Lynn opens her eyes and looks around her bedroom, which was mostly dark except for the light coming through the curtains. She can feel Francisco's arm wrapped around her, and she smiles as she turns to face him. She tries to close her eyes so that she can fall asleep, but she keeps thinking about what happened and how they ended up together in her bed.
'Sure gave myself one hell of a birthday present.'
She didn't picture Francisco arriving at her front door with the intention of spending the night, but she didn't give him much choice. At some point, she did want to apologize, but having him in bed next to her was not the way she pictured it happening.
Figuring that she'd have to wait until morning, Lynn made another attempt at sleeping, but she begins to toss and turn.
'Am I supposed to just wait until morning to talk? I just wanna get this over with now! Wait! What am I gonna say? I mean I know that I have to apologize, but what else?'
"I'm sorry…" she apologizes out loud; hoping that the words would come to her.
Francisco opens his eye and sees her talking out loud towards the wall. She keeps apologizing over and over again, as if trying to say more than just the few words. It is strange hearing that from her, especially since she rarely likes to acknowledge that she was in the wrong, so he decides to give her a little help, "Why?" he started.
Lynn jumps a bit after hearing him talk, "I know that there wasn't any reason to push you…but when Elena said that you weren't interested in dating, and when you didn't want me to tell anyone, I thought…" she shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. I should have at least heard you out."
Honestly, Francisco is surprised by what she was saying. He knew that he was being more secretive than necessary, but he spent so much time thinking about how Elena would take potential future news, that he didn't spend enough time worrying about Lynn's feelings.
He shook his head, "Don't…I wasn't any better. Hell, I was worse…I should have at least been honest with you instead of telling you that I was already going to tell her. I just didn't want things to get awkward with her knowing. I know that I've told you that before, but I guess I wasn't ready to tell her, even though I think you were."
Lynn takes a deep breath, "Yeah, well what kind of say do I have? You're her dad."
He took her hand, "You still have a say with everyone else, and I shouldn't have made you keep this a secret just because I was paranoid."
She rests her head on his shoulder, "What do we do now?"
"Sleep would be nice," he jokes, "but I'd like to at least try again with our relationship."
She nods her head, "I'd like that too."
The couple lay in silence. It's nice to finally talk this out, but there was still one more thing on Lynn's mind.
"I know that you don't want me to make it obvious in front of Elena, but does this mean that we're gonna go out more as a couple?
He nods his head, "I think that that's more than fair," he says before giving her a kiss. "Look, I know that I was being unreasonable, but if you are ready to tell someone, I'm going to be supportive, and I'm definitely not going to stop you."
She didn't have anyone in mind at the moment, but regardless, Lynn would still honor his wishes and not make it obvious that both of them are together in front of Elena; she is happy to no longer feel restricted.
Lynn pulls him into another kiss and rekindles their relationship.
Caroline excitedly knocks on Francisco's door. It is the first day of winter break and while students are happy to be done with classes for the semester, she is excited to see her boyfriend with a surprise in mind.
Francisco opens the door, and smiles upon seeing her, "Hey! I thought that you would be packing up to go home, what are you doing here?"
She gives him a kiss, "I have a surprise for you, close your eyes." He complies, and she tells him, "Alright, now open them."
Francisco opens his eyes and sees his girlfriend holding a piece a paper. He looks at the sheet and sees a travel itinerary for a roundtrip flight from San Jose to Detroit and it has both of their names on it.
With a knowing smile, she explains, "I thought that this would be a nice change from being here by yourself like last winter break, and I'm sure your mom and brother would love to see you for the holidays."
He takes the itinerary from her and smiles, "Thank you, I appreciate it, but it's too much."
Aside from the occasional phone call home, he doesn't get many opportunities to check in on his family until summer, and while he does miss seeing them, he doesn't want to take advantage of her generosity, no matter how much he wants to see his mom and brother for both his birthday, Christmas, and New Year's.
She smiles back, "Don't worry about it, besides my dad got us the tickets, and he did want to meet you."
Francisco isn't sure how to react; the two have only been dating for a short time, despite knowing each other for a year, but he figured that if Caroline was anything to go off of, then her family should be easy to get along with.
"Okay," he nods, "that seems easy enough."
She bit her lip, "Francisco, do you remember what I told you about my family?"
"Yeah, your younger sister is in high school, your dad runs an insurance company and your mom does something…"
"She volunteers with a charitable organization in her free time," she tells him, "No, but I mean, do you remember why I came to school all the way out here?"
Francisco knows what she's trying to say. To her, he is just a guy from a small town, but to her family, he is probably going to be seen entirely differently. Unlike him, she comes from a home where money problems weren't an issue, she could own whatever reasonable thing that she wanted, and it wouldn't hurt the family financially, but he also knows the other issue that comes with such wealth.
