The White House

The White House- Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist my charms for long,” he said, his eyebrows raised.

“You wish,” I retorted, brushing my trousers off as I got up from the curb. I twisted my hips in a fluid movement so that I was now facing the corner of the street where the café was situated.

“You ready to put on the performance of a lifetime?” he asked, holding out his hand for me to place mine in his, rolling his eyes in the process.

“Oh, I can’t wait,” I said sarcastically, hesitantly allowing his hand to engulf mine. Putting on a fake smile as we both walked our way up to the café doors. This was torture! How am I meant to look happy for an hour in his company? Seriously, what were our parents thinking when they asked me to do this? Had they gone crazy? Are they out of their minds? Apparently so.

We approached the authentic looking café that had a slightly French feel to it and I gasped. The first thing I noticed was its originality; with Georgian style shop windows and copper that twirled around the edges, slightly green due to it’s age, and the name of the café, ‘Je t’aime,’ printed in Italics on the canopy that overshadowed the street, I had no hesitation in saying it was the most beautiful thing I had seen this side of Washington. Approaching the entrance the café door swung open when I applied the slightest pressure allowing a gush of wind to flow through the doors, whipping my hair up into my face. A few people looked up at our presence, the faint ring echoing around the room from the bell that had dinged when the door opened. Tightening my grip on Kasper’s hand I pulled him towards a nearby table, shuffling onto the green leather seats. “This is going to be so embarrassing,” I muttered, picking up a laminated menu from the table. Kasper chuckled, obviously finding my abrupt entrance amusing.

Feeling the booth dip to my left I knew that Kasper had sat down beside me. Gritting my teeth I fought my instincts to move further away from him and tried my best to smile.  

“So…” I trailed off, glancing up from the menu to look at his smirking face.

“So…” He replied, tapping a finger on the burgundy table. I looked at the finger and felt my eye twitch involuntarily. Oh, how I wanted to shout at him and tell him to stop drumming his finger to the jingle bells Christmas tune. But I couldn’t, not if we wanted to appear civilised. He smirked at me, immediately catching on to the fact that his tapping finger was irritating me. His finger tapped slightly louder on the table and I felt my hand twitch with urge to slam his hand onto the table once and for all.

“Problem?” he asked, feigning concern as he took in my annoyed expression.

“No problem,” I replied with gritted teeth, “Just thinking about what I want to order.”

Kasper continued to grin at me his thumb beginning to join his index finger with the irritating tapping motion. With a resounding sigh I allowed the menu to fall from my hands and placed my palm on top of his knuckles. I squeezed lightly in what would have been viewed by an outsider as a sign of affection but in reality was a subtle warning. He raised his eyebrows at me but I felt his fingers go limp under mine.

“Well, the coffee is apparently very good here,” he said, responding to my earlier question, rolling his eyes.

Well duh! It is a café after all. “Well then a coffee it is.”

Kasper got up from the seat and walked over to the counter to place our orders. I sat patiently waiting for his return looking out of the window. It was a bright sunny day and the people of Washington were out in force, strolling down the highstreet all with different destinations and goals. That got me thinking; what was my goal exactly? What did I want out of this, even life? Not this that’s for sure. I always imagined myself doing something average to blend in with the crowds. I was never one to enjoy being the centre of attention and this was so far from that dream that I didn’t even know how to react to it.