Cappie leaned back in his chair, enjoying the warmth that was emanating from the fire pit. O had arrived at Burke and Riley’s Irish pub before him that evening and had somehow managed to bag them the best seats on the deck, right near the fire, with the best views out over the town below and the mountains beyond. Cappie had got the beers in when he’d arrived and ordered them a plate of Loaded Irishman fries to munch on.
“So, how’s work?” he asked. Although they’d texted a lot, he hadn’t seen that much of O since the lake party, what with college starting back up and her going back to her job at the stables.Tonight was his attempt to remedy that.
Octavia had enjoyed her week or two off while she got settled back into real life again, but now that school and work were back in full swing, it felt like life was getting back to normal again. She’d met Cappie at the pub and sat back in her seat. The weather was nice, the beer was good, and the company was excellent. It was a good night.
“So far so good. It’s not as busy as it was right when I got back, but we’re still booking up for trail rides.” She sipped at her beer and looked over at him. It was weird how that feeling of missing someone happened when you lived in the same town, but it had been several days since they’d seen each other in person. “How’s school going for you so far? I’m always ready to get the first couple of weeks behind me.”
“It’s been tiring,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. He was the kind of guy who was skilled at burning both ends of the candle but the last week had been hectic, even by his standards. “I’m teaching my first class of the semester next week,” he added, raising his eyebrows to demonstrate his apprehension. He’d taken classes for Roman the previous year and, together, they’d put together a module based around his thesis, but his tutor had been keen for him to take more of a forward role this year and, while Cappie was relishing the challenge, he felt slightly as though he’d lost his safety blanket.
"Yeah?" Octavia turned towards him and a bit of a sly expression appeared on her face. She'd never taken any of the types of classes Cappie had, but she did find some of the ideas behind them pretty interesting. "I might have sit in on one or two of those if you're teaching." Cappie up in front teaching a whole room full of students had to be something she saw at some point in her life. "I'm sure you'll do great. Your students will love you. But does this mean I have to call you Professor Cappie now?” She grinned behind her glass as she took another sip.
“Please don’t,” Cappie laughed awkwardly, feeling an unexplainable lurch in his stomach at the thought of trying to coherently teach a class with Octavia watching on. His classes were fun, to teach and, he hoped, to attend, but just the idea of O’s eyes on him while he taught a room full of undergraduates about cuss words made his mind go completely blank.
“You can if you like,” he said, returning her grin. “Do you think it suits me?”
Octavia just grinned. She might have to try to sneak in at some point, but she wouldn't tell him ahead of time. She could sit in the back and wear a hat or something. And then afterwards tease him about it over drinks. Even if he did great, and she knew that he would, there could always be something to poke at him for from the class.
"I don't know...." She cleared her throat. "Are you going to be posting office hours, Professor Cappie?" Scrunching her nose, Octavia thought for a second and then couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't meant it to come out sounding suggestive, but oh well. "I think I'll stick with just Cappie for now."
“Dammit,” he said, sighing dramatically. “Well, there goes that career path then.” He pretended to pout as he lifted his beer to take a sip, although internally he was wondering whether she had meant to sound as sexy as she just had. He had felt his heart rate speed up a notch or two at the thought of getting her alone in a snug, cramped office, surrounded by books, a little pull-down blind over the door window. He gulped at the beer.
“Maybe I’ll be one of those liberal, postmodernist professors who ask their students to call them by their first names,” he said, shrugging as he lowered his glass back down to the table. He couldn’t help smirking as he thought of Roman, who he had always (except maybe for one or two lectures when they’d first met) known as Roman.
“Anyway, I’ve got a whole weekend to enjoy before I have to worry about that. And my last class tomorrow is a peer seminar that finishes at 3pm, which is pretty much the best Friday afternoon schedule I’ve been given since coming to this place.” Peer seminars were supposed to be a time for department grad students to share ideas and help each other work through snarls in their thesis progress but, invariably, especially when Cappie was present, they turned into discussions about the Breckentale social scene. In other words, for a whole semester, Cappie’s weekends would be starting at around midday Friday.
"See, there you go. Cappie the professor instead of Professor Cappie." She was a little glad that he hadn't touched on her slip of tongue with the whole office hours comment but also maybe a little disappointed that he didn't latch onto it. Mentally, she shook her head and pushed the thought out of her mind.
"That sounds like a good afternoon to me. My Fridays are pretty easy. I just have one class early in the morning and then I usually head over to the stables since it's a busier time of the week with tourists coming into town." Octavia raised her brows a bit and tried not to sound too obvious or hopeful. "But I could probably get off early if you wanted to hang out. The art festival has had some really cool exhibits from what I've heard."
Cappie felt his stomach drop at Octavia’s suggestion.
“I’m actually already busy tomorrow afternoon,” he said hesitantly. “I’m going for coffee with Pippa… I know,” he added quickly. “Weird, right? I saw her at the lake party and we started talking.”
Something felt very wrong about telling O he was meeting up with another girl, even though it was a conversation they’d had plenty of times in the past. This time, however, Cappie felt incredibly awkward and, while he was looking forward to seeing Pippa tomorrow, he wished the subject hadn’t come up tonight.
Octavia did her absolute best to hide any reaction to his revelation that he was meeting up with one of his ex-girlfriends. She didn’t know all the details, nor did she want to know, but she remembered Pippa coming up in old conversations when he used to talk about his time working at camp over the summers. He’d also talked fondly of her. Octavia didn’t know Pippa much at all, but she seemed nice.
“Oh, well, that’s great for you guys then,” She tried putting on a smile and pretended it didn’t bother her. “I mean, you probably have a lot to catch up on, yeah?”
Thankfully, she had her beer to keep her occupied, so Octavia took a long sip and glanced ahead at the scenery instead of at him. The fact that he was meeting another girl shouldn’t bother her, but it did. There had been this unspoken something between them for a long while now, and they were finally at a point where they could both do something about it. When he’d stopped by her place shortly after she returned to Breck, Octavia thought he’d been on the same page, but neither had pushed it. Now it seemed that not only was he not on the same page, he was in a completely different book. Maybe she’d just been reading way too much into things, and he’d moved on everything unspoken between them a long time ago.
“Well, we haven’t really spoken for, like, five and a half years,” he scoffed, trying to ignore the strange knot that was developing in his stomach. “So yeah. You could say that.”
It wasn’t a date, the coffee with Pippa. At least, he didn’t think it was. Yes, they’d got to reminiscing some at the party and he had given her his new number and she had actually texted him about meeting up, like he’d suggested she should. But that didn’t make it a date. They were just two people, who used to know each other, catching up over art and a hot drink.
“I hope it goes well,” Octavia said casually and smiled briefly at him while trying to think of a way to change the subject without it being too obvious that she really didn't want to talk about his potential coffee date and reconnection with an old girlfriend. She had no concrete reason to be upset about it, and she didn't want to make things awkward.
“We'll do something another time. Work probably wouldn't want me taking off so soon after recently starting back anyway.” Which was probably true considering something one of the Rojas Brothers turned up alive after people thought he'd been dead for years. Octavia didn't know him well, but she was glad for Caley and the others. They had a lot going on.
After another sip, she looked down at her drink and realized it was nearly gone. “Do you want another beer?” She asked him as she stood up.
Cappie forced a smile and nodded. He hoped it went well too - he’d felt such a thrill of excitement when he’d received Pippa’s text earlier that afternoon - and he’d been telling the truth when he’d told her that he was looking forward to seeing her. He just realised that there was a part of him that didn’t want Octavia to hope it went well.