"Where are we going to eat tonight?" Cecil called from the bathroom.
"It's a surprise!" Carlos told him from where he was getting dressed in their bedroom. "Somewhere you haven't been before so you can't order your same old, same old." This made Cecil poke his head through the door with a pout adorning his face.
Carlos laughed and said, "Don't give me that face! I'm trying to be romantic here."
"Okay, fine," Cecil said as he sauntered into the room and hugged around Carlos's waist. "Are you almost ready then? I'm starved."
Nodding his head, Carlos quickly kissed Cecil's nose and guided him out their front door with his hand on the small of Cecil's back. The walk to the restaurant wasn't very far, which was good because it was beginning to get cold outside, even with their jackets and scarves trying to conserve precious body heat.
Cecil opened the door and let Carlos walk inside. The maître d' greeted them and Carlos followed her, Cecil right behind him. Carlos sat down at the table and then Cecil sat across from him while the maître d' handed them menus.
Setting his menu down unopened, Cecil looked at Carlos triumphantly. Carlos raised his eyebrows and asked Cecil why he was looking at him like that.
"I win this round," Cecil said. "I've been here before and know exactly what I want."
"What? That's not fair. When were you here before?" Carlos asked, a little frustrated that his plan did not work.
"Oh, just with an old boyfriend." Cecil's eyes were downcast, looking at the table. He did not look back up at Carlos.
"Oh, okay," Carlos answered. "What is it you want to eat?"
Cecil opened his menu to show Carlos. "They have the best gluten-free spaghetti here! It's only eight dollars. That okay?"
Before Carlos could answer, their waitress walked up to the table. "Good evening and welcome to Tourniquet. My name is Dana and I'll be your server. Would you like to start with some drinks?"
Carlos ordered a soda while Cecil asked for water. "Alrighty," Dana said, marking down their drinks. "And are you ready to order?"
Cecil looked to Carlos and nodded his head. "I guess we're ready," Carlos told her. He and Cecil both ordered the gluten-free spaghetti and Dana left to fill their orders.
After they ordered, Cecil and Carlos told each other about their respective days at work. Cecil asked how Carlos's day went and then Carlos asked how Cecil's was. Nothing really exciting happened on either's part, but it was still nice to listen.
"Hey, I'm gonna go to the bathroom before the food comes," Carlos said.
"Okay, Carlos," Cecil answered and Carlos headed towards the back of the restaurant to the bathrooms. On his way there, a man in a big winter jacket stopped him and pulled him over to the employees' entrance to the restaurant.
As he was pushed outside, Carlos protested, "Hey, wait a minute—"
"That Cecil Palmer you're eating with?" the man asked him. This was so confusing.
"Yeah? He's my boyfriend. We're trying to eat dinner, but that's hard when I'm pulled out of the restaurant," Carlos complained.
"Tell me, does he ever ask you if it's okay to order something when eating out?" the man questioned.
"What?" Carlos was taken aback by the question.
"And does he ever ask to get anything more than $10 the entire meal?"
This put him at a loss for words.
"What about this: does he always hold the door open and let you lead the way? Does he let you sit down first? He won't eat until you've started eating, yeah?"
Carlos was livid. "Look, I don't know who you are or—"
"That's what I thought," the man interrupted with a creepy smile on his face. "I hope to drop in and say hello."
The man walked back into the restaurant leaving Carlos shivering slightly behind him.
Once Carlos got back to his seat, he looked around for the strange man with the horrible questions. Just what were those questions insinuating?
No, Carlos scolded himself. Don't think about it. You're here with Cecil. Just forget about the weird man.
"Dinner's here," Cecil said with a smile as Carlos sat down.
Carlos furrowed his brow. "You could have started eating. We both ordered hot food."
Cecil merely shrugged. "That's okay. You weren't gone for long."
Nodding, Carlos made to begin eating, but expectantly looked back up at his boyfriend, who had not picked up his silverware yet. Cecil saw Carlos's gaze and picked up his water before taking long, slow sips from it, trying to avoid looking back at him.
Carlos sighed and began eating his dinner and Cecil followed suit.
The night went by quickly and Carlos forgot all about the mysterious stranger. That is, until he started walking over to their table. He was dressed in a waiter's uniform and had a name badge clipped to the breast of his shirt. It read 'Earl'.
