Eli did not know who Tommy was, but decided he all but had to dislike him. Just the way his quasi date alternatively tried not to look at him while being interested set off enough alarm bells. Add to that his own insecurity in this little venture, and he had the perfect recipe for a first date disaster. As he sat mulling it all over, he got a pretty clear picture of this Tommy leaving him in the dust with both girls.
The question that was thrown at them brought him out of his thoughts, and into the hot pan. When Kate held up the corsage and answered, he actually almost passed a hand over his face, because he already felt it was lame, but mostly due to his belief that Kate said she was his date reluctantly, perhaps with... a little disappointment.
How could he be failing so badly before the date actually got underway?
"Date. Yeah.", Eli answered passively. If he was not picking up so strongly on Kate's interest in Tommy, he may have said the words with some conviction and used them possessively, but given the situation he could not begin to put that sort of tone into his voice. Instead he just sounded mildly defeated.