Quest and Tillie

Chapter 19: Another Small Step Forward

When Quest pulled up to the restaurant, I looked at him in confusion. "Why are we here? The restaurant's been closed for an hour."

He shifted the truck into Park and turned to look at me. "Lorne owes me a favor. So for us, they're open tonight."

"For what?" I asked, genuinely curious.

Quest shrugged. "Couple of things. Won him some serious money with my fights. Did some body work for him for free when he was having cash flow problems late last year."

"So you made him open the restaurant?"

"Didn't make him, Til," he corrected with a smile. "Asked him if he would and he couldn't say yes fast enough."

I looked at him shrewdly and guessed. "The body work was really expensive, wasn't it?"

Instead of answering me, Quest just grinned and I laughed at him. "I'll take that as a yes."

"He'd been asking for months what he could do to pay me back, so I figured this way we could call it even and he'd stop asking me every time he saw me."

Well, I couldn't say I was surprised. The Sullivans were good business men, but they were also compassionate and cared deeply for the town and the people who'd made them successful. If someone they knew was having a tough time, they'd help out without question. So, in effect, Quest had just traded thousands of dollars of body work for our late-night meal tonight.

Quest got out of the truck and came over to the passenger side quickly to open my door, just as Lorne stepped outside and smiled huge at both of us.

"So good to see you two," he said, beaming. Lorne and his wife, Florence, were friends of both our parents, so he gave me a big hug and Quest got a hearty slap on the back. "Come on. Come on in! We have the appetizers ready and dinner's not far behind."

We walked into the restaurant, and there was  a table for two decked out in a linen tablecloth near the stone fireplace, which was crackling warmly. Two tapered candles flickered on the  table, and there was a short vase filled with red tulips in between the candles. Florrie came out with a tray of assorted appetizers and, after setting them down, gave each of us a warm hug, exclaiming over how good it was to see the two of us.

"Sit, sit," she bossed us, and Quest held out my chair for me, then, once I was seated, he sat across from me while Lorne took our drink orders.

Florrie pointed out the various appetizers to us and then went back to the kitchen. Lorne silently placed our drinks down on the table and joined Florrie in the kitchen.

Quest lifted his glass of iced tea to take a drink, and that simple act made me remember how he refused to even have one beer when he was driving me. I smiled at him, and then we began to talk about anything and everything going on in our lives and barely noticed when Florrie took away our empty appetizer plate and Lorne placed out meals in front of us. We kept talking and laughing all through dessert and it felt good. Familiar in some ways, but different in so many others in a very positive way.

We said good night to Lorne and Florrie, thanking them both profusely for a perfect evening.

"We were so glad to have you," Florrie said in my ear as she hugged me good night. "Honey, this whole town is rooting for you two."

I pondered that as Quest and I walked out to the parking lot and he opened the truck door for me. I'd always assumed everyone in town would think I was stupid for considering a reconciliation with Quest. But between the chiefs and others at the fight and now Lorne and Florrie, I had to re-think my assumptions.

"We had our first date here, and I was nervous as hell," Quest said once we were pulling out of the parking lot. "Scared I'd mess up and you'd never go on another date with me again. Kind of feel the same tonight."