Harrison pulled into the parking lot of a small wooden restaurant and shut the engine off. They had spent the weekend exploring all the sites close to the town, the river, a bicycle ride down the road, a small rundown skate park, amongst other things. He walked around the car as Cassandra opened the door to step out. Her fingers held onto his tightly as she stepped out, but before he let go, she stood on her toes and dropped a small kiss on his lips. They got the chance to grow closer, Harrison was grateful for that.

For their last day, he drove them back to the outskirts of Santa Montes to visit one of the best eateries around. Letty's Bar was not a famous diner in Santa Montes, but it was the best place, in his opinion, to get a good plate of tacos. Besides, Letty and his grandfather had been good friends. After the old man passed away, Lefty said they were welcome whenever and never needed to pay for anything. He still did anyway.

"Letty's Bar?"

Grinning at the pessimism in her voice, Harrison allowed her to walk beside him so he could wrap his arms around her shoulder as they moved. "Trust me, when we get in there, and they serve you some fries and a chilled bottle of beer, you'll be licking your fingers and begging for more."

The pace looked less encouraging from the outside; it looked like a rundown shack with a roof that was a storm away from caving in. Harrison didn't understand the logic behind leaving it to look that way, but Letty claimed it had its charms. Cassandra's demeanour changed when he let her through the wooden door, a bell ringing above their head as it opened. A more polished wood was used on the inside of the restaurant, but he wasn't sure exactly what kind it was. The window frames were designed with etched patterns in the wood.

"Welcome. What can we do for you today?"

Cassandra laughed while he kissed her neck before answering, "Well, hello to all of you as well. We would like a menu."

They walked down a few stairs to a lower platform in the restaurant and sat down on a circular table. Cassandra stripped off the jacket she had on and draped it over the back of the chair. It didn't take long for them to get their menus, and Cassandra went over the choices with interest.

"Thanks for all this. I know how difficult I can be, but you have been more than patient, and I am grateful for that. I am very happy that you talked me into this."

"Really?" kissing her knuckles, he made space on the table as the waiter began arranging the plates over it, "Almost. I am glad. Would have been a loss to take you home with zero progress. My pride would have been broken."

"We don't want that, or do we." he laughed, and she reached over to caress his face, pressing her finger into his dimple again. She liked doing that a lot. "I just hope you have a big an understanding, as you have your pride. We are still competing with one another so, I wouldn't want you to lose face and then have it affect our...relationship."

"Did you almost choke on that word?" She nodded, and he grinned, passing her a bottle of ketchup after the waiter came with their food. "When we were fighting over our companies, I did not run from you then and much less now."

"We'll see." That was all she replied

She lifted the burger from the plate and winked at him as she took a generous bite from the food. Her eyebrows lifted in surprise, she hummed, nodding and taking a sip of her soda. She dipped the fries in ketchup next and ate, chewing with contemplation, an odd expression on her face.

"You weren't lying." She said after taking another sip and offering him some fries from her plate. "This is surprisingly good. Mouthwatering. Then again I can't judge. Can't even remember the last time I ate junk food."

Pure joy danced in her eyes, as she didn't spare any expense at enjoying the meal because she just kept stuffing it all into her mouth with groans and growls. Once her mouth got a little freedom, she picked up a French fry and dipped it in ketchup before pushing it past her lips.

"For some sick reason, I am beginning to believe that the taco and french fries are receiving more love than me at this moment."

The childish act of sticking her tongue out at him had become a routine for her when she didn't feel like replying to what he said. Dipping his own fries in the bowl of ketchup, he ate in silence even though Cassandra enjoyed her meal with more volume than he would imagine.

"How did I not know of this place?"

"How do you not eat junk food often is the question." He poured some more soda to fill her glass after she emptied it. "To answer your question, you never leave Santa Montes if it is not for business. Besides, just like I said before, it is not really a famous place, but surprisingly it earns more than most restaurants that I know of."

Cassandra's eyebrows lifted higher on her forehead as she leaned forward on her elbows. "Are you trying to tell me that you know the earnings of all the restaurants you go to?"

"Yeah, some of them. Don't you?"

"Nope, I can say with pride that I have not reached that level of creepiness yet." She tapped a finger beneath her chin for a while before she reached forward to grab the bottle holding the toothpicks. Turning and yanking hard on the lid, she pulled out a few sticks and laid them out on the table. Ten in front of him and ten in front of herself.

"Are we playing twenty questions?" He asked with an eyebrow raised while she returned to her food.

"If that's what you want to call it." Another group of fries were dressed with ketchup, then she devoured them, "I think before this is over, we should know at least ten things about each other. Ten personal and cool or even sly things if you feel comfortable sharing."

"You are serious?"

"Very much so. You can't be in a relationship, no matter how complicated, and know nothing about each other. I honestly don't even know your favourite colour or if you play any sports."

Picking a toothpick, he passed it over to her and watched as she snapped it roughly from both sides and dropped it into a piece of tissue. "Okay, I was born four months premature with a threatening weight and weak brain. According to my mother, I should have died, but her prayers and God's heart kept me alive."

"You didn't have to start on such a deep note." Cassandra laughed, snapping the pieces again and picking one for him. "I am going to tell you now that I might not be so forthcoming."

Time went by, and four beers and three bowls of fries after, only Cassandra's toothpick laid flat on the table. They were down to one each, and she passed him her last toothpick, which he snapped into and dropped beside the rest.

