Valentine's Diner

Chapter 45 - September 18th, 2003

'Who knocked over the lamp?' Alexei asks with his arms crossed. 'It was Erik.' 'It was Sookie.' They both look offended at each other. 'It was not me!' Sookie says. 'It certainly was not me,' Erik scoffs. 'You liar!' Sookie says pushes Erik in a chair. 'Okay, you both will pay for the lamp,' Alexei sighs and leaves the room. 'I can't believe you lied,' Sookie says and starts cleaning up the pieces of the broken lamp. 'I lied? You knocked over the lamp.' They both look at each other, irritated. 'The lamp did not knock over itself, Erik,' Sookie says.

Both of them clean up the room for the next guest in silence. Once they are downstairs Alexei looks at them with a raised eyebrow. 'Are you two mad at each other over lamp?' Alexei almost starts laughing asking the question. 'What are you laughing at?' Sookie asks irritated in Greek. 'It's just a lamp and you are acting like two babies,' Alexei answers in Greek. 'Hey, please speak a language I understand,' Erik says. Sookie gives him a side-eye, pushes the mop in his hands and walks off. 'You have a dictionary,' she says before entering another room.

'Just... give me that and go talk to her,' Alexei says, taking the mop out of Erik's hands. Erik sighs and goes after his girlfriend. 'I'm sorry, I knocked over the lamp,' Erik says. 'You didn't,' Sookie says and takes the hairclip out of her hair. 'And I didn't. Nobody knocked over the lamp, it just fell over because of the wind,' Sookie says. 'But-' 'Alexei was right, we were fighting over a lamp like two babies.' 'Is that what he said?' Erik laughs. 'Yes,' Sookie smiles.

'I'm sorry I called you a liar,' Sookie says. Erik smiles and hugs his girlfriend. 'I'm sorry too.' 'For what?' 'Just accept my apology.' 'Okay.' Erik kisses the top of her head and hugs her for a while. 'It was an ugly lamp,' Sookie starts laughing. 'Yes! It was so ugly, I don't know why it was there. It didn't fit the exteriour.' 'Interiour,' Sookie smiles and kisses Erik on the cheek. 'So, my father and Alexei are going out. Adrian is at a friends house and Maria has the night shift.'

'What are you saying?' Erik grins. 'We could go out too.' 'Okej.' 'Okay? How about: "I'd love to go out with you"?' Erik just laughs and kisses her. 'You know I'd go everywhere with you.' 'True,' Sookie says and lets go of her boyfriend. They walk back to the lobby where Alexei is waiting for them. 'Maria just went home, she's ill. One of you has to take over the night shift.' Erik starts scolding in Swedish. 'We made plans,' Sookie says a little disappointed. 'Oh,' Alexei says, thinking for a moment.

'What about that for this once I let you two have the night shift together and you can have your date at the same time?' Alexei suggests. 'Fine,' Sookie agrees. Erik nods in agreement. 'Great! Bye!' Alexei says and leaves the young couple alone.

A few hours later, Sookie is reading a book in one of the chairs in the lobby while Erik is taking a nap. They decided that this date is quality time and doing whatever they wanted together. Not soon after Sookie turns the 155th page, Erik wakes up. 'Do you mind if I put on some music?' Sookie shakes her head, to invested in Charlaine Harris's Club Dead from the Sookie Stackhouse-series.

'What are you reading?' Erik asks putting the radio on. 'The third book from the Sookie Stackhouse series.' 'There's an actual character that has your name?' Erik asks surprised. 'Yes,' Sookie smiles and closes her book. 'Thomas gave me the first book in 2001, when it first came out. He said: "At least I can give you a book with your name in it, because I can't find key chains". Now I'm too invested in reading them.' Erik smiles at the young woman he loves and lays his head on her shoulder. 'I can find lots of key chains with my name, but they are all spelled with a C.'

'Just grab a marker and draw a line, then you have Erik with a funny K,' Sookie smiles and rests her head against Erik's. 'What's my name in Greek?' Erik asks after a moment of silence. Sookie takes Erik's hand and the pen she used as a bookmark. She writes his name on his hand. Επικ. 'Well, that looks fancy,' Erik says happily looking at his name. 'What's yours?' Sookie takes Erik's hand again and starts writing her name. Σωκιε. 'Well that just hurts my eyes,' Erik laughs. 'To bad,' Sookie says and draws a heart around their names. 'Aww,' Erik smiles and kisses his girlfriend.

Sookie looks at their hands and sighs. 'Erik?' Erik hums. 'I want to go back home,' Sookie carefully says. Erik sits up and looks at her. He sees that Sookie's doing everything in her power not to cry. 'Euhm... Okay? When?' Erik asks a bit shocked and disappointed. 'Around christmas?' Sookie suggests. Erik smiles sadly and hugs her. 'Then we still have some time here,' Erik whispers and holds Sookie untill they both fall asleep.