The Runaway Nerd | ✓

Chapter 15

We pulled into the parking lot of The Cheesecake Factory and Sam drove around looking for an empty parking spot. A few minutes later, we finally found a spot. He parked and he got of the car. Before I could open the door, he opened it for me and held it there until I got out. He locked the car and we walked to the restaurant entrance. We told the hostess that we were a table of 2 and she led us inside. She brought us to a table with 2 chairs and placed 2 menus on it before leaving. We sat down and I picked up a menu and started to flip through the pages. Sam did the same and we sat there in silence.

A waitress soon came over with a notepad to take our orders.

"What would you two like to order?" she asked nicely.

"A grilled rib-eye steak would be great," I said. I watched her jot down my order before asking Sam for his.

"A Steak Diane," Sam ordered and placed the menu he was holding onto the table.

"And what would you two like to drink?" she asked afterwards.

"Uhm..." I began.

"A 1989 red wine," Sam said, finishing my sentence. I looked at him in shock.

"B-but I'm not a good drinker.." I started to say.

"Shh, wine matches perfectly with steak. You'll see," he assured.

The waitress scribbled down our drink order, picked up the menus, and walked away.

"So Sadie... do you want to tell me what happened to your face?" he asked when the waitress was gone.

I was hoping that the dark lighting in the restaurant and now dark sky outside was going to conceal my swollen cheek, but I guess he was an observant guy who had good vision. "I was swatting a fly but I accidentally slapped my own face," I lied. I stared at the white table cloth and hoped that he would fall for my lie.

"Oh come on, do you think I'm a 6 year old?" He brought his hand to my cheek and lightly traced it over the swollen part of it. I couldn't help but wince in pain. "Tell me the truth," he murmured.

I sighed in defeat. "There was this  woman... and she sorta kinda slapped me," I confessed.

He retracted his hand and both of them clenched in anger. His eyes flared with anger. "Why would she do that?" he demanded. I noticed that the volume of his voice got increasingly higher.

"She didn't like me being near this guy.."

"And she slapped you just because of that?!" he exclaimed in disbelief. I could feel the eyes of the other people in the restaurant stare at us.

"It's nothing really, just a misunderstanding," I explained assuringly.

Sam would've said more if the waitress didn't come back with our food. She placed our dishes in front of us and 2 wine glasses along with a wine bottle. She poured the wine in each of our glasses and placed the bottle back down. "Have a good meal," she said before leaving in the direction she came from.

"Let's eat," I said happily to Sam, hoping that this would end the conversation about my cheek. I picked up the knife with right hand and the fork in my left and started to cut the steak into bite-size pieces. I could feel my stomach grumble from the delicious smell coming from it and my mouth watered.

"Looks like someone is hungry," Sam said with a smirk. I blushed in response. I didn't think my hunger would be so obvious.

I finished cutting the steak and immediately stuffed a piece into my mouth. "Mhm, it's so goooodd," I moaned in happiness. I could hear Sam chuckle from across the table. I looked up at him in horror. "This is not something to laugh about Mr. Jones," I said in a serious tone. "This won't do... you have to try it. Here...," I added and brought a piece of my steak toward his mouth. He automatically opened his mouth and bit onto the meat. His eyes lit up in surprise before he grinned at me.

"I must admit, that was some steak," he confessed. "But.. I think it tasted so good because you fed me it."

I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

Sam cleared his throat. "Now let's try some of that wine." He picked up his wine glass and waited for me to do the same.

We clinked our glasses together and I took a small sip of the dark red fluid. It didn't taste as bad as I thought it would. *A/N: I didn't know how to describe the taste since I never drank wine before, hope you guys don't mind the lack of details here :)

"Now have a piece of your steak," Sam ordered.

I took a piece and placed in my mouth. Somehow the taste of the wine and the taste of the steak matched perfectly. I smiled after I swallowed the meat.

"See, what did I tell you?" he beamed proudly.

We told each other about ourselves for the rest of dinner.

By the time we had to pay the bill, I knew almost everything about Sam. He said he didn't really listen to kpop, but he was willing to try it for me. Although he wasn't into kpop, surprisingly, he was into Korean dramas. His favorite color was red. His parents died a few years ago so he lived by himself. He was an only child, like me. And in return, he knew all about me.

After Sam paid the meal, we left the restaurant and walked to his car. We got in and he drove me home. On the way there, my phone started ring.

[Lyrics of the song translated into English]

Loser, loner

A coward who pretends to be tough

A mean delinquent

In the mirror, you're

Just a loser.

I already knew who it was from the ringtone, but I still took out my phone from my purse and looked at the caller ID. A laugh escaped from my throat when it said LOSER.

"You're not going to answer it?" Sam asked curiously.

"Nah, its just some loser calling," I said before pressing the red button.

In a while, we arrived at my house. Sam parked the car right in the front and wished me a good night. I got out of the car and waved to him before walking to the front door.

As I got closer, I could make out the dark silhouette of a man sitting at the steps of the patio.