"Eat it."
"No."
"Please?"
"Aaron, I said no."
"You're going to love it, I promise."
Emily backed away from the fork her husband was trying to tap at her lips with and she glared. "Babe, if you don't get that away from me, it'll be so far up your ass in the next couple of seconds." She saw the waiter who had come around again to give them more wine give her a smirk, and she smiled back. "Thank you."
The older man waited until the waiter was gone before putting the fork before her again. "Come on, baby."
"Aaron, I don't want your duck."
"Why not?" he frowned, taking the piece of meat from the end of his fork.
Emily made a face before twirling a few extra noodles onto her fork. "It's sad."
"The duck?"
"It was a poor tiny duckling," the grown woman almost pouted, blowing on the steaming pasta she held before her mouth.
Hotch frowned at the younger brunette as he watched her chew her pasta. "You won't eat the duck because it was a tiny creature? Are you being serious?"
The younger woman rolled her eyes at her husband. "It was a cute, fluffy little thing and here you are eating it. Your sister would be ashamed." She smirked to herself, knowing that Hotch's sister, the environmental lawyer and animal protection activist, she would have stormed away from the table the moment he ordered his dish.
"You're eating lobster with your fettuchini."
Shaking her head full of ebony curls, Emily pointed her fork at the older man. "Difference. Lobsters are ugly and eat other poor creatures under the water. Ducks don't do that."
Hotch set down his fork, his hazel eyes staring intently at the ivory brunette. "I feel like I'm talking to Annabelle."
The younger woman let her jaw drop. "You did not just compare me to our five year old."
"I think I did."
"Asshole," Emily laughed, dipping a bite of her lobster into the sauce that covered her pasta. "Thank you so much for taking me out, honey. We haven't been on a date in months."
Hotch smiled as he watched the beautiful woman take another bite of her dinner, and he reached for the freshly poured glass of wine that sat near one of the candlesticks on their table. "Your mother was unusually friendly tonight and I thought it would be best to take advantage of that," he laughed, thinking of the older woman with his children.
The brown eyed mother of three bit her lip. "That still is bugging me. My mother never offers to watch the children."
"Well Jack is turning thirteen this year," the older man shrugged. "Maybe she's realized how much she's missed out on."
Emily looked pointedly to her husband, and she tried her best to hold back a laugh when he smiled wide. "I'm so sure that's why."
He smiled brightly to the brunette woman across from him, his ears perking up as he watched her twirl a couple of more noodles onto her fork. "Do you hear that?"
"What?" came her muffled voice, her napkin patting against her chin when she felt the sauce from her pasta drip from her lip. "What is it?"
"The song. Do you hear it?"
Emily strained her ears to hear the music floating through the restaurant, and a smile immediately crossed her features when she realized what it was. "Oh, your special song. It's like they knew we were here," she laughed, watching him stand from his seat.
Clearing his throat and straightening his tie, Hotch stood beside his wife's chair and offered her his hand. "Mrs. Hotchner?"
"What are you doing?"
He could see the laughter in her eyes, and the older brunette looked to his wife with the yes that he knew he looked at her with when he was promising to marry her at the altar. "Can I have this dance?"
Emily bit her lip, slipping her hand into that of her husband and letting him pull her up out of her seat. "What's all this about?" she whispered, smiling to him as he took her into his arms and began to sway. "You're so romantic tonight."
"I want to show you, and everyone in here, just how special you are," he smiled, stealing a quick kiss.
She caught the eyes of a few other couples in the restaurant, seeing their smiles as she grinned when her husband whispered something in her ear, and her hand tightened around his. "So, Rocket Man," she laughed, knowing that the song they were dancing to was his absolute favorite and the one that came on in the diner on their first date. "Did you plan this out?"
Hotch pressed a gentle kiss to the lobe of her ear. "No, but it's nice when things work out." He waited until she leaned back to see his face, and he tilted her chin so he could kiss her lips. "I love you."
"I know," the ivory woman chuckled lightly. "I love you too."
