Date Night
Cruz whooped victoriously as he entered the apartment, announcing for the whole floor to hear, "I'm a genius, I'm the man!"
"What'd you do now?" Otis asked in a tone that suggested he was actually paying very little attention as he put away his computer and the equipment he used for his podcast.
Cruz strutted over to the couch and asked Otis, "Do you remember that blonde woman we pulled out of that car crash yesterday?"
"Ye-aaah?" Otis asked cluelessly.
"I ran into her at the supermarket, we started chatting, and we have a date, and as it turns out, she has a friend that she's going to bring along so we can double up on Saturday night."
Otis turned and looked at Cruz with a puzzled look on his face. "This Saturday night?"
"That's right."
Brian didn't look any bit relieved by that piece of information. Appearing very put out, he told his roommate and best friend, "But Svengoolie's on! He's showing Dracula...with Christopher Lee!"
Cruz looked at him, then reached over and grabbed Brian by the shoulders and told him in a matter-of-fact tone, "Otis...you-need-help. Do you have any idea how long it's been since either of us has been out with a chick?"
"If I kept track of things like that, I'd be depressed," Otis responded as he pulled out of Cruz's grip. "So what's this friend's name?"
"Ready?" Joe emphasized each syllable for dramatic effect, "Mon-i-ca."
"And?" Otis asked.
"And what?" Cruz shrugged.
"What else do you know about her?"
"That's it," Cruz answered.
"Oh brother," Otis rolled his eyes. "That's all?"
"What's the problem?" Cruz wanted to know, "Jennifer is fine and any friend of hers would have to be an equal degree of hot."
"That's what you said the last time we doubled up," Otis said, "Remember the last two girls we went out with and you said the same thing?"
"Why do you have to bring that up?" Cruz asked. "It was one night."
"You had the best looking date," Otis told him.
"So what?" Cruz folded his arms to his chest.
"Yours had teeth," Otis said without missing a beat.
"Yours had teeth too!"
"Did you see that tooth?" Otis asked.
"Yes," Cruz replied with a slight grimace as the memory came back to him.
"So?" Otis asked, and there was a pause between them before he added, "If I do this for you, and it turns out anywhere near as bad as I think it will, you are gonna owe me big time."
Cruz shook his head and rolled his eyes, "What do you want, Otis?"
Brian thought for a minute, then snapped his fingers as the answer came to him, "You cover my shifts at Molly's all next week."
"Oh come on, Otis."
Brian shrugged indifferently, "Take it or leave it. I can leave it. I'm perfectly content to stay here Saturday night and watch Svengoolie."
Cruz sighed in defeat, "Alright, alright, you're on."
Brian smirked smugly and responded, "Good. Now that that's established...exactly where are we meeting them?"
"Are you sure this is where she said to meet?" Otis asked as he and Cruz stood outside the restaurant and watched every car pulling up and every woman walking by for any sign of recognition, and finding none at every point.
"Yes I'm sure," Cruz answered.
"I think you got set up, bro," Brian commented.
"Oh shut up."
"We've been here for 15 minutes and we haven't seen anyone yet, I'm counting this as part of our bet."
"What bet?"
"That if tonight's a total disaster, you're covering at Molly's for me for the week."
"Oh come on."
"Being stood up is just as bad as having a horrible date. I could be comfortable at home watching Svengoolie."
"Would you stop with Svengoolie?"
"He's an American institution...well, Chicago anyway," Otis replied.
"Joe?"
The sound of a feminine voice drew their attention and they both saw a tanned blonde dressed in grayish blue jeans, black T-shirt and jean jacket coming around the corner.
"Jennifer!" Joe's eyes lit up.
They both saw the second woman walking behind her, she was a few inches shorter, a couple shades tanner with platinum blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing black leather pants and a matching motorcycle jacket.
"Sorry we're late," the taller woman said, "We circled the block three times and still had to park two blocks down."
"Oh no problem, Jennifer, this is my roommate and good friend, Brian Zvonecek."
Joe's date looked at the dark haired firefighter, and looked back at Joe in something resembling a double take, "No he's not."
"What?" Otis blinked.
"What do you mean?" Cruz asked.
"I mean," Jennifer nodded back to Brian, "I heard you talking to this guy when you pulled me out of that car, you called him Otis."
"No, you see-"
"My name is Brian Zvonecek, everybody at the firehouse just calls me Otis," he explained.
"Why?" Monica asked from where she stood behind Jennifer.
"It's a long story," Otis answered.
"He's our elevator man, most elevators are manufactured by a company called Otis," Cruz explained.
"Okay, it's a short story," Brian said, already feeling this date was off to a roaring stop and wishing he was anywhere else right now.
"Named after Elisha Otis who founded said company in the 1800s, but what's an elevator man?" Monica asked as she stepped to the front, her voice a tad perkier than was expected just by looking at her, and even a hint of pixie to it.
"Means when a building's on fire, it's my job to open up the elevators to get people out," Brian answered.
The shorter woman snorted and said, "People are still dumb enough to get in elevators during a fire? Didn't they ever see 'The Towering Inferno'?"
"Well most of them just happen to be in the elevators when the fire breaks out but there are some who..." Otis blinked, "You've seen 'The Towering Inferno'?"
