Intertwined

Chapter Three

I waited in my living room anxiously. I wore a pair of white capris and black halter top. I didn’t know how to dress, but I was pretty sure I looked nice. Not that I wanted to impress Travis, but this was a practice date.

I tied my hair in a neat pony, and then put on powder and gloss.

The doorbell rang.

Maria, our maid, ran to get it.

“I’ll get it!” I said to her.

She looked at my outfit and then smiled. “It’s nice that you’re going out on a date on your birthday.”

I was going to correct her that it wasn’t really a date, but then I asked her instead, “How do I look?”

She beamed at me. “Really lovely!” she replied. “Your date will not be able to take his eyes off you!”

I giggled nervously. I doubted that was true. If it was any other guy, maybe. But not Travis Cross, who saw me in pajamas and shirts with holes in the wee hours of the nights he slept over at our house.

I never imagined Travis would be my first date. A couple of months before, I would have vomited at the mere thought of it. But now, I felt like…better him than some guy I don’t even know.

I opened the door. Travis was standing in front of me wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a black jacket.

“Hey!” I greeted him cheerily.

He nodded at me.

“Happy birthday,” he said.

I smiled. “Thanks!” I closed the door behind me. “I suppose I should introduce my date to my parents first, but…first of all, they already know you. And second of all, they didn’t even bother to come home on my birthday. So, that’s out the window. Let’s proceed to step number two.”

To my surprise, Travis suppressed a chuckle at my attempt to joke about the fact that my parents weren’t home on both my birthday and the first time I would be going out on a date.

Travis opened the door of his Porsche for me.

“Quite the gentleman, aren’t we?” I teased.

“If the guy doesn’t open the passenger door for you, don’t proceed with the date at all,” he said in a serious voice that really sounded like he was giving a lecture.

“Note taken. Does he have to have a Porsche, too? Because that really limits my choices.”

He raised a brow at me. “Doesn’t matter. As long as he doesn’t make you walk all the way home.”

He rounded the car and got into the driver’s seat. He drove to a classy restaurant that was famous for steak and overlooking views.

“Wow!” I breathed. I stared at him. “Travis, this is setting the standard way up high!”

“Good! Maybe I’ll have more peace if you never go out on a date at all,” he said and then got out of the car. A second later, he was opening the passenger door for me.

“Hey, Tom would not be so strict!” I said.

“Well, he’s the angel. I’m the devil incarnate, remember?” he asked in a cold voice.

“Do all my dates have to be sarcastic, cynical, and cold, too?” I asked back.

He stared at me for a while. Then he sighed. “You’re right,” he said. He tossed his keys to the valet. Then he reached for my hand and guided me inside the restaurant.

“Good evening, Mr. Cross,” the receptionist greeted him. “This way to your table, sir.”

We were led to a secure corner on the terrace. It had a perfect view of the city and offered just the right amount of privacy.

“Privacy,” I said.

“That’s not for you,” he said. “I prefer that you date in public…where lots of people can see you…hear you scream if your date is a lunatic. This privacy…is for me.”

I raised a brow. “You’re ashamed to be seen with me in public, aren’t you?”

“Accusations are to be saved for the end of the relationship,” he said. “Not when you are hoping to start one.”

He had a point. But then I remembered, I did, too. “You’re avoiding my question.”

“No. Being seen with you is the least of my worries,” he said. “And if I were really a guy hoping to start a relationship with you, I would be proud to be seen with you in public. But enough with the compliments…the truth is…I don’t want you to be seen with me. At least not tonight.”

“Why?”

He sighed. “Because my father’s in town.”

“And?” I asked.

He stared at me for a moment. Then he said in a whisper, “Tom really could keep a secret.” It took him a moment to speak again. “My father and I have a broken relationship. It is worse than I let you know.”

“How bad?”

“Really bad,” he replied. “He lost his right to ground me and so I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.”

“How could a parent lose his right to ground his child?”

“The moment he stops doing his job of being a parent,” Travis replied coldly.

I sat back on my seat and waited for him to continue.