He goes up to her and looks at her in the eye before smiling and assuring her, "I understand that you're worried, but I think I can handle it. Besides, it's just dinner…in the nice side of Huntington Oaks…in a gated community…"
"Corbett's Lodge," she corrects, "They want to meet you at Corbett's Lodge."
He nods. He knows that he was getting nervous before she mentioned the restaurant, but now, he is sure that his face was giving away his emotions. He rarely goes to sit-down restaurants, and the idea of going to one where there is likely a dress code, scares him a bit.
The sound of beeping stirs Francisco awake, he looks at his watch and saw the time, 4:58am. He turns off the alarm before Lynn woke up, and remembers that it is Wednesday and he has to be at work. Rather than get up, he set the watch to the side on the nightstand and lays back down on the pillow.
"Why did your watch go off?" Lynn mumbles.
"It was just to wake me up for work."
Lynn stays silent, which made Francisco think that she fell asleep again. He turns to her and closes his eyes. He is used to waking up early, but what is the harm in skipping one day of work? All he needs to do was just call his supervisor and say that he isn't feeling well and thus he would be given a chance to actually make Lynn's birthday better.
"Aren't you going to get up? You hate playing hooky."
Francisco opens his eyes, "What's one day?" he asks, his back aches as he moves; it's been over six hours since he last took his medicine and he is beginning to feel the effects.
"Yeah, right. I know you, Francisco. Just go to work."
"I'm serious, Lynn. I don't mind missing one day of work. Besides, we can use today to make your birthday better. I mean, are you honestly happy with a cold and soggy sandwich as your birthday present?"
As he mentioned the sandwich, she wondered where it ended up, "No, but I sure as hell liked the rest of my present…"
Francisco blushes, "Regardless, we can do something more fun. It is a Wednesday after all, a lot of places are going to be less crowded."
"Just do it a different day. Surprise me!" she says as she gently kicks him to get him out of bed.
"Why are you so insistent on kicking me out? Are you ashamed of me?" he asks in a teasing tone.
"No, but this is for your own good, so yes, I'm kicking you out," she says as she lightly kicked him away from her.
Francisco gets up and sit on the edge of the bed, "Fine," he says as he scans the dark room for his clothes. "Can I use your shower? I don't think that I'll have much time to take one once I get home."
"Go for it," Lynn says as she covers her face with the blanket.
She hears the shower running and sighs as the noise keeps her awake. Lynn closes her eyes, but the sound of the water keeps her from going to sleep. A few minutes later the water stops, and she hears him stepping out of the shower.
"About time," she jokes.
Francisco silently grabs his things, but couldn't find his belt or his shoes. He tries to search as quietly as possible so as to not wake up Lynn, but he hears a voice coming from underneath the sheets.
"Whatever you're missing, it's probably in the living room or the hallway."
"Thanks," he whispers before walking away as quietly as he could.
Lynn pulls her head out of the covers and hears him as he trips on one of his shoes. She chuckles as she pictures him walking around tripping on their discarded clothes. When she hears the front door close, she sighs and closes her eyes in an attempt to get more sleep.
Francisco searches through his closet to find something resembling a suit and tie. In his near twenty years of life, he's never gone through too much hassle to buy nice clothes in order to make a great first impression, and now he's realizes that he should have learned that lesson a long time ago. As he searches through the clothes, he realizes that his wardrobe mostly consists of jeans, a pair of dress pants, short-sleeved shirts, a few dress shirts, and his sneakers.
"I really don't go out to many nice places, do I?" he asks himself.
Chuy walks inside and sees his brother frazzled as he keeps trying to make combinations from the clothing that he owned.
The younger brother turns around and asks his older brother, "What do you think? Do you think that I'll need a jacket?" he asks, while holding his nicest button-down shirt and a pair of slacks.
"Why are you worrying so much? It's just dinner with you girlfriend's parents. I doubt they care what you wear," Chuy tries to comfort him.
"They might. They live out in Huntington Oaks, and they're taking us all to Corbett's Lodge…"
Chuy whistled, "Okay, maybe a nice suit isn't so out of the question."
"Yeah, I know, but I don't have the money for that," Francisco groans, "Sometimes I wished that dad had a suit that I could borrow."
It wouldn't have done Francisco any good considering that the family rarely attended events that would require formalwear, and that he was taller than his dad.
Francisco sighs, 'Guess, I'll have to go a little more informal,' he thinks.
Chuy sees the distress in his brother's eyes and offers, "I can lend you some money so that you can get yourself something nice to wear."
Francisco shakes his head, "I'll be fine."
"No you won't. Besides, you can pay me back later when you finish school."
"You don't need to do that. I'll figure it out myself."
