A Story Worth Telling

Fake

"Would you like a hot hors d'oeuvre?" Rain picks one up to feed to Ben.

"Yes, please," he takes the whole thing from Rain's hand into his mouth and Rain smiles slightly "Mmm!" he closes his eyes to appreciate the taste "This is the best thing I've ever had,"

"So, you like it?" Rain's smile drops for a bit.

"Oh, come on, you did not cook all that!" Jay shouts

"No, I have a feeling I didn't," Rain sinks back in her seat a bit, realising she's slowly been moving closer to Evie.

"I more than like it. I..." Ben reaches to grab one of the foods laid out. "Uh... mmm-- so like it," Rain laughs in relief "Beef ragout?"

"Yeah,"

"This is amazing. Not even a strawberry in sight!" Rolling her eyes, Rain tries to contain another smile, but feels her lips turn upward anyway.

"Did I surprise you?"

"Oh, yeah, you surprised me. This is every single dish Mrs. Potts made for my parents," he continues eating through his sentences "What did it take you? Three days?"

"You know, don't even ask me," Rain laughs,

"It is painfully obvious you found a spell for this," Lonnie laughs a bit

"Yeah," Ben changes his position so he's leaning on the table, looking into Rain's eyes." Well, it means a lot that you stopped and did all this for me. Especially with all the craziness you've been put through," he takes her hand and everyone can see the guilt in Rain's eyes.

"This feels wrong," Evie admits

"What do you mean?" Carlos looks over to her on the sofa

"We shouldn't be watching all this private stuff," Evie shrugs a bit, shaking off her discomfort "It's wrong,"

"I agree," Rain nods "So I'm not going to," she grabs a cushion from behind her and crosses her legs on the sofa, slamming her face into the pillow before blindly searching for one to pass to Ben who does the same.

"I've missed you," Ben admits and Rain smiles, red dusting her cheeks. Ben moves his hand to play with the red part of Rain's hair, then he cups her chin "We don't get much time to be just us anymore,"

"I know," She moves her hand to wipe some food off Ben's lips.

"You can't take me anywhere, right?" Rain raises her eyebrow but can't help the laugh that bubbles up at the reference to their first date.

"Do you have a," Ben licks his lips "Do you have a napkin or something?"

"I think so, let me check," Rain goes to get them from the basket, very quickly. "I think they're near the bottom..." Rain is clearly panicking as Ben also looks "I can grab them, honestly," It's too late, Ben's pulled out his girlfriend's spell book.

"Actual things are happening," Evie nudges Rain and she looks up, seeing Ben holding her spell book.

"Y'know what Ben, you stay hiding in that pillow," A few people laugh but Ben looks up anyway, seeing the same thing.

"What's this?" he asks and Rain stops in her tracks.

"I - I actually threw it in there so I'd remember to take it to the museum -" she tries to lie as her panic takes over and the leather book opens with a creak.

"You're not getting out of this one hun," Evie shakes her head and Rain squirms in her seat.

"I'm gonna hide," she scoots fully next to Evie and leans on her knees. Evie laughs, but senses her anxiety and discomfort, stroking her hands through Rain's hair.