Belle was craving wheat gluten. It sounded weird, but ever since she had found a flyer for a new vegan restaurant tucked underneath the door to her apartment the night before, she had been unable to think of much else. She wasn't actually a vegan - what sane person would give up ice cream? - but she had developed a taste for their cuisine after living with a hippie roommate for a year in college. She had even been a regular at the local vegetarian restaurant back in school, but had found Molyneaux to be sadly lacking when it came to meatless dining establishments. So she had reacted to the news of the new restaurant with a fair amount of excitement.

"Hey, Chip," she greeted, wandering over to Chip's cubicle. "Wanna grab lunch? I was thinking of trying out a new vegan place over on Broad St."

Chip looked up from his computer. "Hey, Belle. A couple of the guys were actually talking about going for wings for lunch. You're welcome to come if you want."

Belle frowned. "Oh. I was really hoping to try this new place."

Chip shrugged. "Well, I guess I could go with you if you want. Do they have wings?"

"It's vegan," Belle repeated.

"So ... no wings then," Chip said. Belle shook her head. Chip bit his lip, clearly torn, but Belle knew he was only even considering going with her because he didn't want to hurt her feelings. She sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Chip. I'll come with you for wings."

Chip looked relieved. Then he smiled mischievously. "You know who'd probably take you up on lunch?"

Belle groaned. "Don't even say it. I'm not that desperate."

Chip laughed. "I didn't think so. But you have to admit, it would be funny to watch Gaston try to figure out what to order at a vegan restaurant. Do you know I once heard him tell one of the guys on the sports desk that he eats five dozen eggs every morning?"

Belle made a face. "Gross."

"I know!" Chip laughed again. "Can you imagine what his cholesterol must be like? Anyway, everyone's meeting in the lobby at noon for lunch. See you there?"

"See you there," Belle agreed. She felt a pang of disappointment as she sat back down at her desk. She supposed she could have gone for lunch by herself, but eating at restaurants alone had always made her feel self-conscious. She considered inviting her father to go for dinner later, but she knew for a fact that there was nothing on the menu he would eat. It was times like this, Belle mused, when having more friends would have been nice. You do have more friends, a voice in her head insisted. What about Adam?

Adam! She did owe him a dinner, after all. And he seemed like the adventurous type - he'd lived all over the world, after all. He wouldn't be scared off by a little tofu. The only problem was, she hadn't gotten his number after they'd had dinner together the week before. But I do know where he works, she thought triumphantly. I'll stop by after work and see if he wants to go for dinner. Suddenly feeling much less disappointed, she grabbed her purse and left to meet Chip in the lobby.


As Belle pushed open the door of the music shop, she felt a little thrill of excitement. She told herself that it was because she was finally going to check out the new restaurant she'd been dying to visit and had nothing to do with the fact that she was about to see Adam. Adam's uncle was sitting behind the counter and looked up as she walked in. "Miss DuPont! Back already? I hope your dad isn't having any trouble with his guitar?"

"Oh, no, the guitar is great," Belle assured him. "I'm actually looking for Adam?"

Mr. Prince raised an eyebrow. "Really? He's right behind you," he said, pointing to a display across the floor where Adam had been arranging tuner pedals. Adam turned at the sound of Belle's voice.

"Belle!" Adam smiled. "I've been thinking about you. I mean - I was wondering how you were doing."

Belle smiled back. "I'm good. I was actually wondering if you felt like cashing in on that dinner I owe you?"

Adam glanced at his uncle. "I'm good here if you want to head out," his uncle said.

Adam smiled happily. "Dinner sounds great. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, there's a new vegan restaurant that just opened up at the corner of Broad St. and Fifth. I was thinking of trying that?"

"A vegan restaurant?" Adam repeated doubtfully.

"Well, we don't have to if you don't want to," Belle said quickly, face falling.

"No, no!" Adam interjected hastily. "Vegan food sounds ... great. Would you mind if we make a stop after so I can drop a drum key off with Cogsworth? I promised I'd bring it by tonight, and it sounds like the restaurant is right down the block from his place."

"Sure!" Belle agreed cheerfully.


A short time later, Belle and Adam found themselves being ushered to a small table in a tiny, but quaint, storefront. Altogether, there were probably only a dozen tables scattered across the floor of the entire establishment, each of them paired with a set of mismatched chairs. A long counter and a handful of stools provided minimal extra seating and a view to the open kitchen where several chefs were already toiling away.

