Not Scared Anymore

Chapter 19 - Kevin

For the next month, Kevin and Stephanie were texting irregularly and had spoken on the subway a few times, but had not done anything else together. Jared hounded Kevin for details about her and begging him to ask her out. Kevin resisted; the texts and conversations were not flirty, and he was pretty sure she wasn't romantically interested in him.

He started to open up to her a bit more about some of his hobbies, but still made sure not to mention the cosplay or the Dungeons and Dragons. After a lengthy discussion about board games, he received a text that made his pulse quicken and his breath come short. She invited him to game night.

Of course, it would be with friends and not really a date, but it was a start. According to Stephanie, it was her trivia team, which meant there would be three girls there and two guys including him.

The games night was scheduled for Wednesday evening, and Stephanie assured him it wouldn't be a very late night, her big event was starting the next day. Kevin didn't mind, Com-Expo was also starting the next day, and it was bound to be a whirlwind.

*

Kevin was a nervous wreck all afternoon. When Stephanie sent him Denise's address, he started to panic that he would show up at the wrong time, either too early or too late and make things awkward. He didn't know how to nicely ask whether her friends were very punctual, if they would be slightly late like his friends. He felt like he had a tight band across his chest, and he just couldn't shake it. When Stephanie finally suggested they meet up first and head over together, he felt all that tension leave him like a deflating balloon.

At exactly 5:00pm, he turned off his computer and headed home to get ready. Stephanie told him it was fairly casual and they usually spent all night snacking, so he wanted to go home and have a quick shower and small dinner beforehand. He never trusted people who told him snacks would replace dinner. It was never enough food.

Stephanie picked him up at 6:30pm, but traffic was good so they arrived a little bit before 7:00pm. This stressed Kevin, but Stephanie just waved him off saying it was all good, and she wanted to get her taco dip in the oven anyways. Denise was on the phone when she opened the door, so Stephanie led the way in, and Kevin followed three steps behind.

Denise disappeared into the bedroom on the phone, and Stephanie was moving around the kitchen like she owned the place. Kevin wasn't quite sure what to do with himself.

"So... what should I do with this stuff?" he asked.

"Oh! What do you need? Bowls? Spoons?" she was already grabbing a big chip bowl from the top shelf.

"Yeah, thanks. Do you need help with anything?"

"Oh no, I've got this. I wonder if these pizza rolls are done yet so I can turn the oven down... DENNY! Can I take out your pizza rolls yet?" she shouted towards the bedroom.

The response was muffled by the door.

"Did you catch any of that?" she peered at Kevin, who shook his head, and she headed towards the bedroom. Kevin leaned against the counter and looked around the living room. When Stephanie came back out, she opened the oven, grabbed the tray and tossed it on the counter so the pizza rolls all bounced in the air. Two of them landed on the counter, she grabbed one of these and popped it right in her mouth.

"HOT!" She screamed, trying to cool off her mouth without spitting out the pizza roll. Kevin hurried to her side to try and help. Denise came out of the bedroom then and barely glanced at them.

"Kevin, if there is one thing you need to know about Stephanie, it's that she has no control when it comes to any kind of pizza products. No matter what it is, and however many times she burns the roof of her mouth, she will always put the pizza directly into her mouth when it comes out of the oven. The day she doesn't do this, is the day we worry about an alien invasion." Denise calmly explained, while Stephanie glared at her and tried to fan her own mouth with her hand.

"Ah, good to know I guess..." Feeling helpless and awkward again, he sidled back to the far side of the counter and looked around the kitchen. Denise got out a bowl and spoon for the dip, and moved the chips and dip over to the table. Stephanie had already returned to getting her taco dip in the oven, and was gabbing away to Denise about some guy named David.

"It's honestly so annoying. There's at least one message or something every week. I've mostly been ignoring him, but he just won't stop. Should I tell Mark?"

"No, don't talk to Mark unless you need to. What's he going to do anyways? Maybe you should set him up with someone else? Or hire a big scary dude to intimidate him? Or tell him you're moving to Winnipeg! He won't want to follow you there, right?"

"Ugh, he says he's going to be in town for a long time for a job or whatever. I liked it better when he was always in Ottawa."

Denise was silent for a moment, appraising Stephanie with her head cocked slightly to the left. "What if..." she began slowly, "you hang out with him and John or whoever you can still find from that group, and go out together, but spend the whole time flirting with John? That'll show him that you really aren't interested in him."

"Or, he will think I'm just playing hard to get and try to win me over." Stephanie sighed and put her head down on her arms. "Plus, I don't want to go anywhere with him. So, I think I will keep ignoring the weird messages on the app, and say no if he tries any more e-mails."

"I suppose that works too, but that won't be nearly as much fun as practicing your flirting on John."

"Ha! I'm so out of practice, I doubt he'd even realize I was flirting! He'd just think I was having a stroke or something. Not something I want to inflict on any of Mark's friends."

Kevin had been watching this exchange in fascination, with so many growing questions, when there was another knock at the door. Denise went to answer it and Stephanie came over beside him with the tray of pizza rolls.

"Don't worry, they've cooled off enough now." She said with a smile, and he took a bite of one, realizing her eyes were the colour of his favourite whiskey.

*

Two hours later, nearly all the snacks had been devoured, and Kevin was truly stuffed. He didn't think he could eat another bite. Clearly, this was a group that snacks hard enough to replace a meal.

Carly was dealing the cards for the next round when Drew asked Stephanie "So, are you dressing up for the Com-Expo tomorrow? Painting yourself green?"

Everyone except Kevin laughed. "No, I will be dressed as a logistics coordinator. Do you know what that looks like?"

"Nope."

"Business casual. I've been planning it for weeks, and I even have an authentic security badge to go with it." She laughed along with the rest of them, but Kevin was feeling very self conscious, and stayed quiet the rest of the night except for conversation directly related to the game. Clearly this was a group that thought cosplay was not cool.

By 10:00 PM, Carly and Drew had left, and Kevin was helping Stephanie and Denise clean up. Denise and Stephanie talked so much and changed topics so seamlessly, it was hard to keep track of anything unless you focused on everything they were saying. Eventually he just gave up and scraped the last bit of taco dip out of the bowl before throwing it in the dishwasher. Stephanie had already said they would leave soon four times, so he figured it wouldn't be too much longer. He just wanted to go home.