Weiss was released from hospital the following Wednesday so Vaughn kept his word and took him to Francie's restaurant on the next day. Weiss still had a large bandage on his neck, but he managed to cover most of it with his sweater. Vaughn and Weiss walked up to the bar in the restaurant and ordered a couple of drinks.
"I've been in hospital so long, I think I've forgotten what beer tastes like." Weiss announced.
"It's a good thing I'm driving." Vaughn replied. At that moment Will noticed Vaughn sitting at the bar.
"Hi." Will said after he had walked up to Vaughn.
"Hi." Vaughn said. "This is Eric. We work in the same department." Vaughn added.
"Nice to meet you." Will replied as he shook Weiss' hand.
"Same here." Eric said before he returned to his beer.
They continued to talk until Francie went up behind the bar to talk to the barman.
"Can you tell me if we start running out of wine? I can run and get the new cases from the storeroom." Francie said to the barman. "Oh hey Will."
"Hi, Francie." Will said. Francie looked across at Vaughn and Weiss waiting for an introduction. "This is Michael andum Eric right?" Vaughn smiled and nodded his head. "They work with Sydney." Will quietly explained.
"Oh?" Francie smiled broadly at them both. "Good to meet you."
"Didn't Syd say she was coming to the restaurant?" Will asked Francie.
"Really?" Vaughn tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but he was secretly pleased that he would get to see her there that night.
"Yeah, maybe she's running late or something." Francie suggested. "If you guys wanted to eat, I've got a table free."
"Yes please. I'm starving!" Weiss replied.
"Follow me." Francie said. Will, Vaughn and Weiss followed Francie to a table at the back of the restaurant that was fairly well hidden from most of the other customers. Francie then left them to order their food. They all chatted for a while, each of them careful not to talk about any sensitive information that other customers could possibly overhear. So they tried to stay on the usual topics of conversation men fall back on, sports and cars. Will soon saw that both Vaughn and Weiss were both fairly decent guys and Vaughn could tell that Will clearly cared for Sydney a lot. Francie returned to their table when they had nearly finished their meals to ask for a favour from Will.
"I'm sorry Will. Can you help me and get the cases of wine from the storeroom for me? I didn't think it would be so busy."
"Sure." Will said. Will then got up and followed Francie.
~~~
Sydney eventually arrived at the restaurant an hour later than she had planned to. She headed straight for Francie who was talking to one of the waiters. Sydney waited until Francie was free and explained why she was late.
"I'm sorry Francie. The traffic was impossible tonight. I think they're all trying to come to eat here!" Sydney said. "Can I order some food? Pasta, or anything, I don't mind. I'm so hungry."
"I can get the pasta to you in a few minutes."
"Thanks." Sydney said gratefully.
"There's a table ready for you at the back. Is that okay?" Francie asked.
"Yeah, sure." Sydney answered.
Sydney turned the corner and saw Weiss and Vaughn finishing off their meals. Vaughn didn't notice Sydney standing there at first.
"Oh, hi Sydney." Weiss said after he looked up.
"What's wrong? Has something happened?" Sydney asked.
"No. Everything's fine. We just came here for a meal." Vaughn explained.
"Oh right." Sydney said feeling foolish.
"Sit down, Syd. One of the waiters will bring you your food soon." Francie said before dashing off once again.
"I'm glad to see you're looking better Eric." Sydney smiled at Weiss.
"Thanks." Weiss replied. He looked across at Vaughn and smiled knowingly before putting his knife and fork down on the plate. "I'm going to the bar to get another beer." Weiss stated. "Besides I've spotted two women at the bar. I haven't given my 'I got shot sympathy story leading into corny chat-up line' a test drive yet!" Weiss added.
"Good luck Eric." Vaughn said.
"I don't need luck, Mikey!" Weiss said as he stood up and playfully patted Vaughn on the head.
Vaughn just shook his head and began to chuckle. After Weiss headed to the bar Sydney said,
"I don't think I've ever seen you laugh before."
"Really?" Vaughn looked up at Sydney surprised by her comment.
"Hey, can I call you Mikey too?" Sydney said straight-faced.
"No way!" Vaughn exclaimed. He only realised she was joking when she burst out laughing at the astonished look on his face.
"You didn't really think I was serious?!" She said through her laughter.
"At least I managed to make you laugh." Vaughn said smiling despite blushing with embarrassment.
