Eccentric Cheezy Squirrel: I guess you're right, there probably wouldn't be any one-star hotel rooms in a New York hotel, lol. And thanks for the c&c regarding new paragraphs.

Mat49324: Thanks for the review!

The restaurant looked huge from the outside. As the girls peered through the doorway they could see families eating and chatting away. At some tables singles ate alone; Clover's quick eye spotted a handsome fellow working away at a thick porterhouse steak. "Ooh, look at that dreamboat!" she said, clasping her hands as hearts swirled around her head.

Alex followed her gaze. "Yeah, that steak looks real good! I'm gonna order that and fries and a shake and salad and…"

Clover glared at her and Sam sighed. She walked into the restaurant and spoke to the maitre d', who was standing near the entrance with a towel draped over his arm. "Hi. We'd like a table for three, please."

"Indeed, madam. Smoking or non-smoking?" he asked.

"Non-smoking," Sam replied promptly. The maitre d' tweaked his mustache and led them towards an empty table near the middle of the restaurant. Clover noticed with dismay that they were being led away from the guy demolishing his steak. "Uh… is that the smoking section?" she asked the maitre d', pointing in the direction of her quarry. Their guide nodded. "Yes madam, it is."

"We changed our mind. We wanna sit there instead!" she announced. Alex did a double take as Clover grabbed her arm and led her towards an empty table next to the guy. Sam rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to protest, but the maitre d' simply said, "Very well, madam," as he followed them. He pulled out a chair for each girl to sit in and they did, amongst exclamations of "Oh, thank you!" and "Wow, this is great!"

The girls sat down and their guide left, flicking his mustache.

"This place is soooo cool!" Clover squealed, looking around. "If I get lucky I'll see a few celebrities! Good thing I brought my camera with me!"

"Yeah, but I don't think you should ask for their autographs while they're eating dinner," Sam said drily. "Or take their pictures, either!"

"Yeah, they might think Clover's a paparazzi and arrest her," Alex giggled. Clover made a rude noise and turned her head aside, studying the young man at the next table who was still chomping away. He doesn't wear braces, she thought gleefully. But… appetite much?

Just then a waiter came up to them. "Good evening, ladies! How are you doing?" he asked.

"Pretty good," Alex said.

"Okay," Sam shrugged.

"Totally divine!" Clover giggled, looking across at her quarry once more. Sam groaned and Alex smothered a laugh. The waiter smiled and whipped out a pen and pad. "May I recommend today's special, green salad with croutons, followed by paté de foie gras or duck a l'orange, your choice. May I also recommend the dessert special this evening, chocolate cheesecake drizzled with fudge sauce? Trust me, it's really good," he grinned.

"Sounds good to me!" said Clover, banging her menu shut and smiling widely at him. Alex studied her menu closely. "Umm… do you have anything with carrots in it?"

"Yes we do. For dessert you might want to try our carrot cake instead of the chocolate cheesecake."

"Cool! What'll you have, Sammie?" she asked her friend. Sam shrugged. "The special, I guess. Could I have some water?" she asked the waiter.

"I'll have a Coke," Alex piped in.

"Same here," Clover added.

The waiter scribbled the orders on his pad. "Will that be all, ladies?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, thank you."

The waiter walked off and Clover turned to look at the guy sitting at the table next to them. He was almost done with his steak, but still had some fries to go. He felt her gaze on him and turned; Clover's smiled at him. "I was too chicken to try the steak, so it's the special for me," she said.

The guy grinned at her. "This steak is great! I can't remember the last time I had one this good," he said.

"Oh… you eat out often?" asked Clover, turning to face him as Sam and Alex rolled their eyes. The guy chuckled and took a sip of his drink. "Yeah, my wife works late and I like to go meet her so we can go home together. But I'm a rotten cook, so I eat out a lot."

Clover's mouth dropped open and almost fell to the ground. "Your… wife?" she squeaked.

He nodded. "Yeah, we've been married eight years now. She's one heck of a gal," he said, spearing a french fry.

Clover faced front again, her face ashen with shock; Alex cleared her throat. "I guess that's one way to kill a conversation," she said slyly.

"Shut up!" hissed Clover as Alex and Sam dissolved into giggles.

For Clover, the dinner was a disaster. Shortly after her faux pas the guy sitting next to them finished his dinner and left. After the table was cleared a middle-aged couple was seated at it. No sooner had they sat down than they lit up cigarettes and started talking in very loud voices. Clover's chair was nearest to them and could easily overhear things like:

"So ah told Abe ah cain't make it to the prayer meeting this weekend! Ah gotta go to New Yawk for a coupla days! But Ah'll be back in church next weekend!"

