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She.
She felt awkward in the restaurant. She didn't belong there at
all.
Even the people sitting next to them were staring.
She felt as if she was the one embarrassing Ryo, as if she was
the one dragging her down to her lowly level.
Ryo didn't seem to care. Yet she did.
Even the waiter looked at her funny when he poured her wine. He
must be thinking that Ryo was a sick pervert, bringing his sex
toy to such a high class restaurant to fulfill some psycho
fantasy of his.
Eliza felt bad.
Even the roasted chicken tasted different.
"You want any desserts?" Ryo asked in his usual voice, one
that's soft, warm, and inviting.
"No, I'll be alright." She replied with a smile.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, why you ask?"
"Don't know, you looked different or something." He didn't say
anymore than that. No pointing stares like the other customers
in this place. No accussing tones in his voice. It was just the
Ryo that she had always known, ever since that first time he
took her out to eat.
It reminded her of that time. The time in where she was caught
by the cops doing something illegal. The time that Ryo had to
bail her out with all the money he had in his bank account. The
time she screwed up everything in their lives.
"Want to go somewhere else?" He filled her glass with more wine.
She felt bad already.
"I don't care, it's up to you."
"Nah, it should be up to you." He smiled again. "It is your
special night, after all."
"Why is it my special night?"
"Don't know." He shrugged. "It just is, I guess."
"Is there any reason why it should be my special night?"
"Nope, not at all."
"Alrighty then," She took a sip of her wine. "Since we've
decided that, I guess that means you're still deciding on where
we go after all."
"I don't think that would be such a good idea."
"Why not?"
"I was the one who thought this restaurant was a good idea, and
look at what a mess we're in."
Ryo did notice. She felt happy about it.
"That's alright, I'm happy still."
"Was the roasted chicken really that good to make you happy
still?"
She laughed as quietly as she could. "I don't know, how's your
lamb leg?"
"It's alright." He poked at the meat and ripped some of the meat
from the bone. "It's soft enough to be eatable, but not good
enough to melt in my mouth."
"That'll teach you to eat at places you don't know anything
about."
He shrugged at it. "I didn't say I was the best chooser of
restaurants."
She sipped some more wine. The chicken did taste different.
"We should have went to somewhere we've been to before or
something." She tried to force herself to have some more of it.
The garlic roasted potatoes tasted good enough, at least.
"Kinda too late for that." Ryo smiled at that.
"Remember that place we went to a few weeks ago? The one with
the playground in the middle and arcade games on the second
floor?"
"You mean the mall?" Ryo chuckled at his own joke.
"No, no, it was the one with the green sign. It looked kinda
like an old library or something from the outside."
"I think it was called 'the green omelet' or something like
that, right?" Ryo rubbed his chin as he tried to recall the
name.
"Yeah, yeah, I think that's the one." She paused. "Although I
don't think it was called 'the green omelet'."
"Well, at least we know which place we're talking about."
"We should have went there instead."
"Their food wasn't that great though."
"Yeah, but at least it was fun to play around while eating."
"Uh... I think that's bad for your stomach, isn't it?"
"I didn't get any stomaches from it."
"I don't remember if I did or not." Ryo rubbed his chin again.
"I think you did." Eliza laughed about it. "I think it was the
night you couldn't sleep because your stomach felt bloated."
"I thought that was from Mexican night at Rosa's bar?"
"Nah, I don't think so."
"Good enough then."
They ate some more of their meal in silence.
"You think we should go back to Rosa's to let you say good-bye
at least?" Ryo said as he wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin.
"I mean, he did like you a lot."
"Yeah, maybe later." She giggled. Rosa, the owner of the bar,
was this bulky and tall Italian guy, about thirty or forty years
old, who liked to dress in female clothes in order to entertain
the customers. He was always nice to Eliza and treated her no
different than anyone else in the bar. He seemed to have a thing
for Ryo too.
They were quiet for a few seconds more.
"Hey." She started.
"What?" He replied.
"Remember when you said that we would go nightswimming one
night, whenever it got warm?"
"Hmm... I think so."
"Do you think tonight is warm enough?"
"Why? Do you want to go tonight?"
"If it's warm enough, yes."
Ryo smiled. "I think it's been warm enough for a few days now."
"So you wanna go?"
"I don't see why not."
"Cool." She smiled. "I'm done eating then."
"We still have to wait like an hour or something before we can
swim after eating."
"We can always wait there." She looked outside. "It's pretty
outside, I want to sit out there for a while."
"Good enough for me." He signaled the waiter for the bill.
"I don't think we have any swimsuits at all."
"We probably won't need any, unless you want to, then we can
always stop by some convinience store on the way there."
The water would feel fine when they dove into it under the
moonlit night. |
