“Good to see you.”
“Sir,” Alec nods, shaking my Henry’s hand as his gaze skates over myself and Carly before settling on Cassi once more.
She hesitates for a moment before pushing out of her seat and standing. Alec takes the opportunity and wraps his arms around her. It’s an appropriate one, like two long lost friends. Though, I don’t miss the way his head nuzzles into her neck just so. Is he smelling her hair? Who the fuck is this creep?
When they pull apart, she smiles up at him and shakes her head.
“How long have you been back in town?”
“A few months. I graduated early and needed to come back home and look after my grandma.”
Carly squeezes my thigh before she sits a little higher.
“Alex, this is my boyfriend, Nicholas. Nicholas, this is Cassi’s high school boyfriend, Alex.”
“Alec,” Cassi corrects with a roll of her eyes.
He nods towards me and Carly, though he doesn’t offer any pleasantries to us as he continues practically fawning all over Cassi. Talk about a lack of professionalism.
“What are you up to now? How is life? It’s so good to see you…so good,” he says, his words carrying a heaviness to them that I don’t know what to make of.
Cassi smiles at him, a smile I had been gifted not twenty four hours ago. Looks like she hands them out to any sucker that is foolish enough to look her way. Poor guy.
“Sorry,” Alec says as he clears his throat. “Are you all ready to order?”
“Yes, I think I’ll do the chicken parmesan,” Henry answers first.
Alec begins jotting down everyone’s order one by one until he finishes with Cassi. A smile curves his face, emphasizing how young he is. The kid can’t be older than twenty one, twenty two at the most. Then again, I believe Carly had told me Cassi was somewhere around that age so makes sense, I suppose.
“Five cheese ziti but with alfredo instead of marinera?” he guesses.
Her eyes widen in surprise as she sets her hands down onto the menu.
“How did you know?”
“How could I forget? The first time you ordered it here the waiter about looked at you like you were insane.”
Her hands wave out energetically as she laughs. “Right?! Like what is so wrong with preferring alfredo sauce?”
“And being allergic to tomatoes,” he says with a point of his pen in her direction.
A soft look passes across her face as she smiles and nods, handing him the menu.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I’ll get all this in and be back shortly,” he says to us all before giving Cassi a quick wink.
Mary snickers, pushing on Cassi’s arm as she begins whispering, though not very quietly.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?”
Cassi shakes her head. “The day that him and his family moved away. We’ve chatted a few times throughout the years but I didn’t know he had any plans on coming back.”
“You’ll have to forgive us, Nicholas. Cassi and Alec dated for, gosh, pretty much all of high school. He was essentially part of the family. She was devastated when he moved away, we all were.”
“Okay, mom. I think he could infer all that,” Cassi says, cutting me a sharp look that I can’t help but narrow my eyes to.
I relax my features, turning to Mary with a soft smile as I nod.