"Okay." She closed one eye thoughtfully, sitting forward as she rubbed her palms together. "When I was younger, I was into pottery and gardening, mostly because of the time I spent with my dad. I would build these cute little monster shaped vases, and my dad would sell them just to humour me."

"Are you kidding?"

"No." I was very talented." She jutted her chin out pridefully with a sarcastic pout. "If the lingerie thing didn't work out, I would be the best gardener in all of Santa Montes. I think I still have some in my storage; you should see it. You'll be shocked at my talent."

"Is that what you were doing the day I can to your house to take you to the wrecks?"

"Yes. It felt like a while since I did it." She sipped her cup and sighing wistfully. "I lost interest after my father died; I would sit in front of the machine and just do nothing. After a while, it drained out of me. I found new things to love, like music, art, reading. I didn't even want to notice that I was consciously trying to forget everything about it."

"What was your best piece?"

"A large vase with some flowers and plants moulded into it. It wasn't the most extravagant vase in the world, by the way. My dad gifted it to my uncle, and he put it somewhere in his house. He grew my favourite flowers in it, along with some of his. He always makes sure to take care of it, so it doesn't break."

"That's a very memorable story, and this is our last bowl of fries because I want to return you to your house on your feet and not passed out from too much food."

"That's probably a good idea."

As he waved to get the attention of his waiter, he reached into his pocket to retrieve the pendant he had stashed in there. He raised the pendant up in the air and watched as her eyes followed the object as it dangled side to side. When he passed it over to her, he dropped it on her waiting palm with a grin.

"This is?"

The pendant swung in front of her eyes as they took in every detail carved on it. "It belonged to my sister."

"You have a sister? Ten toothpicks, and you couldn't say that?"

"I planned on telling you about her anyway, so it would have been a waste of a good toothpick. We called it a promise medallion. Whenever I made a promise to her, she would put it on and only take it off when I broke or completed my promise."

Squinting at the shiny metal ball with a small piece of emerald stone embedded in it, she touched it with a finger then looked back up at him. "This is absolutely stunning, and no sane minded woman would let go of this."

"Oh no, my sister was a hothead, and she loved putting on the medallion, and she, um, she wore it faithfully as long as I made her a promise. She watched so many movies, and she made me promise to get her a signed shirt from one of her favourite actors. Needless to say, it was difficult to do, but I knew someone that could make it happen. I got the shirt, drove to the airport when she was about to land, ready to surprise her."

"Oh, God." She gasped. He knew it wouldn't take her or anyone who heard the story long to figure out what had happened that day. Not wasting a single second, she folded the pendant in one fist and held his hand with the other but made no attempt to stop him.

"Her name was Caroline Annalise Clark, eighteen and the light of my world, and she went up in flames." Pointing at her fist, he maintained the smile, "That's why the pendant is so shiny even after being so old; I got it polished to remove the soot and haven't touched it since then. I kept it in my drawer and tried to lock some of the memories away."

"Your sister never made it to the airport? The plane crashed before it arrived, didn't it?"

A scornful laugh burst from his lips as he shook his head, "That's kind of the painful part of this necklace. She made it to the airport; I sat there and noticed the chaos as her plane had a problem while it was about to land. The blast was so big that I heard it from where I was. Caroline died merely a few kilometres away from me."

"I am sorry, there is no getting over the loss of a person. Forgive me; I never knew. If she was eighteen when she passed, the news never circulated."

"My parents worked hard to make sure no one made a spectacle of it. After a while, she wasn't spoken about by anyone who wasn't in the family. We prefer it that way, instead of dealing with what the city might make

"I am sorry for your sister and for but why would you give me the pendant."

"I want to ask you, formally, to be my girlfriend. Officially, in front of everyone and between us. As you said, we are both bringing some serious past to this relationship, more bad than good. I think it would be crazy to just let this opportunity pass because of fear."

"Do you want to make me a promise on this?"

He covered the hand that held the pendant and kissed her fist. "I want us to make a promise together. You bring your best, and I bring mine; whatever happens down the road would be on both of us."

"We argue a lot."

"So? My parents had arguments, but they made it work. We have different lives, values, and ideas. At some point, we might clash on some things."

"True."

"So. Are you going to be my girlfriend, or are you going to keep waiting on pins and needles?"

The edges of her lips twitched, but she didn't smile fully. She walked over to his side and took his face in her hands, leaning closer to kiss him softly then with more intent. He smiled when she pulled away, rolling a strand of hair in his hands before kissing her again.

It was dark when he drove into her home, waving at the gatekeeper who greeted them. With their hands tightly wound around one another, he turned her to face him as they stood in front of her door. To his surprise, she pulled her fingers free and used them to cage both sides of his face as she rose to kiss him.

"Hmm," he teased, leaning back and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Don't you think your mother, who by the way is looking from her balcony right now, would realise that we are in a relationship?"

"Yes. We talked about it already, and we are not hiding from anyone. I guess the first people to know should be our parents, right? It is okay for the Ice Queen to have a boyfriend, is it not?"

"Wow," now he leaned in to drop a few kisses on her lips and cheeks, "If that is the case, then I have the most attractive girlfriend in the world."

The sad thing about happiness is that sometimes it took more than winning the heart to be truly happy. The world had its mean jokes to play that put happiness to the test, and unfortunately, it wasn't done with them just yet. As they stood happy, in each other's arms, the world dropped another bomb.

"Cassandra?"

Confused at the intrusion, they pulled away from each other and turned towards the voice, but when he came into the light, Harrison felt Cassandra shiver as she said a name that caused his blood to boil.

"Harrison?"