Tense Ride

The ride to Morristown was long and tension filled the air inside the limo.  Darius and Adele barely spoke to one another - they mainly chatted nervously with their dates.  But they were keenly aware of every word and every gesture that the other made.  Adele allowed Palmer to put his arm around her, and when Darius saw that, he grabbed his date's hand and held it.  Every time one of them made a move, the other one felt like they had to make one as well.  Their relationship had been somewhat competitive, and now it seems that their break-up was competitive as well.

Darius touched his date's hair and complimented her on how nice it looked.  He told her that he was glad that she had worn it down, and said that he loved how spontaneous and fun she was.  Adele was seething inside when she heard this.  She felt that Darius was putting her down when he said this, because Darius knew that  Adele would NEVER wear her hair down to an event such as this.  Adele had spent 4 hours at the beauty shop the day before, and had meticulously wrapped her hair the night before to preserve her style.  She even slept sitting up to make sure that she would not have a single hair out of place for this occasion.

Adele complimented Palmer on his suit, and questioned him about where he got it and the designer.  She went on and on about how she loved that particular designer, how the suit fit Palmer so nicely, and how the material felt so good against her skin.  The more she spoke, the more furious Darius became.  Adele was well aware that Darius could not simply walk into a shop and buy a suit off of the rack because of his height. If he were to buy such a suit, he would invariably have to have the suit altered to fit him, which did not always yield the best results.  He would never dream of shopping at a "big and tall" shop, because those places simply did not fit his fashion sensibilities.  He always had his suits tailor made.  He would not give Adele the satisfaction of showing any response.  Instead, he turned his attention to his date and showered her with more compliments. The more Darius complimented his date, the more Adele complimented hers, and the more angry they both became.

None of the passengers can pinpoint exactly when the fight began, but what a fight it was...