Cas was glad to see the smile return to Iris’s face. As difficult as her situation was, there wasn’t anything either of them could do to force her memories to come back faster. At least, not that he knew of. Instead, he just wanted to lift her spirits in his own way, so she wouldn’t be completely discouraged by the fact that no one had come for her yet. Privately, he thought it was strange that they hadn’t heard from her family too. It hadn’t been a week, but four days wasn’t an insignificant amount of time for a person to go missing. He didn’t want to distress her more than she already was though, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

[color=#b97703]“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”[/color] he joked when she said she didn’t want to impose. [color=#b97703]“You’re doing that empty bedroom a service by giving it a purpose.”[/color] In the next moment, he tensed reflexively as she placed her hand on top of his. The gesture was more familiar than he had expected, coming from her. It was the type of response he might have expected from a girlfriend, not a woman he’d only known for a few days. Either she was subtly flirting with him, or she was more comfortable than he was with small touches that would have otherwise been seen as romantic.

[color=#b97703]“S-Sure,”[/color] he stammered and then cleared his throat, embarrassed by the slip. Retracting his hand from her shoulder, he dropped it into his lap. His skin still tingled with warmth where her fingers had rested over his. He wasn’t usually flustered by things like that, but the unexpectedness of it had caught him off guard. Iris was naturally friendly, and that made it difficult to tell if she was making passes at him or innocently treating him the same way she would have treated anyone else. Maybe it would be a good thing for her to meet his friends. That way, he would have a larger sample size to compare how she acted around other people besides just him.

Cas was drawn from his thoughts when the wait staff asked what he wanted to drink. [color=#b97703]“Irish coffee,”[/color] he answered without hesitation. He didn’t usually drink during the middle of the day, but the recurring tension he felt around Iris called for something stronger than plain water. If it was all in his head, at least he could relax enough to forget about it. That was the hope, anyway. [color=#b97703]“And a water,”[/color] he added as an afterthought. If they were going to be out all day, he needed something that would actually hydrate him before they left.

The servant bowed and walked off to fulfill their requests just before two other cooks stepped up to the counter with their lunches. They presented two bowls of hearty fig salad and an assortment of dressings for the prince and his company to choose from. Cas picked a balsamic vinaigrette for his portion. [color=#b97703]“Maybe we could get dinner at the pizza place I told you about,”[/color] he mused as he tossed everything together. [color=#b97703]“Salads never fill me up for very long, so I’m sure I’ll want a big meal later.”[/color]