"Yeah, Ah was tellin' Mavis Ah cain't meet her at bingo this weekend. It's a good thaing we got her as a friend, huh, Bud? She's the only one Ah trust to water our begonias properly. And take Max out for a walk eeeeevery daiy."

"Thaht's right, Belle! Ain't nothing better than a trustworthy friend! True friends is hard to come by, yessirre dawg!"

Bud took a deep drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke out. It drifted over to the girls' table and Alex started to cough. "Clover," she sputtered, "Could you sometimes NOT think with your hormones?"

"I wonder if that's possible," Sam choked, waving the smoke away from her face with her hand. Clover blushed deep red and sank lower into her chair. "Sorry, guys."

Their salads came then and Alex grabbed her fork. "I can't wait to try this! It looks so good!" she exclaimed, stabbing at some lettuce leaves.

"It'sh great," Sam agreed, her mouth full.

Clover had just put a bite of salad into her mouth when the Belle drawled, "Yew know, Bud, we gotta remember to spray them lettuces out back when we get home. Them caterpillars is gettin' way outta hand. Why last week when Ah had Maeve over fer lunch one of them dang things was raight in her salad! She almost ate the dang thaing!"

Clover choked and sputtered and tossed her fork down. She guzzled half her Coke while Alex and Sam looked at her in surprise. "Something wrong, Clover?" asked Sam.

"N-no," Clover stammered, putting the glass back down. Bud and Belle were busy ordering at this point; Clover stared at her salad, eyes wide. Her friends had gone back to their food and didn't notice her strange behavior.

After a few minutes Alex raised her head and noticed Clover fearfully lifting a lettuce leaf with her fork. "Uhh, Clover… what are you doing?" Alex demanded.

"Nothing," Clover said, hastily putting her fork down. Alex rolled her eyes. "Give me a break! You've been acting weird since we got here."

"Well, the room got to me. But now I can enjoy a fancy dinner!" the blond lied as their waiter headed towards them with their second course. Alex studied Clover's salad plate. "You didn't eat much of that."

"I know," Clover said, smiling widely. "I'm allergic to caterpillars... I mean lettuce."

Alex gave her a funny look as their waiter put their plates down on the table. "Ready for the paté de foie gras, ladies?" he asked.

"Yep! Sam said. Their waiter put one plate in front of each girl and took up their salad plates. "Enjoy," he said as he walked off.

"This smells good," Clover said, sniffing appreciatively. "Pate de foie gras - how chic! How French! How sophisticated!" she said as she cut a big piece with her fork and put it in her mouth. She chewed, swallowed and grinned. "It tastes fabbo!"

"What does it stand for, Sammie?" asked Alex, looking curiously at her portion.

"Goose liver paste," Sam replied, busily eating.

Clover's face turned green and she threw her fork down. Hand over her mouth, she jumped up and ran out of the restaurant. Sam and Alex stared at her, as did all the other diners.

After a while Alex said, "So… I guess we'll split her dessert, right?"

Clover ran straight out of the hotel and into some bushes where she was promptly sick. After emptying her stomach she decided to go up to her room, too humiliated to go back inside and face her friends. And the cigarette smoke. "So much for this dream assignment," she thought angrily as she went into an elevator. "It's been nothing but trouble so far."

She got out on the 16th floor and headed to her room. Unfortunately when she got there she realized Sam had the pass, so Clover couldn't get inside. So she had to go all the way back down to the lobby and wait for her friends to finish eating dinner.

Needless to say, she wasn't in a very good mood when Alex and Sam finally left the restaurant nearly an hour later. "That carrot cake was SO awesome!" Alex sighed, rubbing her stomach in satisfaction.

"Yeah, and my chocolate cheesecake was great," Sam grinned. "That dinner makes up for our frizzy hairdos!"

She caught sight of Clover's face, which was purple with rage. "Um, Clover… is something wrong?"

Clover snarled and Sam suddenly remembered. "Oh, yeah! You didn't like the, uh… the paté…"

"Don't say it," Clover hissed. She grabbed both her friends' arms and yanked them towards the elevators.

"So we finally get to go on our mission," said Alex later as she zipped up her clubbing suit.

"It's about time! I can't wait to get inside City Speaks and meet some cute guys," Clover said, combing her hair.

"Remember, Clover… we're here on a mission," Sam said, putting a vial of anti-pheromone in her belt.

"Yadda, yadda. I know. Come on, let's get this show on the road," Clover said. Her stomach rumbled; Sam and Alex looked at her curiously. "You didn't hear that," the blond said, cheeks pink as she fixed her hair one last time and went towards the door. Sam and Alex grinned at each other and followed her, locking the door shut as they left.