Looks Can Be Deceiving

“Alright, follow me,” the hostess smiled at Austin, still ignoring my existence. He slid his arm around my waist, gently pressing his fingertips into the fabric of my dress.
“You look absolutely beautiful. Stop doubting yourself,” he leaned down and whispered as we walked to our table. I looked up to him and into those brown eyes of his that I found myself dreaming about earlier this morning. All the insecurity slipped from my mind as I smiled and nodded. What are you doing, Pandora? Your brain is turning to mush because of this man. Don’t let him in! I sighed as we stopped at our table. Austin sat on one side and I took the other, smoothing out my dress once again.
“Start off with drinks?” the red dressed woman smiled down at Austin. “What about you sir?”
“Um,” he looked to me and hesitated. “Just an ice tea,” he smiled. I kept my eyes on him, wondering if he was going to stare at her chest as I expected him to. To my surprise, he looked anywhere but her chest. Maybe I wasn’t giving him enough credit. She glanced over to me.
“For you hun?” she talked like I was a child.
“I’ll have the same,” I gave a small smile as she nodded and set down two menus.
“I’ll be right back with that.” She gave Austin a grin look before walking off. I picked up the menu and scanned over it. God, were there a lot of options.
“See. Nowyou actually have a reason to judge her,” he chuckled, causing the skin by his eyes to crinkle. I giggled a bit and nodded. “So what do you like to eat?”
“Uh… I don’t go out much. Whatever’s good?” He raised an eyebrow.
“That sounded like more of a question than an answer.” I shrugged.
“What do you like here?”
“Lobster,” he smiled.
“Lobster is expensive.”
“It’s expensive and it tastes good. Do you like it?” I hesitated. “You do,” he smiled. “We’ll both get it, how about that?” I sighed.
“Are you sure?” He nodded as I looked around the restaurant, feeling like too much of my chest was showing. I tugged at the dress, trying to make it fit my body better.
“Here,” he smiled, shrugging out of his suit coat before handing to over to me.
“I’m fine.”
“No you’re not. You’re uncomfortable. Take my jacket,” he smiled. Maybe this was the big heart that Oliver was talking about. I reached over and grabbed the warm black jacket from him and wrapped it around my body. He chuckled. “It’s like a dress on you. You’re so tiny.” I looked down at my thin legs. “So whose dress is that? It doesn’t seem as if you like it.”
“I feel a bit… exposed. It's Hannah's.” He smiled
“You’re very modest.” I nodded. “I like that. It’s hard to find in people. I mean, tons of people give me the ‘I’m modest’ crap and then take off their clothes in front of hundreds of people when they get drunk.”
“I guess I'm just... different,” I mumbled, taking in the scent from his jacket.
"A good kind of different," he added. The hostess came back with our drinks and took our orders. “So,” Austin took a drink of his tea as she left. “Did you grow up in LA?”
“No,” I stirred my straw around in my tea and propped my head up on my hand. “I was born in England and lived there until I was eight. After that, it was all a blur. I moved around so many times.”
“Did your parents have jobs that required them to move every year or so?”
“Eh… no. I guess we just needed a change in surroundings every once in a while.”
“Well that must’ve been fun; getting to see new places all the time.”
“Sort of… It was hard to make new friends.”
“I’m assuming your parents are back in England?” I nodded and I looked down at the laminated menu in front of me. “Do you talk to them often?” I bit on my lip nervously. What was I supposed to say? “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to get too personal.”
“No…” I ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t really talk to them much. I’m always busy.”
“So I’ve heard,” he chuckled, referencing to my excuses as to why I couldn’t go out to dinner with him. “Do you have any siblings?” he asked, clasping his hands together before resting his elbows on the table.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I have a brother, August, my little sister Charlotte, and my twin sister, Finley.”
“How old are they?”
“My brother is twenty two, my little sister is five, and my sister… would be eighteen.” His eyes dropped down as he realized my use of past tense.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he muttered, looking back to me. I shrugged.
“It’s been almost two years.” I wrapped Austin’s jacket around my shoulders; feeling comforted by it.
“I lost my mom when I was seventeen.” Now it was my turn to look down.
“I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to apologize for,” he smiled. “I know she’s still with me everywhere I go.”
“That’s a positive way of looking at it.”
“The only thing you can really do is be positive about it. If you’re not, you’ll get down on yourself and fall into something you may not be able to get out of.” I swallowed hard, choking on the words that wanted to come out.
“You know, I’m sorry I misjudged you last night, Austin. I just…” I closed my eyes, fighting my words. I was silent for a minute or two.
“It’s okay,” I opened my eyes to see Austin’s big brown eyes focused on me. I let out my breath.
“I have a hard time getting close to people. The trust factor just isn’t there when it comes to meeting new people.”
“I completely understand. You never know who to trust in today’s world. That’s why I wanted to take you out to dinner and prove to you that I’m not a bad guy.” The hostess came back and set down our food in front of us.
“Can I get you anything else?” she looked to Austin.
“No, but she may need something,” he flashed his pearly whites and looked across the table to me.
“Anything for you?”
“No, I’m good,” I gave a small smile and picked up my fork as she left. Austin watched intently as I took a piece of lobster off my plate. I popped it into my mouth and looked to him.
“And?”
“It’s good.” I giggled. “Try yours.” He laughed and dug in.

Notes

Yay for a fast update! :P
~ Sampiternal