“I’m glad you finally came to your senses. I’m not used to working this hard to get a girl to go out with me.” The dimple flashed in his cheek, and his eyes darkened.
I shook my head, biting back a laugh. As much as I wished otherwise, I knew by now that Asher’s flirting never meant anything. “That was working hard? Wow, I’m going to have to step it up then. I’ve made it way too easy on you.”
“Lexicon, you could never be easy.” His blue eyes were serious, at odds with his playful tone. “That’s what I like about you.”
“Ah, so the more complicated, the better? Doesn’t that scare most guys off?”
“I’m not most guys. You should know that by now.”
I had to look away from his intense gaze before I could even find the words to respond. “Aren’t you ever serious?”
“Why are you always serious?”
I looked down at the scarred surface of the table, traced one of the gouges with my finger. The words rushed out before I could think them through. “I’ve had to be. It’s the only way I know how to act. Hide behind whatever character someone expected me to play. Daughter. Student. Classmate. How could I be myself when I didn’t know who I was? Until last month, I was someone else. Someone with a different brain and different way of seeing things. I’m still trying to figure it out.”
Asher leaned forward, his eyes searching mine, but before he could respond, Coco showed up to take our order. Like a flip had switched, Asher was bright and funny again, his sudden seriousness gone. I wasn’t the only one who played roles around here.
“This is Lexie’s first dinner here, Coco. Let’s give her the works. She’s going to need a basket of chili cheese fries, one of your deluxe burgers, an Italian soda — cherry, I think — and a piece of your cheesecake when we’re done. Might as well give me the same thing.”
Coco grinned. “You sure do know the way to a girl’s heart, don’t you, darlin’? You’re in for a treat, Lexie.” She slipped her tablet in her pocket and made for the kitchen.
I smiled cheerfully at her pixie cut and her slight frame. The girl was nothing I would have expected to find in Oak Ridge, and that made me happy. It also made me happy that she’d interrupted a conversation that had gotten way to serious.
I waved my hand around the restaurant. “This place is amazing. I’m eating dinner made by a Goth girl chef — who also happens to be a scientific genius — in a town full of the smartest people in the world. I can’t get over it.”
“Luckily, you don’t have to. Come on, Branston has nothing on us. I mean, I’m not there.”
I smirked. “And what makes you so special?”
“Besides resident genius status?”
“Ha ha. Seriously, if you pull that out one more time, I’m going to start wondering if you’re trying too hard.”
“Only with you, Lexie.”
I didn’t know whether to roll my eyes or blush, so of course, I went on the defensive. “You say that to all the other girls, too? What about Amy?”
He shrugged. “There are worse things than having lots of friends who happen to be brilliant…and female. That’s what Amy is. A friend. Besides, I just like to get to know people. To figure them out.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You play catch-and-release, too?”
“I used to.”
My mouth went dry. Was that what he was doing with me? I thought we were friends, but once he’d figured me out, would he release me, too? Some of my worry must have shown in my face because he reached across the table to touch the back of my hand.
“Lexie, it’s not like that. No matter how much I joke about it, I’m genuinely interested in people. I like figuring them out. I like learning who they are. Especially you. Because maybe if I can figure them out, I can figure other things out as well. Like…why I feel the need to impress you more than anyone else.” He looked away, but I caught the vulnerability in his eyes.
The door jangled as a group of laughing QT students walked in. I spotted Amy the same time she spotted us. A surge of disappointment twisted through me.
She made for our table, sliding in beside Asher and bumping him with her shoulder. She glared at his hand touching mine until he pulled it away. I dropped my hand to my lap and rubbed the spot where his touch still seared my skin.
“You guys should have called. I would have met up with you,” Amy said, her gaze darting between us.
His face was expressionless. “We got done early.”
“Well, I’m here now, so it’s all good.” She turned to me, though she still leaned her shoulder against Asher’s. “How’s everything going, Lexie? With all the project stuff going on, we haven’t had much of a chance to get to know each other yet. How do you like QT?”
“I’m getting used to it. Slowly. It’s not quite like Columbus High.”
“Right. You went to public school.” She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t imagine having to deal. Were there cliques and bullies and stuff?”
I shrugged. “It was just a normal high school. And there are cliques in QT, too.”
“Yeah, I guess there are. I just don’t think I could handle some place so…understimulating.” She watched Asher from the corner of her eye. “But you probably fit in better there, huh? I mean, with people more your level?”
I forced myself not to react, though more than anything I wanted to reach across the table and slap the smug expression off her face.
She smiled sweetly. “Oh, look, your food’s here.”
Coco carried a huge tray over to our table and slid the burgers in front of us. A basket of chili cheese fries hulked in the middle of the table. My stomach growled loudly.
Amy laughed at me and shook her head at Coco. “Can I get a Caesar salad and a Diet Coke please?”
“Sure, darlin’. I’ll bring it right over.”
Amy turned back to me. “Asher and I used to come here every Wednesday for the burgers, but then I started getting a little pudgy. I had to stop.” She patted her flat stomach, and I tried not to glare at her. I wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t rail-thin like her. More importantly, what I looked like had nothing to do with who I was, and I hated this girl for making me feel like it did, even for a split-second.
Asher seemed oblivious to the subtext in our exchange and was busily shoveling down his hamburger. I ignored Amy’s sneers and tried mine, closing my eyes at the deliciousness. “Oh my god, Asher.”