"You realize you're slightly suicidal, don't you?" Damon asks her in reference to her friendship—if it can be called such, because in his opinion, what they're doing is exactly what he wants to have with Elena…with some additional benefits—with Tyler.
Caroline just glares at him for a minuet before turning back to the matter at hand—Elena's birthday party planning. Somehow, with Stefan being out of Elena's proverbial picture, Damon became front and center; and Caroline's been subtlety (but not really) pushing them together (but not like that). So he's helping Caroline plan the party that he (on Caroline's demand) plans on escorting Elena to.
"What you did to me does not count," she says. "I didn't know what I was doing."
Damon ponders the color schemes in front of him for a moment before pushing one across the table to her. "You knew I was danger, and you did it anyway," he replies nonchalantly, in order to keep the conversational tone and atmosphere. "In this case, you know the danger and you're willingly hanging out with him during the hairy stages."
"You don't abandon people you care about, Damon."
It's times like this that Damon wishes he just didn't bother with her. (He doesn't, really, she seems to seek him out, actually.) Her unintentional perception drives him to drink.
He pours himself another shot of whiskey and downs it as she pulls a new binder toward them. This time it's the appetizers for the party. (What does he care? If they can't serve blood, it doesn't interest him—but he doesn't say this to her.)
"It's not abandonment, Blondie," he recovers fast enough, "its survival."
"Everything will be fine, Damon," she says with a casual wave of her hand. "If I can survive you, I can survive Tyler. At least he doesn't actually want to hurt me."
His hesitation is minimal, but she picks up on it easily enough. "I never wanted to kill you, Barbie."
She arches an eyebrow in a perfect imitation of him. "Really? So all those times you said you were going to kill me never happened?"
He takes out three of the sheets with different appetizers and hands them to her. "I was lying, Caroline."
(And then he's outta there.)