"Why'd you do that?" Tom asked after taking a bite of his pizza.

Daria looked up at him questioningly and scooped the dripping cheese from her bitten slice into her mouth.

"What?"

Maybe it was an accident…but it felt deliberate.

"Nothing," he shook his head trying to rid himself of the image of her quickly removing her hand from his when Jane and Trent had come over to say hi.

Maybe she's still being sensitive about Jane.

"There's a reading of Keats's work Saturday at the newly rebuilt Coffee house," Tom informed his girlfriend. "Thought we could go and see if they manage to butcher it completely or something. You game?"

She scrunched her nose as she thought about it.

"Can't Mystic Spiral's playing and-"

Are you seriously blowing off a poetry reading for those guys cat scratching sounds?

"I'd really rather go to the reading," Tom's voice was polite but firm.

"Then an evening of poetry it is…"

Tom relaxed slightly in his seat. Daria took a sip of her soda.

"For you."

"Excuse me?"

"I said," Daria enunciated each word as she spoke, "that you can have an evening of poetry and I will be going to see Mystic Spiral perform."

Tom looked at her, opening and closing his mouth several times before glowering in another direction while drinking his coke.

"Where will The Sloane's be having their Thanksgiving holiday this year?"

Is she really trying to gloss over this?

He remained silent.

"Why does it have to be a battle with you? I just want to date you. It's not a prerequisite that you have to say yes to everything that Jane wants to do so that she doesn't get mad with you."

"You're making this a much bigger issue than it has to be." She spoke while studying the remains of her slice on the plate in front of her.

"Everything can't always be on your terms."

She looked at him levelly saying nothing.

"I should have some level of importance somewhere in your life."

"I already made plans to be there."

"But-"

"I'm not breaking my word."

He sighed.

Why does she have to make things so hard?

"I'm not trying to be difficult. You can go to the poetry read and I can go to see Mystic Spiral, then we can go out and talk about our respective evenings."

"…okay…"

…for now…