Chapter 4

"You did what?"

"I... uh just agreed on having dinner with him tonight that's all." Cairo shrugged as she leaned over the counter and watched Luke take some guy's order before turning his full attention to her.

"Are you out of your mind Cay?"

"Oh, it's not like I'm actually going out with him, you know!" she mumbled, then frowned. "You don't think it's a good idea, do you?"

"No, definitely not a good idea Cay." Luke muttered and she could see anger in his eyes.

Cairo stared silently at him for a while. 'He is right. I don't know why I'm going out with him. But it's not going to be a date by all means.' She thought

"We'll only talk about how we are going to get out of this situation."

Luke raised an eyebrow and she knew it meant 'Are you trying to convince me or convince yourself?'

"Listen Cay, guys like him are..." he focused to find the word but sighed. "Are you sure he is not only being nice to you so you'll agree and he'll get his money?" Luke said trying for the last time to talk her out of going out with that Adam guy. He didn't want her going out with him. He didn't want her going out with anyone actually. He'd always wanted to ask her out, but never got the guts to do such thing. He was afraid she would reject him and things would be awkward between them afterwards and by doing so he would be destroying their friendship.

"Luke, do you think I'll agree on marrying him?" she asked in denial. "You know me better than that."

"I know. It's just that those rich guys would do anything to have a beautiful girl like you.".He murmured to himself more than to her.

"First of all, he is engaged. And you should have seen his fiancé; as if she was coming out of a fashion magazine Luke."

He didn't respond, and she reached and touched his arm. "I'll be fine Luke. And besides," she sighed before letting go of his arm. "I need the money, and yesterday Den told me that my mom left to Italy and won't be sending me money for college."

Luke's expression softened quickly. "I'm sorry Cay, but you still got your job."

"I won't be able to keep the apartment Luke. You know I can't afford to find a new one."

"Come stay with me then."

The words escaped Luke's mouth before he thought of it and he prayed to God that she wouldn't just listen to the pleading in his voice.

"Live with you?" Cairo was shocked for a moment. "I can't do that Luke. I know your apartment isn't big enough for both of us."

"You can take the bedroom and I'll sleep outside." He grinned.

"What? God, no Luke I can't do that to you."

Cairo didn't know why she got so tensed from the thought of living with Luke. She just didn't like the idea and knew if she stayed any longer he was going to make her change her mind. And that was not going to happen.

"Oh, I have to go now Luke. It's already six pm and Adam is going to pick me up at eight."

Luke sighed heavily. "Take care of yourself."

Cairo pushed her chair back and grabbed her bag, "I will." She muttered as she walked out of the small diner.

That was one of the reasons why she would never live with Luke in the same place. Sometimes he was overprotective and acted like her father, even though he was months older than she was. She just wasn't used to someone telling her what to do and what not to do. If she wanted to have dinner with Mr. Adam Walsh, she was going to have dinner with him. And no one, not even Luke was going to stop her.

"I'm not a young girl, I can take care of myself." She said as she drove her car back to her apartment.

An hour later Cairo was still standing in front of her wardrobe wondering what she was going to wear.

"Why is this so hard? I never take so much time on getting dressed."

She went through her clothes one more time before she finally decided that the black long spaghetti strap dress was the best she could come up with.

"Is this too much?" she asked herself after she'd put the dress on. Cairo stared at her reflection in the mirror and wondered where he would take her to dinner.

"I should have asked him!"

She was still not sure whether this dress was proper or not when she heard the door bell ring.

"Great, now I'm gonna have to wait and see what's going to happen." She murmured as she walked carefully to the door and opened it.

Adam stood there and to her relief he was wearing a tux. 'Well that means I'm not overdressed.' She thought.

"Hi." She said after a while. Actually she had to speak first as Adam was standing there looking at her as if he'd never seen her before. Well it was almost the first time he'd seen her with something other than a jeans and a shirt.

"Hi." He finally said after realizing he was staring at her. "Are you ready?" Adam asked and watched as she stepped back a little.