Intrepid » n.h. au

Chapter 6

"So, where's the restaurant?"

"It's... over there," I point to a one story building, where the restaurant is placed between a bank and a pharmacy. That's probably why people don't notice it much.

"Oh, it... looks nice." Leanne smiles and in lack of words, I slowly put and arm around her as we walk. She continues staring ahead of herself, at the building, but I can feel her shifting closer to me as we walk. Good, that's good. Good... good.

"Ladies first," I mumble, more to myself as I look at my shoes and hold the door open for Leanne. I hear her breathe out a laugh at what I'd said; that wasn't very Niall of me, and I'm guessing she's noticed it too.

"Did you call for a table, or... do we not have a reservation?" She asks, still looking around, and I can't help but sigh as I watch her back.

"No, it's alright though. This place isn't fancy enough for that." I mutter the last part to myself as I put a hand on her back, and lead her to a table near the window. I figured, if we fall into an awkward silence at some point, at least I can look outside.

I sit across from Leanne, and immediately pull my phone out to check the time; is 9 in the evening too late for dinner? "What do... what would you like?" I ask as I take my jacket off.

She shrugs, "It's getting pretty late, so I guess we should order now." What the hell, that wasn't even my question. "I'll have whatever you want."

"I just..." I glance out the window for a second, "I kinda just want to have a drink. But like, not coffee or anything. We can order wine."

A smile spreads across her face, "Great. I hate eating when it's too late, unless I get up in the middle of the night."

Yeah, I do that too, I think to myself. Except I'm fine with eating at any time of the day.

"So," I begin as I take one of the menus that are neatly laid in front of us, "Red or white?"

"Red, definitely." Good answer. "At least one of us here is old enough to drink it."

I smile as I open the menu, but as soon as I scan the 'red' category, my smile disappears and my eyes widen a little; I did know that everything would be in French and Italian, but most of the names are impossible to pronounce. Why isn't everything short and simple like dom pérignon? Why did I think everything would short and simple like dom pérignon?

"Niall?" I look up at Leanne, subconsciously keeping the freaked out expression on my face. "Everything alright? We can share the bill, you know."

I shake my head, "No, it's not... it's nothing," I smile and continue scanning the seemingly endless list in a desperate attempt to find a bottle of wine with a short name; but nothing I see has a short name, or even a simple one to pronounce. This is gonna be fun when the waiter comes to our table.

I notice Leanne sit up and smile at something from the corner of my eye, and yeah, the waiter came and now they're about to laugh like they haven't in a long time.

"Good evening, my name is-"

Just as I'd opened my mouth to speak, I let out a sigh and close my eyes; I can't even look up. I can't look at the person with the tragically familiar voice that standing right next to our table. This doesn't even happen in movies. This fuckery doesn't happen in fucking movies, Jesus fucking Christ.

I gulp and decide to look up; I wouldn't want Leanne to suspect anything. There's nothing to suspect anyway. Our waiter just happened to be the person I always, always want to see.