“And so whenever he wanted to keep me at home, he resorted to…tactics that would make you want to call child services if you found out,” Travis said. “I’m emancipated. I would sue his ass if it weren’t for my mother.”

“Travis…”

“He has bodyguards…hounds on the loose. Sometimes, I think they’re watching me, studying who moves in my circle.”

“Who you’re close to?”

“Right now, there’s only one,” he said. He stared at me for a long while, and in a rueful voice, he said, “I don’t want you to be involved in our war. I don’t want to break my promise to your brother.”

I smiled and reached out for his hand. “Thank you, Travis,” I said. “And anytime you want to talk about your father…I’m here.”

He pulled his hand away. “Thanks. But nope. I’m not going to waste your time talking about him.” He motioned at the menu. “Order.”

I ordered a New York steak and mashed potatoes. Travis ordered a ribeye and vegetables.

When the waitress was gone, we stared at each other.

“So, I suppose this is the part where I talk to my date about myself? And ask about him?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Now, what could I possibly ask Travis Cross that I don’t already know?”

“A lot,” he replied. “But I don’t necessarily need to answer every one of them.”

“Aren’t you interested to know anything about me?”

He stared at me for a while and then gave me a crooked smile. “I know you more than you think.”

He said that with so much confidence I was actually surprised. “Really? You really think you know everything, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “You’re welcome to test that theory, cherie.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “My favorite color?”

“Green,” he replied without blinking. Wow! I didn’t know he knew that. My entire family thought it was pink.

“My favorite book?”

“Romeo and Juliet,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

I was taken aback, surprised he knew that, too.

“Movie?” I knew I had a lot of favorites. Only You, The Princess Bride, Some Kind of Wonderful…the list went on. Even I couldn’t answer that question easily. I would be shocked if Travis could.

He thought for a while. Then he said, Ever After.

I stared back at him. He raised a brow at me, as if he was challenging me to deny that. But then I realized—he was right. Out of all those movies, Drew’s Cinderella story was the one I watched over and over. Sometimes, I just turned it on and played it until I fell asleep.

“Song?”

“‘Walk On,’” he replied.

I couldn’t believe it. It’s like I replied to an interview and Travis spent hours memorizing my answers. “My secret crush.”

“If I knew that, then it wouldn’t be a secret, right?” he asked back.

Ha! There’s a page in the interview he’d missed reading after all. And I smiled to myself proudly.

He took a sip of his soda.

“But isn’t Ricky Martin gay?”

My mouth dropped. How could Travis know that much about me?

He was suppressing a laugh when he sipped his soda again.

Our food was served. I couldn’t say anything. I was still wondering how he knew all those things about me. Travis and I were not exactly friends when Tom was alive. I remembered him for his snide remarks—mischievous pranks, even. But I didn’t remember ever talking to him about anything regarding myself at all.

“You’re not upset, are you?” he asked.

I sighed. “I’m not. I’m just…shocked!” I replied. “How could you know all those things?”

He shrugged. He sliced his ribeye and then took a bite of his food. He didn’t speak for a long while.

I put my fork and knife down. “Would you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” he asked.

“How did you know my favorite color, or movies, or songs? Even my thing for Ricky Martin?”

He shrugged again.

“Travis!” I protested. “Did you read one of my diaries?”

“Do you have a diary that has all that information?” he asked back.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

He smiled at me as if I were being ridiculous.

“Even Tom thought my favorite was pink,” I said.

“Well, he did get that wrong a lot,” he said.

“But how could you know all those things?”

He sighed. “I don’t know.”

“My favorite color, for instance,” I said. “How could you know that?”

“The ink of your pens are green. You have a lot of green shirts.” Then he reached out across the table to touch my bracelet. It was a chain of green Swarovski crystals. “It’s the color of your birthstone.”

“So that day we went to your beach house…the room I stayed in was all green. Tom asked you to make it pink. Did you make it green on purpose? Did you already know I preferred that color?”

He stared at me for a while. Then he nodded. “I’ve always known you liked green.”

I sighed guiltily. I remembered that that day, I thought he was playing a joke on me that backfired. And yet, all along, he actually did it because he knew I would like it. I guess Travis really wasn’t as bad as I thought.

