they can now move past it now.
“It was a while ago. Its fine,” she shrugs handing him a sandwich, then quickly sensing the air of discomfort around the serious topic, she changes it.

“So we’re apparently an item now, are we?”
“Yep. Aren’t you honoured?!” smirks Eli leaning back onto his forearms as he bites into the ham & cheese sandwich. His taste buds meticulously scanning for anything off; however the incredible taste blows them away. It really is one of the best sandwiches he’s had! Not as good as his mom’s of course but still, pretty awesome.
“Eli you have no idea how completely honoured I am that you-the great, handsome, dashing Eli Carter, have chosen a worthless, lower class, simpleton as myself to be your...girlfriend,” she sarcastically exaggerates with a hand to her heart. Eli just grins and rather sincerely bows his head in agreement.
“I know, I know. It was a tough choice-kidding!..I’m just kidding, Tinks...But will you actually be my girlfriend.”
Ivy just about manages to tear her eyes away from his piercing gaze and bites her lip as she glances back.
“Eli...I don’t think that’s a good idea...” she says, a start to the rejection of the proposition.
“Why not?” His voice is like a dagger to Ivy’s heart. The dejection is so clear and loud in his tone that she has to keep repeating to herself the reasons why she can’t date him.
“...Name me all the girl’s you’ve slept with in the past year,” she lashes out, silently feeling bad for attacking at his largest weakness, but...it’s true. The man is clearly a slut.
“That’s not fair. Why should my past be a factor in this? If you’re worried I’ll cheat or pressure you into anything, then don’t. I wouldn’t ask you to be in a closed relationship and do that to you. At least give me a chance to prove it,” he defends himself.
Ivy finds her heart skip a beat in anxiety. Boyfriends are dangerous, he’ll find out...he’ll know...and he’ll be disgusted...
“I can’t...I’m...I won’t sleep with you,” she blurts out. Loud chuckles ring through the warm air at that.
“Ivy...You will, trust me baby, you will,” he darkly murmurs as the last of his chuckles die out.
“Eli, I’m being serious. If this is all for sex it’s-I’m not-it’s not going to work,” she responds with a shake of her head and the worry shining in her moss green eyes. Eli’s eyebrows scrunch in curiosity. Why is the woman so defiant about physical contact? Intimacy? So many possibilities run through his head.
“This isn’t for sex. I want a relationship with you and at some point I suppose that sex is going to be inevitable. But why...why are you so scared of that kind of intimacy?-”
“Wait a minute! Why even do you want a relationship with me?! You’re young; you have no problem getting women, why settle now? Why me?!” questions Ivy with slight rage, as she deflects his question.
He grabs her hand and suddenly pulls her closer to him. With a short squeal she lands almost completely onto his chest, but manages to twist around and prop herself up with her hand.
“Because....because you’re different, baby-”
“How many girls do you say that to?” she whispers interrupting him.
“Just you. I want to be with you Ivy. What do I have to do to make you just give me a chance,” he murmurs with exasperation.
A moment of heavy silence is exchanged between them. Ivy’s eyes searching his deep blue ones for...for the truth. For the promise that she won’t be...she won’t be ridiculed. Not again. But how can he possibly tease her about something he doesn’t know...something he’ll never know, if Ivy can help it.
“....A trial,” she exhales finally.
“What?”
“We can test it out for a few months. But if it doesn’t work, promise me you’ll just-just...go.”
Eli’s lips set into a grim line, not pleased at her appeal. But it’s not like he can do anything about it. He’s just as anxious as her for this whole relationship thing. It’s not like he’s ever done this! This is all uncharted territory for him too. Nonetheless, he’s got something she clearly doesn’t-faith. He has faith in them working, more so than her. He’ll admit he didn’t at the start. Perhaps he didn’t want to. However after that first date, after this morning, something in him has changed. A feeling that perhaps he doesn’t need other women; that his mate isn’t as boring and incompatible with him as he had once thought and that perhaps-perhaps, she could be the only lover he needs. Although not overly confident in all that, he realises it’s worth a shot; something that his mate obviously doesn’t.
And that causes a small level of irritation in him. What could be so damn wrong that she can’t even give him a chance? It has to do something with sex or intimacy because that’s the questions she lashed out at-skirted around-avoided....pick a synonym.
“Fine,” he grudgingly agrees.

Minutes of painful silence pass between them as Ivy sits up and eats her sandwich with her eyes cast down, focusing with intent on such a trivial thing.
“So...tell me how this works then,” Eli’s voice interrupts her empty thoughts.
“Hm?” She murmurs gazing up into his blue eyes. They honestly do seem like the windows to his soul; holding back no emotion or lie. But nobody can be that open of themselves-everyone has secrets. That probably being the reason she’s so weary of them, there has to be some dark secret swirling beneath them. There has to be.  
“How does it work? This girlfriend-boyfriend thing...what do I do?” he asks.
“Um...I-I’m not sure...I’ve never had a boyfriend,” she quietly whispers in a barely audible voice as her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
Eli bursts into laughter, cutting the tense atmosphere between them. Sitting up he takes her by surprise as he leans towards her and plants a kiss at her cheek. She blushes deeper while half-heartedly swiping her cheek with her fingers.
“So we’re in a relationship that we barely have any concept of, apart from the fact that there are some no-no’s and hmm’s?”
“No-no’s? Hmm’s?” laughs Ivy, “You’re right, I’m not sure on the way it works either, but I suppose there are the basic guidelines.”
“Like no cheating-”
“Yep and no flirting with others-”
“And no making the relationship increasingly difficult for the other when the other is trying very hard to make it work-”
“And no lying-” she spits out with hotness after his last remark.
“Good. Then, let’s go back to my previous unanswered question shall we? Why are you so scared of sex and intimacy? Are you a virgin?” It was one of the better scenarios he has in mind. After...after hearing the bare basics from Mason of his mate, Eli’s frankly worried that Ivy may be of the same....rearing. But it’s a distant worry since she displays none of the signs of abuse that Katy had. However he’s certain something must be ‘wrong’ with her.
“No...no, I’m not a virgin,” replies Ivy with a small shake of her head and her cheeks red again. Although not a virgin she has only had sex twice in her life. And second time had been....well, it had been...heartbreaking.
“Then?” attentively enquires Eli, more curious than ever.
“....We should head back it’s-”
“Ivy!”
“Stop it! Just...stop. Stop asking me. I’m not going to lie to you but I can’t answer you either...okay? I just-let it go Eli....” she ends softly packing up their eaten lunch and gazing around for a trash can. Before Eli can say anything she stands up and strolls over to the can to drop the litter. He watches her, dwelling on her outburst.
He shouldn’t push it. Not when she’s clearly sore about the topic meaning it must be something deeply personal. But she’s incorrect to demand him to let it go. That’s one thing he will not be doing. In fact, letting go of it is the last thing on his mind. And just like any other mystery- his mind is eager to solve it. Solve her.

A/n Unedited but at least it's longer, right? Hopefully, there was more of an element of seriousness there but also typical Eli fun. Thanks for reading, and have a good week! x 

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