Lunch date

"Are you okay honey, you're still shaking," Carol crouched next to Summer's desk as she held her friend's ice-cold hand.

"Yeah… it was just... It happened very close to me,"

Carol rubbed her friend's hand with hers trying to warm it up, she knew that witnessing a car hitting a tree first thing in the morning couldn't be easy on anyone, but it held a much deeper meaning to someone with an axe pointed at their neck.

What Summer felt was on another scale altogether.

She ended up calling Gabe who took a cab and hurried to meet her. And he ended up dropping her at her workplace before going to his morning classes. Half an hour had passed since she arrived, but Summer wasn't over the accident yet.

"I keep playing it in my mind over and over again, the man had to be drunk… he kept honking the horn of his car as if the tree was coming at him, not the other way around! I... I kept putting myself in the place of that tree..."

Carol sprung up then looked down at a sitting Summer, "Nothing will happen to you… I have a feeling that we already found him," she said more to herself than to her friend.

She had told Andrew everything about the prophecy the same day she learned of it. She then observed as her cousin got angrier by the minute until he left the room and took off somewhere, it was a clear sign that he harbours feelings towards Summer. 'Otherwise, why would he care enough to get all upset on her behalf?'

Seeing all the concern in her friend's eyes, it was Summer's turn to grab Carol's hand and then give it a light squeeze, "Thank you for worrying about me," Summer squared her shoulders and pointed at her keyboard. "Let me finalize the agenda, we only have fifteen minutes before our weekly meeting,"

Carol quickly decided that work was a good diversion right now, but her eyes lingered on Summer's still trembling hand, "…Okay, you do that while I gather the rest of the team up in the conference room and get the projector ready, I'll ask them for some herbal tea instead of coffee, hm?"

Summer sighed in relief, "That's actually perfect," she didn't know if she could survive caffeine with all the adrenalin in her system.

***

"Hey!" Patrick smiled broadly when he saw Summer leaving the building.

Summer returned his broad smile, "You're early!"

'I'm late,' Patrick thought to himself as he observed her face. She was easily one of the most beautiful women he had ever known, but seeing her cheeks becoming a bit rosier than usual because of him made her look that much prettier in his eyes, it was a very welcomed sight, one that gave him hope that he might just end up getting out of that wretched friend zone today.

"... I took half the day off, so I came straight from home," he said as he scratched his neck uncomfortably. It was a white lie; he took the entire day off. "I hope you don't mind, I already made reservations at the same place we went to the other day, you seemed to have enjoyed that Fettuccini,"

"I don't mind at all!" She said in a hurry.

Summer did mind the choice of that particular restaurant, the food was fine and all, but she still wasn't finished with putting out the fires that started because of that little stunt Gabe pulled on her, that said, she'd never discourage her friend by asking him to cancel the reservation he already made there.

***

"Mmm," Summer hummed in appreciation.

On second thought, she was thankful for Patrick's choice of restaurant.

Her date had a crooked smile on his face, "Good?"

"Mhm," was all she managed to say with a mouth full of Lasagna.

She looked at his barely touched plate and then looked up at his face, hazel eyes were shining with so many emotions.

It was overwhelming.

Summer put down her knife and fork then swallowed the bite, she stared at Patrick for a long moment, "…Since when?"

Patrick didn't blink an eye at her question but left it answerless. After another long moment, Summer held her hand up, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she tried and succeeded to sound casual about it.

Patrick didn't like it at all, he preferred how she was flustered when he first saw her, and he also preferred to watch her healthy appetite as she heartily ate. Anything was better than a casual Summer who treated him as her friend.

He was keen on getting her cheeks pink once again, "High school," he bit his tongue after answering, the fact that he didn't have to ask her for an elaboration proved that he knew how her brain works. He knew that only because of the friendship the two of them shared.

"Wow," Summer said with wide eyes, 'I can't be this clueless when it comes to men, can I?'

"Nice to finally receive some credit and some acknowledgment, I hid it well,"

She thought about that for a moment, "I disagree with you,"

"Hm?"

"Someone as confident as you wouldn't hide his feelings away, not when you had the opportunity to confess on a daily basis"

Patrick's eyes slid down to Summer's half-full plate, he refused to go through the same deja vu. "You eat, I talk," he winked at her, then he watched with approval in his eyes as she picked up the knife and the fork once more.

"You might be right about that, I only realized that I have liked you since high school after I received the news about your engagement," Patrick frowned at the unpleasant memory, "I was so horror-stricken by the news that I started wondering what was wrong with me… I asked myself why couldn't I be happy for you. At first, I tried to convince myself that it was because I felt you were too young for that sort of commitment since we're the same age and all, but by the end of that same day, it was clear to me that what had upset me wasn't the timing of your engagement, but the fact that somebody else got to be with you…"

He paused; a slow smile stretched on his face as he saw her cheeks getting that lovely color back. "You know me, I started analyzing everything logically until I reached one conclusion, I had always liked you,"

Summer didn't know how she felt about all that, "Patrick, I have to be honest with you, seeing you under a different light all of a sudden…I'm not sure I can return your feelings…"

He looked deep inside two clear blue eyes, "Do you mean… not sure you can return them right away? Or not sure you can return them... ever?"

"Right away," Summer answered honestly.

It was the answer Patrick wanted to hear from her, "Well, that's enough for me right now, just… the possibility of returning them at some point… that's progress,"

Summer bit the inside of her cheek hard, Patrick was so busy rejoicing at the fact that they were on a date and that she was open to the idea of a change in their relationship that he forgot about a crucial thing.

What Summer needed.

The man Summer needed was someone she could return his feelings right away. And that was not 'progress' at all.

'Sorry Patrick,' she thought as she placed another bite of Lasagna in her mouth.