"Three hours until we have to board the plane." Sydney looked down at the watch Marshall had given her. "What do you want to do?"
"I'm thinking an expensive lunch sounds good to me." Vaughn replied getting up off the couch inside her apartment. He turned off the TV that read the weather report for the northern part of Virginia. Taking her by the hand, he pulled her tired body off the couch and kissed her lightly on the lips. "How does Giovanni's sound?"
"Pizza?" She smirked.
"Italiano."
Grabbing her coat, she tossed him her keys. "Let me grab my suitcase and I'll be right out."
"I'm thinking a little parmesan, some sausage, a little oregano… Maybe I'll even go wild and get a vegetable." Vaughn told her as she went into her room. "If I remember correctly, you like that kind of thing."
"I do huh?" She asked going to the end of her bed where her suitcase lay open. Checking one more time to make sure she had all her paperwork in order, she zipped her bag closed and carried it back into her living room and into the kitchen where Vaughn stood holding the front door open.
The two took the steps down and headed to her car that sat at the curb. Vaughn opened the trunk of her SUV and threw her suitcase in next to his own. They had gotten so good at getting packed quickly that they had perfected the art. Years of flying around the world without notice did that to a person.
"Hey Sydney!" Nadia called out the front door.
She turned to see Weiss right behind her sister. Raising her eyebrows, she nudged Vaughn who looked slightly disgruntled because of his friend's eagerness to date her sister. He rubbed his side as though she had hurt him and then smiled obligingly at her.
"Good luck, I'll see you when you get back."
"Don't wreck the apartment." Sydney replied playfully and sent an air kiss to her sister as she took her keys from Vaughn's hand without him noticing.
Getting into the car, she grinned when Vaughn noticed that he no longer had the keys. Shutting the trunk, he slid into the passenger's side and raised an eyebrow. He shut the door just before she turned her car onto the street.
"Weiss is just looking to get his heart broken. I've seen it before."
"Stop being such a pessimist. Nadia seems to really enjoy his company." She turned left into town and looked for the giant green sign that announced Giovanni's location to everyone in a fifty mile radius. The sign overshadowed even the McDonalds' sign next door to it.
Turning into the parking lot, she noticed that everyone else had the same idea as they did. In fact, the whole parking lot was full and it took some quick maneuvers in order to get a parking spot before another car did that had just entered the lot.
"It's nice to have a girlfriend that has some skill with the car." Vaughn teased her as they entered the busy restaurant.
They were greeted by a teenage hostess who stood behind a podium. Chomping loudly on a piece of gum, the girl raised her eyebrows as if wondering why they were standing in front of her. The red sun visor and apron she wore had stains on them showing how the restaurant used their hostess for many other occupations.
"How many?" the girl put her hand on the menus ready to count.
"Two…non-smoking." Sydney replied stuffing her hands inside of her jeans.
Taking out two menus and two napkin rolled silverware, the girl nodded as if to tell them to follow her. She lead them to the left side of the restaurant to a row of two person booths. All were full except the very last booth in the corner. Placing the menus and napkin rolls on the table, the girl left without a word.
"She's just a ray of sunshine." Sydney slid into the booth and pushed the menu out of the way.
Vaughn leaned onto the table and put his hands over hers. "Look Sydney… I know you want us to take it slow… But I feel like we're creeping along."
"Vaughn…"
"I love you Syd."
"I'm just… not ready to go head on right now. Remember, we agreed. It's for the best." She looked down at his hands. It still wasn't hard to recall the memory of first seeing the ring on his hand. The pain it had caused her. She had felt betrayed, as if one day he loved her and the next day he's married to some other woman. Though it wasn't the truth, it was really two blank years of her life, she could hardly convince her heart that her memory wasn't real.
He nodded and leaned back in the booth. "You're still afraid."
"Vaughn, I'm not afraid. It's just… I need some time… to adjust. These past three years have been such a whirlwind I can hardly keep up." She told him truthfully. "Please understand."
"Okay Syd." Vaughn sighed. "So what do you want to get?"
It took a moment for her to understand that he was referring to the pizza. Looking down at the forgotten menu, she scanned the front page. The restaurant was nothing out of the ordinary and had basically the same toppings as every other pizza place.
"Veggie delight. How about you?"
"Sounds good to me." He looked around for the waiter. "I don't remember why we always go to this place."
This time she let out a short amused huff. "Because it was the first place we went to after you told me you broke up with your girlfriend four years ago… right after SD-6 was destroyed."
His forehead wrinkled as he tried to remember and then a spark lit in his eyes. "Oh yeah. I think we got the exact thing we're getting today."
"Seems to be the habit." She replied.
Just then a waiter came to their table, his hat drawn backwards to keep his long bangs out of his face. His dark skin and sun kissed locks made him look like he just got off the beach. Taking out a pad, the guy got ready to take down their order.
"Medium Veggie Delight and two waters please." Vaughn said and then looked back at her as if to make sure he got the order correct. When she smiled back at him, he nodded. "Too bad we only have two and a half hours to waste."
"Yeah… too bad."