“What about the books I read?”

“Weren’t you carrying a Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights book around all the time?”

“The movie?”

“I slept next room to you about a hundred times. I could hear Drew Barrymore’s voice through the walls,” he replied.

“I suppose I play Menudo a lot, huh,” I said.

He rolled his eyes. “And the portrait of Ricky Martin that you drew is stuck on your bedroom wall,” he said.

“So you got all that by observing?”

“Now you can’t say that nobody ever pays attention to you, cherie,” he said. “You’re…patriotic when it comes to the things you like. It’s hard not to notice.”

I sat back in my seat. “Funny. I didn’t know anybody really cared before.”

“I’m a very keen observer, particularly of the people around me.”

“Well, since you already know so much about me, maybe we should talk about you.”

He stared at me for a while. Then he took a bite of his ribeye.

“Can I ask the questions now?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Favorite color.”

He stared at me for a while and then asked back, “Looking at me, what do you think?”

“Black?”

He shrugged. “Black will do.”

“Favorite movie?”

He sat back for a while, and then he said, “The Good Son.”

It was the way he said it that made me look at him carefully. There were sorrow and bitterness in his voice.

“Something about the movie you want to talk about?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nope.” He looked at me and grinned. “You won’t trick me into telling you about my relationship with my parents, cherie. No matter how cute you try to be.”

I sighed. “Fine. But I will get you to talk about your parents. Maybe not now. But we have our lives to wait until you’re ready, Travis.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” he said, and somehow, I knew he meant that.

We had dessert. Since it was only Travis, and I didn’t need to pretend, I ordered their Mocha Lava specialty, which was a molten chocolate inside a chiffon cake with ice cream on top.

“Should I order dessert when I’m really out with a guy?” I asked. “I mean…will it turn guys off to know I don’t count calories?”

He chuckled. “I find it cute, actually. I think…if I wasn’t me, I have fallen in love with you already.”

“Why?”

“I don’t really like girls who are obsessed with their figures. I would rather they give in to the temptation of a nice Molten Lava cake. But that’s just me. And I’m not into relationships, really. It still depends on your guy. So I suggest you go with what you feel. You want to be comfortable with your boyfriend. You wouldn’t want to change just to fit his taste. He should fit yours.”

I looked at him thoughtfully. “I hope most of the guys our age think like you.”

“You have your whole life to look for him,” he said. “Well…not your whole life. But a decade and a half.”

I blinked back at him. “How could you know that?”

“Since I was twelve, I have been going to your family gatherings,” he replied. “Tom told me all about the ridiculous ‘curse’ the females in your family believe in.” He looked at me from under his lashes. “You don’t really believe in that, do you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think it will hurt that much to believe,” I replied. “I mean…in my family, if the curse does not happen to you, the others make it seem like it did. Like, for example, you don’t get married by thirty-one, and they look for all sorts of things that are wrong with you and they only talk about that at family reunions.

“I mean, who’s to say that it’s not Aunt Rosalie’s choice to be single for life, as supposed to marrying a man who would only break her heart? Or maybe Aunt Mildy’s dream was really to become Princess Jasmine she just couldn’t resist that proposal from a rich Sultan? But they talk about it at reunions and they give you a certain look, or they dish at every table that it looks like you’re doomed after all!” I sighed. “And sometimes, I realize I don’t want that. I prefer to be invisible compared to being so visible in the wrong sort of ways.”

“And so you prefer to get married before you’re thirty-one?”

I nodded. “Or be cursed for life? I think I prefer the lesser of two evils.”

He chuckled humorlessly. “Cherie, some men are not the lesser of two evils. Let’s just pray you don’t marry one who is a curse in his own right…like my father.”

I sighed. “Don’t bring up topics you don’t want to discuss further, Travis. Because I’m really getting curious about your father now.”

He brought his fingers to his lips and made a zipping gesture.

After dessert, Travis got the bill.

I took my wallet and pulled out some bills. “How much is my share?”

He stared at me as if it offended him.

