City of Redemption

Four

"She's late. Again." Cam checked his watch for the thousandth time. They were seated on the patio of a cute artisan pizza place that they always went to. The patio was lit by a string of fairy lights and there were flickering candles on the tables. People chattered all around them, and the busy L.A. streets bustled next to the sidewalk. The pizzeria was on the side of the road, on a string of fancy restaurants. They hadn't even ordered food yet, and the waitress was eyeing them suspiciously. Mia sighed.

"Not that that's something unexpected. I know what she wants anyways. Let's—" Mia was cut off by someone whisking in and plopping down in the seat across from her.

Miri.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I got held up!" She held her hands up in surrender.

"For that, I'm rescinding my offer of another cake. You've only got a batch of cupcakes now. And I'm going to frost them with pink icing, and sprinkle them with edible pearls." Mia sniffed, then turned back to the menu. Cam watched his girlfriend with amusement. That was pretty much as far as her threats ever went. Miri's face looked as though she was barely holding back a laugh. Mia waved the waitress over.

"Two small Margherita pizzas, and one large barbeque chicken pizza." Mia smiled radiantly as she handed the menus back to the waitress, who still looked very suspicious.

"Thanks for that. I needed that large pizza. I won't press you on the pink icing and pearls issue now, then." Miri leaned back, clearly satisfied.

"Wait, the big pizza's for you?" Cam asked, confused. "I thought we were sharing it."

"The smalls are for you and me. We get one each. Miri gets the large." Mia explained, her voice forbearing. Miri smirked.

"No one touches my pizza. Anyways, Jonathan and I didn't find anything in the log books. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch," Miri said. Mia's eyes narrowed, but had a mischievous sparkle to them.

"While you were at your little ocean lookout?"

"How did you know about that?"

Mia ignored her. "You know those are historical documents? You can't bring them outside of the library. And what were you doing with Jonathan anyways?" Mia wiggled her eyebrows.

"By the Angel, Mia! We just read the bloody log books! Which I could've done in the library if it wasn't so boring." Her brown eyes were clearly vexed. Mia laughed, but then her face was serious.

"But seriously, if you got sand or saltwater on those books—"

"I didn't! There wasn't even any sand there. It was a roadside turnout." Mia rolled her eyes, but grinned.

"Two Margherita pizzas, one barbeque chicken." The waitress was back. Mia pointed out where everything went, then thanked the waitress, who now looked less dubious. Mia and Cam blessed the food (both were Christian) then dug in. Mia had made Mathias keep researching in the library, and he was supposed to text her if he found anything. Mia finished her first slice, then picked up her phone, even though she knew she had no messages. She looked up to ask Miri what she'd read in the logbooks, and froze when she saw her friend. Half her pizza was gone, and she was starting on another piece.

"Heilige Kuh! Where did your pizza go?" Mia exclaimed.

"I ate it." Her tone added an "obviously" to the end.

Cam and Mia exchanged amused glances.

"Well, okay. We have to get to the movie soon anyways," Cam said, his eyebrows still raised. Mia could see he was secretly impressed, in the way that boys were when someone could eat a lot of food. When they were finished, they paid the bill to the suspicious waitress (Mia brought some leftover pizza for her brothers) and they left for the movie. They took separate cars, but met up again in front of the theatre.