"I love that movie," Monica said, "not very realistic, I mean how the hell is someone gonna store 2 million gallons of water on top of a high rise? But damn it's entertaining, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Otis said, sounding a bit dumbfounded, "Of course between the two most people prefer-"
"The Poseidon Adventure," both said at the same time.
"I think they're already bonding," Cruz murmured to Jennifer.
"I'm glad," Jennifer murmured back, "Monica hasn't been out with anybody for so long, her idea of a good Saturday night is to sit at home watching Svengoolie."
Cruz cocked his head at her and his eyes widened at this revelation. "Oh this is gonna be the beginning of a beautiful thing."
"Well, are we gonna eat?" Monica asked, breaking up the chitchat, "Or am I gonna starve to death?"
"Oh yeah, let's go," Cruz said, and moved to hold the door for them.
To pass the time while they waited on their food, the four people struck up a conversation involving small tidbits about their lives and their work that more than once had everybody at the table laughing to varying degrees of not being able to breathe and about to fall out of their booth. Half an hour passed and their orders still hadn't arrived, which started to put a damper on things, and the mood was also soured by a man seated a few tables away from them who appeared to be drunk and based on how the decibels of his voice raised with every passing sentence, wasn't done getting intoxicated yet. Eventually he grew loud enough to drown out their conversation almost entirely.
"You think we can get another table so we don't have to hear that?" Jennifer asked.
"Nah, the people next door can hear him," Otis answered.
"As a general rule I don't deal with drunk people because it's not worth the trouble," Monica said, "but if he doesn't shut up I'm going to do something we're all bound to regret."
"Tell you what, if they don't get our food here soon we're gonna bail," Cruz looked around for their waiter.
Otis also looked around, and spotted something and asked, "Is that for us?"
Cruz looked and saw the dessert trolley coming their way, the waiter picked up a large cake and put it on the table and addressed Monica, "Our compliments, miss, happy birthday."
Both firefighters were thoroughly confused by this as they looked at the large chocolate cake in the middle of the table.
"Why didn't you say it was your birthday?" Otis asked.
Monica waited until the waiter was out of earshot and half whispered, "It's not...but there's no reason they need to know that."
Cruz started laughing.
"This ought to do as an appetizer until they find their way here with the main course," Monica said as she picked up the cake server and started to slice into it.
Everybody had gotten a piece of cake and ate it in peace and were waiting for the main course, when the drunk man a few spots over got even louder and more belligerent than before, and that was about enough to kill everybody's appetite.
"That does it, I'm going in," Monica said as she haphazardly sliced off another piece of cake, pushed her chair back and picked up her plate.
"What're you doing?" Otis asked.
"Just stay put, I'll handle this," she said as she walked with her plate perched on the tips of her fingers like a server, went over to the drunk and told him, "I heard that remark about my mother, pal," and shoved the chocolate cake right in his face.
The other three occupants at their table were all choking on shocked laughs, but when the drunk man got to his feet to retaliate, Cruz and Otis jumped in to block him from Monica. He cussed them out and tried to pick up his bottle to hit them with but his reflexes were slowed enough he knocked it over instead, and grabbed the spaghetti on his plate in one big handful and promptly tossed it smack in the middle of Cruz's face. Joe retaliated by grabbing the bowl of salad on the table and dumping it square on the man's head and shoulders, dressing and all. Otis threw his head back laughing at the sight, until the drunk got the upper hand and heaved him over onto the next table, interrupting the dinner conversation of the three people seated around it, and falling face first into a roast beef. He pushed up on his hands to get back to his feet, took a step back and loudly announced, "FOOD FIGHT!"
Somehow it worked. People at all the tables got up, grabbed whatever food they'd ordered and stared flinging it at one another. The two firemen and their dates quickly made a mad dash for the exit before anybody could figure out who started it and throw them out or call the cops.
Few things beat Chicago deep dish pizza anyway. Otis and Cruz had taken their dates back to their apartment, ordered in dinner, and after briefly cleaning up, parked themselves on the couch and were still able to catch most of Svengoolie's airing of Christopher Lee's 'Dracula'. Cruz leaned back against the couch and was finally starting to relax, when the show cut away from the movie and back to the horror movie host, which made Cruz sit up straight and pay attention. He looked at the TV, then turned to the right and looked to his date, Jennifer, and then turned to the left and looked at Otis's date, Monica, and they both apparently saw what he saw, and looked at him in kind, then all three of them turned and looked at Otis seated at the end of the couch.
"What?" he asked.
Instead of answering, Cruz took his phone out, took a picture of the horror movie host on TV, then held his phone beside Otis so the others could see the distinct similarity with the big black bushy eyebrows and big black bushy mustache, aside from the difference in clothes and Otis's notably shorter hair, the two were a dead ringer for each other.
"No wonder you love this show," Cruz said.
"Yeah, it's like watching your better looking twin," Monica teased.
"Hey!" Otis replied, merely drawing a small shrug out of her.
Jennifer laughed and told Joe, "Well, this is definitely one of the better first dates I've ever been on."
"Oh yeah, me too," he replied.
She leaned over and said in his ear, "I say next time we double up, we leave these two at home watching Svengoolie and we go out somewhere."
"I like that plan," Cruz said.