I rolled my eyes. “I know you’re filthy rich, Travis Cross, but I’m not a free rider.”

He chuckled. “You did half of it right, at least.”

“Half of what right?”

I watched him place a platinum card in the folder and hand it to the waiter.

“Expect that the guy must always pay,” he said. “For me, if you cannot pay for the entire date, then don’t have the guts to ask a girl out. But it’s good that you did the check dance. You got that right. It’s impressive.”

“What did I do wrong?”

“The rolling of the eyes, and the sarcastic remark that followed,” he replied. “Offer to pay or split the bill, once, twice, or three times. Don’t try to insult or tease to prove why you should pay. Because you really shouldn’t. If the second or third time, he insists on paying, graciously thank him.”

I smiled at him. “Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Thank you, Travis…for such a lovely dinner.”

He nodded back at me. “You’re welcome, cherie.”

He signed the bill and then fished through his wallet to leave a tip. It was huge. But since he paid, I wouldn’t know how much the bill was.

“Can I…” I started.

“What?”

I shrugged. “If it was a real date, could I ask how much the bill is?”

He shook his head. “You must never ask how much the guy spent on your date…and this is a real date, cherie. So you can’t ask me how much the bill was, either.”

We stood up from our seats and he led me toward the exit.

“It was a lovely dinner, Travis,” I said to him. “But shouldn’t a normal teenage date usually involve going to the movies or something? Because I will be dating normal guys. And you’re not really in that range, Travis.” I stared up at him, my eyes laughing.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Who said I wasn’t planning on taking you to the movies?”

He drove to The One Hotel, which is one of the high-end hotels and shopping destinations in the city. He led me toward the back and we reached the entrance to a stadium.

He handed two tickets at the entrance, which meant that he’d already purchased them beforehand.

“Are we going to watch a game?” I asked him. “I thought you said you were going to take me to the movies.”

“The purpose of first dates is usually to find something in common,” he replied instead. “Now, I know that neither you or I have patience as one of our virtues.”

I rolled my eyes.

“And refrain from rolling your eyes so much. It will intimidate the guy. Unless you’re not aiming for a second date,” he said.

I sighed. I didn’t ask questions anymore. Travis would not answer any of them. He was taking this educational date seriously. Maybe I should, too, I thought. This is for me anyway.

It did look like we were going to a movie theater. Travis opened a door and motioned for me to go in first. But when I stepped in, I was surprised to find that I had stepped outside into an open area. There were knee-high tables with candles in the center and beanbags on each side of them with a large projector screen in the middle. It was like a restaurant, but instead of chairs, you had comfortable beanbags to sit on.

“I told you I was going to take you to the movies,” he whispered into my ear. I could feel his breath against my neck, and I actually shivered.

“Movies Under the Stars,” I breathed. I had heard about this, but not many of the kids my age actually went. Not many of us could actually afford it.

We were led to our table. I found the beanbags were more comfortable than they looked. It was very relaxing. A waiter approached us to take our orders.

“I’m still full,” I said.

“A soda? Nuts? Popcorn?” Travis asked.

I smiled. “Pepsi and nuts will do.”

“Macadamia nuts and two diet Pepsis,” he told the waiter.

We waited for the movie to start.

“This is really nice,” I said to him.

“I’m glad you like it,” he said. “Enjoying your date so far?”

I nodded. “Although, if it wasn’t you, I might feel intimidated.”

The waiter served our orders and told us to press the button on the table if we needed more services.

“Why?” Travis asked after the waiter was gone.

I shrugged. “This is all too…surreal.”

He gave me a crooked smile. “Then it’s exactly how your first date is supposed to be,” he whispered.

The lights dimmed suddenly, marking the start of the movie.

“What are we watching?” I asked him in a whisper.

He stared at me mischievously and said, “Ssshhh…”

It took me a moment to realize what movie is going to be shown.

My breath caught in my throat as I saw Drew Barrymore’s name on the screen.

“Ever After,” I whispered and I bit my lip to keep from crying. Because this gesture was far too touching. And it was the very last thing I expected from Travis Cross.

