clocks

8

George

The place we're eating at is a homely place in town. I'd been worried I've dressed too down, I'm used to always wearing suits or fancy wear when I go out for dinners, though Dream assures me that what I've got on is fine.

It's a small wooden diner type of restaurant, just on the way into town. It's dark inside, but it's cosy. Nelly brings me right over to a seat towards the back of the restaurant, explaining to me that it's kind of 'their' seat.

She doesn't do it spitefully, like she doesn't want me there, she does it like she's just laying down the land, trying to help me understand. She's sweet. Dream wanders up to the counter, but Nelly pulls me along after her, so I follow.

She sits across from me, smiling as she does. "He's getting you a menu," she says, fiddling with the salt shakers, looking amused. "We get the same thing every time we're in here, usually if we bring any one in here with us we make them get the same, but he's getting you a menu."

I turn around, and surely enough, he's leant against the counter and talking to a man back in the kitchen, holding a menu. I hear Nelly chuckle, which makes me turn back around.

"What do you guys usually get?" I ask her, smiling a little. She seems to realize where I'm headed with this. After she makes sure he isn't looking, she points up at the bigger menu displayed on the wall.

"He gets the cheeseburger, but instead of having normal fries he gets cheesy garlic fries," she says. She pulls back her hand, and turns to face me again. "I get a double cheeseburger, but with normal fries. He always orders an extra portion of his fries though, because I usually try to eat his and then he never gets any."

Dream then sits down, surprising me by sitting down next to me instead of next to Nelly, but he doesn't make a deal out of it. He puts the menu out in front of me. Nelly smiles over the top of it as I pick it up, pretending to look interested.

"What'd I miss?" he asks, glancing at me, and then over to Nelly. She shrugs. "Nothing much," she answers. "How's Jack?"

"He says it was busy over the weekend," Dream tells her. I look at him in a slight confusion. He nods with his head back to the counter, where he was stood. "The chef, Jack," he explains. "Right," I nod, looking back at the menu.

A few minutes pass, in which Dream and Nelly make small conversation and I continue to pretend to study the menu. "Okay," I breathe finally, gaining Nellys attention once I speak. "I think I'll just get a cheeseburger, with cheesy fries," I tell him, deciding to make a combination of both their orders. Nelly smiles over at me in approval.

Dream looks at me, almost a looking a little confused. "Really?" he asks, when I hand him the menu. I just shrug, and tell him yeah, that's what I want. He looks at me for a moment longer, like he's trying to find the lie, before he gets up from the table and goes to place our order. 

Nelly laughs once he leaves. "How did he not see past that! He always sees through my lies, you'll have to teach me how to do that," she giggles, watching me across the table.

I laugh, too, remembering the look on his face, and because Nelly seems to genuinely like me. It's only now that I realize how much her approval seems to mean to me. Why the hell does it mean so much to me?

***

"You live in Italy?" she gasps, once she swallows the handful of Dreams garlic cheesy fries she'd been eating. I catch him rolling his eyes at her when she takes them.

"It's not as great as it sounds, trust me," I assure her. I take a sip of my drink. "I'm practically working all the time, I'm never really at my house. But Italy itself—? Oh yeah, it's beautiful."