Carlos didn't notice the man until he asked Cecil, who was ducking his head down towards the table and looking at Carlos frantically, what was wrong.
"Can we please leave now?" Cecil asked.
"Oh, um, yeah, I guess so," Carlos answered and turned to the person who had just walked up to their table, thinking that it was Dana, their waitress.
"Cecil?" the man asked. "I thought that was you! My god, I've missed you so much." At this, the man placed his hand on Cecil's shoulder.
Cecil flinched and jerked away from his hand. "No! Don't—" Cecil cut himself off to speak in a lower voice, as he had attracted the attention from the people sitting at nearby tables. "Don't touch me, Earl."
Earl didn't look phased, but Cecil looked positively terrified. "Look, Ceec—"
Carlos stood up abruptly, his chair sliding backwards, and stepped in-between Cecil and Earl. "He said don't touch him. And we're leaving."
Earl looked around Carlos's shoulder at Cecil, who was still sitting down and averting gaze away from the scene in front of him. "So you've gone running to someone else to handle your problems? I guess that I shouldn't really be surprised; you never could quite function on your own," he taunted. Carlos took a step to the left to block Earl's view of Cecil once again.
"Watch it," he warned.
"You should be saying thank you," Earl glared with a smirk. "Especially since I was the one who trained him for you."
Carlos saw Cecil flinch at Earl's words from the corner of his eye and instantly felt frightened at what he could possibly mean by that.
"Shut up," was all Carlos could think to say. All those questions he had been asking outside—
"You know, all of Cecil's little quirks. How else do you think I knew that he wouldn't eat until you've started? Or that he is always home before midnight, no matter what? He never responds to you with one word answers, does he?"
Neither Carlos nor Cecil said a word.
Earl smiled wider. "How about my favourite: he never refuses when you want to go to the bedroom."
Cecil gasped because of what Earl had said and also because Carlos punched his ex-boyfriend right across the jaw.
As Carlos moved towards Earl, a patron from another table got up and grabbed his arms, holding him back. Earl leaned against another table nearby, rubbing his cheek that adorned a red mark left by Carlos's fist.
After a couple seconds of Carlos yelling profanities at Earl and Cecil attempting to quiet him, Dana and the restaurant manager ran up to their table.
"What on Earth is going on here?!" the manager shouted. "Earl?" she asked as she looked at him.
"This man attacked me," he stated, pointing at Carlos, who pulled against the man that was restraining him.
"This asshole needs to be fired and arrested!" he shouted.
"Carlos," Cecil pleaded. "Can we please just go?"
"Sir, would you care to explain what happened here?" the manager asked Cecil, who protectively hugged his arms over his body and shook his head.
"I'll tell you what happened," Carlos said to her. "Your waiter was harassing my boyfriend!"
"Carlos!" Cecil tried to calm him. Turning towards the manager, he said. "Look, it was nothing, okay? Can we please just go?"
The manager paused for a second before telling Earl to meet her in her office. Earl began walking away with her and the man holding Carlos back let him go. He grabbed his boyfriend's hand and began leading him towards the front door of the restaurant.
Suddenly, Carlos head Earl shout after them, "His eyes are prettiest when he cries, don't you think?"
Carlos spun around and shouted, "Go to Hell!" before pulling Cecil out the door and back into the chilly, winter air.
He turned to Cecil and put his hands on his cheeks, but Cecil flinched away. Carlos took his hands back and rested them on Cecil's arms.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Cecil profusely apologized, his voice nothing but a whisper. He looked extremely close to crying.
"Shh, it's alright, Ceec," Carlos soothed. "Let's go home, shall we?" Cecil nodded his agreement and they set off back to their apartment, Carlos's arm wrapped tightly around Cecil's shoulders the entire way.
After a couple minutes of walking, Cecil leaned his head against Carlos's shoulder a bit and said, "I love you."
At the confession, Carlos smiled widely and leaned down to kiss the top of Cecil's head. "I love you, too. So very much."
They finished the walk home in comfortable silence.
Fic inspiried by and based on soillbeherethen's "Yet, Like A Dog," post/44661194639/yet-like-a-dog-phan-oneshot