We watched the movie in silence. Even though I almost had every scene memorized, watching it under the full moon and stars only made it so much better for me. It was perfect!

“Do you like it?” he asked.

I stared up at him and nodded. “Yes.” I reached out for his hand across the table and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you, Travis.”

He nodded and turned his hand over to intertwine our fingers. Then he looked back at the screen. I smiled to myself. This was the first time I’d held hands with a guy. Travis may have been the guy I hated the most, but now I thought we were in a much better place than we had been in before. Because now he was the guy I knew would always mean well for me. And now, on my sixteenth birthday, he was the only family I had to celebrate with.

Travis was still holding my hand when he led me toward the exit. I didn’t feel self-conscious. Instead, I felt comfortable and safe…assured that an ally was within reach.

I looked at our intertwined fingers. “So I guess it’s okay to hold hands with my date.”

“I leave that up to you,” he said. “Although, next time, let him initiate the act.”

I looked back at him. I realized I was the one who’d reached out for his hand. Immediately, I started to withdraw my hand from his.

He laughed, tightening his grip on my fingers and preventing me from letting go of his hand. “I know, cherie,” he said. “Your initial intention for touching my hand was to thank me.”

I glared at him. And I made a serious effort to withdraw my hand from his. Finally, he let go. But then he put an arm around my shoulder. “Now, I initiated this. Happy?” he asked, giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze.

I did feel better.

He chuckled. “Your temper is cute,” he said, and then he kissed the top of my head.

He didn’t release me until we got to his car. Before he opened the door for me, he said, “I seriously hope Tom didn’t intend to give you a lesson on kissing, too. Because one, that would be very weird. And two, I’m not up to give you that lesson.”

I raised a brow at him. “No. Because one, my brother and I weren’t perverts. And two, I wouldn’t ask you for that lesson even if you were up for it.”

He chuckled. “Then it’s good we got the air cleared.”

He drove me home. It was ten minutes to midnight; he pointed at the digital clock on his dashboard. “Your parents may not always be around, but I hope you remember that twelve o’clock is your curfew.”

“And who set that?”

He shrugged. “For the time being, me, your designated guardian.”

“You’re the same age as I am!” I protested.

“I’ll be seventeen in a couple of months. I’m almost a year older than you,” he argued.

I grunted in my seat.

He took something out of his pocket. “Happy birthday, cherie,” he said, handing me a box with a ribbon tied around it.

“What’s this?”

“Looks like a birthday gift to me,” he said.

I raised my brow at him, and then untied the ribbon and opened the box. My mouth dropped when I saw the gleaming necklace with a large heart-shaped purplish-red pendant. The pendant was surrounded by clear diamonds.

“Wow,” I breathed. “This is beautiful. What stone is this?”

“Alexandrite,” he replied. “You’ll probably prefer its color in daylight. It will turn emerald green.”

I blinked back at him. “But…Travis, this is rare.”

He shrugged.

“You shouldn’t have!” I said. “You didn’t care about my birthdays before!” That was true. In the past, Travis didn’t even wish me happy birthday. Not even after I blew out the candles on my cake. And now, he was making everything perfect!

“Maybe the necklace is for all the other years I didn’t wish you happy birthday,” he said quietly. “Back then, I didn’t have access to my own money. And I didn’t want to spend my father’s money on you or your family.”

“You have money that didn’t come from your parents?”

“Yes. My grandparents from my mother’s side named me their heir,” he replied. “Maybe Grandpa knew I would not sit well with my father’s ways and decided to treat me like an adult three years earlier.”

“Well, your Grandparents must have loved you.”

“Love died in my life the moment they did,” he said sadly.

I reached out to touch him in the cheek. “Hey…we were here.”

He looked up at me. “Tom was. But not anymore.”

“I’m still here,” I said.

He smiled ruefully and nodded. “Yes, cherie. You’re still here.”

I looked at my necklace again. “This is beautiful,” I said to him. “And so is everything else. Thank you for making this birthday count, Travis.”

He nodded. “You’re welcome. And I promise, I’ll make all your birthdays count from now on.”

And that promise warmed my heart for the first time in many months after Tom passed…