The silence on the way to the car was uncomfortable. Now that he wasn’t in the moment, Jesse went back over it, trying to figure out his exact misstep. He didn’t want to risk saying the wrong thing so Jesse pretended that it was a regular silence instead of a pointed one.
By the time they reached the car, Jesse was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed the question. He blinked. “What?” He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but that wasn’t it. Jesse thought about whether or not Ren was cute. “Oh..., yeah! I could see it.” It wasn’t an adjective Jesse would use to describe Ren, but he could totally see other people describing her that way. “She’s small and she’s got a really bubbly and warm personality.” Jesse could see how that could equate to ‘cute.’ “I thought she was from this one part of California at first. I was really surprised to find out that she wasn’t.”
But his expression clouded as Jesse slipped the key into the lock and the weight of the moments before Elise broke the silence pressed into his shoulders. He’d noticed the tone. Jesse was quiet for just a second. “It’s not like that,” he said. The statement seemed to imply that Elise was mad because she thought it was a romantic relationship. Jesse could understand Elise not wanting Jesse to have one of those, and he was quick to try and correct.
“She has a boyfriend that she really loves and even if she didn’t, I wouldn’t… Well, we did kiss some once, but that was more of a situational thing, and it wasn’t the best choice. I’m not interested in any kind of romantic thing with her. She’s just a friend.”