Belle perused her menu thoughtfully, which was mostly unnecessary since she had already reviewed it on the restaurant's web site multiple times and decided on what to order several hours ago. She looked across the table at Adam, who was skimming his own menu with a look of slight bewilderment.

For his part, Adam didn't understand what half of the items on the menu even were. Tempeh? Chia? He'd had a cat once who had tried to eat a Chia Pet and ended up barfing it back up all over the kitchen floor. The memory didn't exactly make him eager to order a plate of the stuff. Adam glanced over as the waitress seated another couple at the next table. The couple appeared to be only a few years older than he and Belle. The girl was chattering excitedly about kale as she reviewed the menu, while the young man sitting across from her stared at his own menu with a dazed expression. He looked up, and he and Adam shared a knowing look, silently commiserating with each other. After a few minutes, their waitress reappeared to take their order.

"I'll have the barbecued seitan, please," Belle requested eagerly.

"Satan?" Adam repeated incredulously.

"No, no, SAY-tan," Belle corrected him.

"That's what I said," Adam frowned. "It's like even the name is trying to tell you than nothing good can come from eating it."

The waitress smirked as if she were used to this sort of misunderstanding. "What can I get for you, sir?"

"Um ... I'm not really sure," Adam answered. "Do you have any recommendations?"

"Well, what kinds of foods do you usually like to eat?" the waitress asked helpfully.

"Uh ...meat?" Adam offered feebly, as Belle gently kicked him under the table. "I mean, the usual stuff?" he shrugged.

"Do you like pizza?" the waitress suggested.

"Pizza is good," Adam said in relief.

"Our raw pizza is fantastic," the waitress replied. "You'll love it." Adam nodded uncertainly, and the waitress left to put their order in.

"What is raw pizza?" Adam whispered desperately across the table, once the waitress was out of earshot.

"Well, I suppose it's uncooked," Belle mused thoughtfully.

"Thanks, that helps," Adam responded sarcastically. "Does that mean it's cold?"

"I thought guys loved cold pizza," Belle pointed out.

"We do, but at least cold pizza was cooked at some point," Adam groused. However, he quickly forgot about the questionable nature of the so-called "pizza" he had ordered, as Belle was clearly eager to discuss less mysterious subjects. Although he struggled at first to keep up with the volley of questions she threw his way, they eventually fell into an easy conversation that reminded him immediately of why he had found her so interesting in the first place.

Belle seemed particularly fascinated by his childhood spent overseas. "What is the Eiffel Tower like?" she asked eagerly.

"Really tall," Adam replied.

"And Big Ben?"

"Pretty loud."

"The Venice canals?"

"Kind of smelly, actually."

"What was the most exciting thing that ever happened to you as a kid?" she asked. "You must have some crazy stories from all of the places you lived."

"Well ...," Adam began thoughtfully, "... I don't know if this was the most exciting thing that ever happened, but it was definitely the most memorable one for me." Belle grinned and scooted her chair closer to the table, already hanging on his every word. "When we lived in Cape Town, there were these wild monkeys - baboons - that would run all over our neighborhood. They had gotten really used to people, and weren't afraid of them at all. And they were notorious for being really bold and clever."

"Early one morning, we heard a horn start honking outside the house. My dad though someone was trying to steal the car, so he went running outside in his pajamas with a cricket bat, ready to scare the guy away. Instead, he found three of these big monkeys sitting in the car."

"What?" Belle exclaimed with a giggle. "They were in the car?"

"Yeah," Adam smiled somewhat sheepishly. "It was my fault, actually. I had forgotten my lunch in the car the day before, and it was still sitting in the back seat. The monkeys must have seen it and actually opened the door to the car to get to it. My dad found them munching on my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a box of cookies. And they weren't very happy to be interrupted. One of them actually got out of the car and chased him all the way back to the house."

"Was he ok?" Belle asked, wide-eyed.

"He was fine, just really embarrassed. I've never seen him run so fast in my life," Adam recalled with a laugh.

"So how did you get rid of the monkeys?"

"We just stood by the window, watched, and waited for them to leave. Then my dad went out and cleaned up the car. He made sure never to leave it unlocked again though, and he made sure I never left food in there again. To this day, I still make sure to check the car every time I get out." Adam smiled wryly.

Belle shook her head in wonder. "I can't even imagine what that must have been like. The worst we ever had in my neighborhood were a few hungry rabbits."

