"....and just what the hell was all of that about?" Tove asked Hayden once the valet had brought their car.
"What?" Hayden asked, a tone of irritation in his voice.
"You and Cara....I was half worried the two of you would be cutting each other with your steak knives before the dinner was over...." Tove said.
"We just don't get along...I think that's been made pretty evident," Hayden said.
Tove shook his head, "Oh yeah...what did I hear from you on Monday?... 'No Tove...it won't be a factor. We're professional'....what a bunch of bullshit."
Hayden took a deep breath, "I know, alright?? You were right and I was wrong. It's just not a very good situation."
"You wanna know what I find amazing? This girl has made it so easy for you -- you could just do what you always do by bailing out....she's avoided the issue and yet you're the one who can't get past it...I've never seen that before...even when girls in the past have faded out, you didn't care...something about all of this is different," Tove stated.
"You have it all wrong," Hayden said. "I'm very much past all of it...I don't like her, plain and simple."
Tove gave a slight laugh, "nah, Hayden...ya wanna know what I think? I think you do like her...and that's the problem."
Hayden sat quietly. He wasn't going to deny it anymore. His brother knew him too well. He had him pegged.
~~~~
"He's so arrogant and pompous....he has this horrendous attitude about women....he completely objectifies women and then gets angry when someone calls him out on it! It's ludicrous!" Cara was venting her frustrations to Steph after she got home.
Steph listened quietly. "Don't let him get to you....guys are like that..."
"That's not good enough, Steph," Cara said. "I refuse to just accept that guys are just going to be jerks and that we should turn a blind eye to it....not after he makes comments to me!"
"What comments?" Steph asked.
Cara replayed the scene for her and Hayden's comments.
"Oh, Cara, can't you see what's going on here?" Steph asked.
Cara looked at her, waiting for her response.
"There's two possibilities here: One, you majorly bruised his ego by leaving Sunday morning...he's angry about it, clearly. So, he's trying to back at you."
Cara rolled her eyes, "I figured leaving would be the best thing for both of us....besides, I didn't figure he would want me there anyway."
Steph looked at her, "okay...that's what you think he wanted...but did you ask him if that's what he wanted?"
Cara shook her head no.
"Then this leads to the second possibility..you really don't know for sure what he had wanted....what if on the off chance - he'd wanted you to stay??...what if he'd actually felt like the two of you hit it off and you bailed?"
Cara nodded. All of this was too ludicrous was to process.
If any of this were true-- the theories she had about Hayden Christensen and his views of women would be completely blown out of the water.