Two in a Million | Auslly

Twenty Nine: Pictures & Possibilities

two days later

"Alright, so...bedtime is at eight—no later, and I put their pajamas out on their suitcases for you. Uh, let's see." Ally turned to her husband, who was itching to leave Trish's house so they could squeeze in a date during their vacation. "Is there anything else I'm missing?" she asked. "Obviously you guys have our numbers in case of an emergency—"

"Ally."

"What?"

"They're going to be fine," Austin assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's just for a few hours. What could go wrong?"

Ally raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

"It's Trish and Dez. They're the most responsible people we know."

"Are we talking about the same Trish and Dez?" Ally asked.

Austin ignored her. "Can we please get going now?" he put a hand on the small of her back and pushed her out the door. "The kids are going to be fine. They'll have Trish and Dez to watch them, and Darrie and Maggie are here to keep them company, too." He turned to the kids, who were immersed in a show on TV. Dez stood behind the couch, occasionally laughing when one of the cartoon characters would do something funny. Trish, who was standing right behind them, rolled her eyes.

"Go on, get out of here, lovebirds," she said, pushing them both toward the front door.

"But—wait—did I mention that I have a binder with instructions on what to do in every possibly emergency situa—" The door slammed shut and Trish locked it, brushing her hands off.

"Alright, now that they're finally gone, it's time to kick it Aunt Trish style!" Trish exclaimed, reaching for the remote and clicking the TV off. "Who's ready to get this party started?"

"Hey," Darrie spoke up, looking back at her, "We were watching that!"

"Yeah," Dez added, "We were about to get to my favorite part!" He narrowed his eyebrows at Trish. "Meanie."

Trish rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm the worst person ever. But hey, I have a much better idea of what we could do." She turned back to the kids, smirking. "Who wants to listen to Hamilton?"

/

"Wow, this place is nice," Ally mused as they stepped into the restaurant. It was fancier than any restaurant they'd been to in a long time, maybe even ever. Around the room were circular tables with off-white tablecloths, and a grand piano sat in the far right corner. Waiters in tuxes bustled every which way, bringing food and drinks to the tables. Only about half of the tables were occupied, and the atmosphere was fairly quiet except for the faint sound of music in the background.

"Hi," Austin said when they got to the podium at the entrance to the main dining room, "We have a reservation under Austin Moon." The hostess smiled and looked through the reservation book.

"Here you are, Mr. Moon," she replied, grabbing two menus. "Right this way." Austin and Ally followed her to a table in the back right, near the piano. She handed them their menus and told them a waiter would be with them shortly.

"We should come to fancy places like this more often," Austin mused as he took a sip of the ice water they'd just been given by the waiter. He handed them each menus and told them he would be back to take their orders, then disappeared into the kitchen.

"Yeah," Ally agreed. "Though, I'm not sure we could afford to eat at places like this all the time. This chicken parm is, like, thirty dollars." Austin shrugged.

"That's not that bad. Thirty dollars is thirty dollars. We can afford it." He turned the back of the menu over and he frowned. "Aw, how come there's no kids menu? I wanted some chicken nuggets."