The waiter arrived with Sydney's food and cleared up the remaining plates on the table. Vaughn then asked him for a cup of coffee. He realised that he could look at Sydney without having to look away after two seconds as he usually did. They sat in silence for a few minutes and he let his gaze remain on Sydney for a while as she ate her spaghetti. The waiter eventually returned with Vaughn's coffee.
"Okay. This is weird." Sydney finally said looking at Vaughn after the waiter had left.
"What is?" He asked.
"You, watching me eat." She responded.
"Not as weird as actually being in a restaurant, at the same table with you." Vaughn said. "Even if we didn't get to eat at the same time."
"I know it's not the same as being in Rome" Sydney said with some sadness.
"but I think this is just as good." Vaughn interrupted.
Sydney hesitated for a few seconds before she spoke again. "You look nice."
She noticed that he was wearing navy blue jeans and a charcoal grey sweater instead of his usual work suit and tie.
"Thanks." Vaughn said before adding, "Eric told me that you'd visited him in hospital."
"I just went to see how he was doing."
Vaughn looked into his cup of coffee and debated whether to say anything else. He took a deep breath and eventually said, "I kindaI kinda hoped I'd see you here tonight."
Sydney looked down and saw Vaughn's right hand resting on the table next to his coffee cup. She reached over and placed her left hand on top of his. "This was definitely a pleasant surprise for me. It's nice that we could just talk and not worry that we're being watched the whole timeperhaps we could do this again sometime." She replied. Vaughn looked at Sydney at first with surprise, but then gently smiled.
Vaughn opened his mouth to speak, but he suddenly heard footsteps approaching and quickly took his hand away from Sydney's. Vaughn looked up to see that Will had returned to the table after he finished taking the wine cases out of the storeroom.
"Hi, Will." Vaughn said as he quickly tried to regain his composure.
"Hey. When I agreed to help Francie I didn't realise that it involved moving the entire stock of bottles! Hi Syd." Will said.
Sydney moved along the seat so that Will could sit down next to her.
Vaughn was almost glad that Will had interrupted them. He felt that he had been in danger of saying something he wouldn't have been able to take back. Vaughn finished his coffee and looked at his watch.
"Unlike Eric, I have work tomorrow, so I should get going." Vaughn said reluctantly. "It was good to meet you again, Will." Vaughn stood up and he then looked across at Sydney.
"Bye Vaughn." Sydney said looking up at him.
"Bye Syd." Vaughn said quietly. He walked to the bar to get Weiss and then they found Francie to pay for the meals and to say goodbye to her. Vaughn resisted the urge to look toward the back of the restaurant before they left.
Francie joined Sydney and Will and sat down for a few minutes.
"This is the first time I've had a break tonight. Thanks for the help Will." Francie said.
"No problem." Will responded.
"Michael and Eric said they thought the food and service was very good." Francie said proudly.
"Well it is!" Sydney smiled.
"So do you work with both Michael and Eric?" Francie asked.
"I work mostly with VaughnMichael, he's sort of my boss." Sydney answered.
"Ah. So that explains a lot!" Francie teased. "So do you all work at the bank?" she continued.
"We shouldn't really be talking about this here." Sydney tried to end the discussion as quickly as possible.
"I understand. I have to go now anyway, my break is over." Francie said before she left Sydney and Will.
"Was that strange for you to meet Michael and Eric here?" Will asked.
"It was a surprise, that's all. I told Eric the other day that he should come to the restaurant, but I didn't think Vaughn would be here too."
"Soyou can't date anyone from work then?" Will slowly asked.
"Will! No I can't, but it's not like that anyway. Like I said, Vaughn's my Handler and we can't even be seen in public together." Sydney replied a little defensively.
"Oh."
"Why do you ask anyway? Did Vaughn say something to you?" Sydney asked fishing for information.
"No not really. I just felt like I was interrupting when I came back just now."
"You didn't interrupt anything." Sydney lied. "I should get going. Can you walk me back to the car?" She said changing the subject.
"Why, do you need protecting?!" Will joked.
"No, but I can protect you while you walk me to my car!" Sydney laughed.
Sydney said goodbye to Francie before Will walked with her to her car.
"Are you okay?" Will asked once they were outside.
"I'm fine."
"You seem like you're a million miles away."
"I was just thinking about the last time I was in Rome." Sydney said wistfully, but she didn't elaborate any further.
She then got into her car and during the journey back home, she thought about the time she had just spent with Vaughn. A smile slowly crept across her face when she realised that it was now his turn to arrange their next 'accidental' meeting.
~~~~
The End.