Charles sighed a little. She was very persistent but perhaps she was right. He looked around briefly and then to the floor before locking eyes with hers once again.

Telling his last name to her wasn’t the issue; it was the formality and familiarity that came with a surname that was the issue for him. Sticking to Charlie he was fine with. It was casual; it was a nickname. It inferred nothing. Charles was a stretch and he thought it was enough for her. Clearly it wasn’t and he could have left her to go home and get food elsewhere but he didn’t particularly want to. All things considered, he didn’t know why this was such an issue for him though alas, it was.

“Caulfield,” He said coldly before smiling, “which would now suggest I’m to be invited for dinner? I’m quite hungry.”

---