Adam laughed. "I guess it's hard to do more damage when you don't have opposable thumbs."

Belle's lips quirked up in a smile. "Oh, they still did plenty of damage. We had a few of them in the backyard that kept raiding my mom's vegetable garden. She tried everything she could to get rid of them - fences, marigolds, homemade animal repellents. And then she made the mistake of complaining about them to Papa ..."

"Why was that a mistake?" Adam asked, tilting his head curiously.

"My dad likes to fix things," Belle explained. "And he likes to tinker - he's an engineer. He had this whole workshop set up in our basement. So when my mom told him about the rabbits, he was naturally convinced that he could come up with the perfect solution to the problem."

"And did he?"

"Not ... exactly. His solution was to place a set of motion sensors around the garden and rig them up to one of our old Halloween decorations. When the rabbits got too close, they'd trip the sensors, and this gruesome looking skeleton would pop up from behind the wheelbarrow and scare them away."

"Sounds like a good idea. So why do I get the impression it didn't work?" Adam smirked.

"Oh, it worked. Only not on the rabbits. Maybe two days after he'd set all this up, our mail carrier came to deliver a package. Nobody was home, so she decided to leave the package around the back," Belle began.

"Oh, no," Adam murmured knowingly. The statement came out as half a laugh, and half a groan.

Belle nodded. "Yeah. The poor woman nearly had a heart attack from what our next door neighbor told us. At any rate, she refused to deliver our mail for almost two weeks - my mom had to pick it up in person at the post office, and they gave her all sorts of funny looks when she went in."

Adam laughed. "It sounds like you guys were infamous."

Belle dropped her face into her hands. "You have no idea," she moaned. She looked back up at Adam slowly. "Our neighbors already thought Papa was a lunatic because of all the weird noises they'd hear coming from the basement and the crazy contraptions that he was so proud of. This just cemented his reputation as the neighborhood crackpot."

"In fairness, it sounds like your dad was pretty smart," Adam offered sympathetically. "I mean, his idea worked. He had no way of knowing someone would be prowling around your yard."

"Oh, I know," Belle sighed. "He's a genius actually. I'm really proud of him. I just wish more people saw him the way I do."

"Well he doesn't sound that crazy to me," Adam replied with a shrug, earning a grateful smile from Belle. He was about to say more when the waitress suddenly returned with their food. Adam glanced down at his plate with trepidation. Much to his relief, his meal looked like pizza, more or less. He lifted a piece to his lips cautiously, and Belle gave him an encouraging smile. He bit in, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it tasted - well, if not exactly like pizza, still pretty decent. It wasn't the gooey, greasy, cheesy goodness that he was used to, but the sauce was fresh and flavorful, and that almost made up for the fact that it was cold. He flashed Belle a thumbs up as he chewed around the dense crust and she smiled back at him proudly.

"So it's good?" she asked eagerly as he swallowed.

Adam considered his answer carefully. "It's not bad," he finally said. "But it would be better if they put it in the oven for a few minutes and threw some pepperoni on top." Belle rolled her eyes at him in amusement. "Here," he offered, "do you want to try a piece?"

"Sure," Belle said curiously, accepting a piece of pizza from him. He watched her as she took a bite, her expression giving away nothing as she chewed.

"Well?" he asked.

This time, he could see on her face that she was debating with herself mentally. "You're right," she admitted at last, though somewhat grudgingly. "It's better cooked." Adam smiled, feeling vindicated. "Would you like to try some of mine? It's not raw," she added as she watched Adam glance at her food hesitantly. She scooped a few pieces of seitan onto her fork and transferred them to Adam's plate.

What the heck? Adam thought. At least they cooked this. He stabbed a chunk of the strange looking stuff with his fork and lifted it to his mouth before he had time to reconsider. "Wow!" he exclaimed. This was much better than what he had ordered. It had a chewy, almost meaty texture that he hadn't expected. And it was smothered in liberal amounts of barbecue sauce, which in his opinion could redeem just about anything. He immediately reached for more. "I'm definitely getting this next time," he mumbled through another mouthful of wheat gluten and sauce. Belle beamed at him, and his stomach gave a slight lurch, though he couldn't tell whether it was a reaction to her smile or to the fake meat. In either case, he could tell that he had made Belle happy, and that alone had made the evening worth it. Perhaps he'd even work up the courage to stick around for one of those weird-looking desserts he had spied on the way in.


No vegans were harmed in the writing of this chapter.