Chuy takes out his wallet, and Francisco sighs as he knows that he isn't going to take no for an answer. The younger brother looks away as his brother hands him the card, "C'mon Pancho."
Francisco shakes his head.
Chuy hands the card closer to his brother, "You know you need it."
He shakes his head again.
"You can keep playing around, but you know that the more time you waste, the less time you have to search for a suit that you won't look silly wearing."
Francisco looks at his brother, who has a smile on his face, "Fine, but only to get you to stop."
"Sure," the older brother says as he handed over his credit card.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, now have fun shopping for your new clothes."
Francisco looks at the card and walks towards the living room. His mom looks over at him as she hears him mutter under his breath while occasionally tapping his pocket to make sure that he has what he needs.
"¿A donde vas Pancho?"
"Tengo que comprar un traje para mi cita."
"¿Quieres que valla contigo?" she offers.
Francisco shakes his head; the last thing he wants is for his mother to join him as he goes clothes shopping for a date, "Creo que voy estar bien."
"Bueno, no mas ten cuidado cuando escoges un traje, no quieres verte encorvado como tu papa."
Francisco takes note of what she said despite not understanding what she meant when she said 'encorvado'.
The sun's rays shined into Lynn's room, she tried to shield herself with her blanket, but the sun wasn't going to let up. She opened her eyes, and looked at the empty side of the bed.
"I should have let him stay," she said as she took hold of the pillow that he rested his head on earlier. She was regretting her decision, 'He even offered to stay!' Lynn sighed, but she knew him. She knew that he probably would have been looking at the clock, thinking about what his bosses would say about his absence or paranoid that they'll punish him for just taking a personal day, so she kicked him out for his own good.
She smiled as the scent of leather and motor oil overtook her, "Why does he always smell like this?" she groaned, "I hate always being able to sniff him out." She was lying. Even as kids, he could never truly hide from her; not in crowded hallways, not in the cafeteria, not even in gym class, and all because of that scent of his.
Lynn stared up at the ceiling as she recalled the events of the last couple of hours; him just showing up at her front door, her pulling him into her apartment, then her room, then her bed, the serious conversation about how they were going to go forward in their relationship. She smiled at the thought of knowing that he was still interested in them being a couple. Yes, compromises had to be made, but what relationship didn't have some sort of compromise?
Then the memory of how they sealed the deal to become a couple again; his forehead pressed onto her's as they stared into each other's eyes in the darkness with only the moon's light to guide them, running her fingers through his hair, his lips on her skin, her nails lightly teasing his back, and him…Lynn stopped. She couldn't see her cheeks flaring up at how the rest of their night went, but she could feel the warmth.
Reasoning that there was no reason to stay in bed anymore, Lynn walked to the bathroom; she caught a glimpse at the mirror before saying, "Son of a bitch!"
Francisco walks through the clothing store. He is surrounded by a variety of jackets, pants, ties, belts, cufflinks, and shoes; all of which are confusing him as he tries to mentally form a combination that he could pull off.
He grabs a suit jacket and put it on before looking at himself in front of the mirror. In his normal street clothes, he looks silly, and he can't imagine what he is going to look like when he has the full suit with a dress shirt and tie.
'Wait a minute…I don't know how to tie a tie…well there's always the internet,' he thinks in a effort to perk himself up.
A salesman speaks up, "Can I help you find something?"
A startled Francisco turns around to respond to the salesman, "I'm looking for a suit for a date."
"Did you know what style you had in mind?"
Francisco shakes his head.
"How about we start with something easy, do you know what color suit you want?"
"Not really…I mean, I guess blue would be fine."
The salesman directs Francisco towards the back and begins to ask questions, "So you mentioned a date, first anniversary?"
He shakes his head, "No, just that her parents insisted on meeting me."
The salesman whistles, "So were you looking for something that you can wear to just formal occasions, or did you want something more versatile?"
"B-Both, I guess."
The salesman can sense Francisco's anxiety and tries to calm the young man, "I'm assuming that this isn't a black tie event, right? So you can try the blue, although charcoal gray is a classic. Now, do you need a full suit?"
"The whole thing – shirt, pants, jacket, shoes and tie."
He nods and takes Francisco's measurements, "So have you considered the charcoal gray, or are you still sticking with blue?"
"Probably blue," he responds. "But in a more…more…classic style, maybe a white shirt too."
"Alright, I'll look for something, while you look at the shoes and ties."
He passes through the ties. Now that he has an idea, of what he was going to be wearing, he can pick out something to match. Black shoes strike him as the obvious choice, but the tie gives him more flexibility.
"Red? Black? Yellow? I can just wait until he returns with everything."
The salesman presents Francisco with some clothing options, which he takes into the changing room. Francisco looks at himself in the mirror; it is the first time that he's ever seen himself dressed in a suit and he admits to himself that he looks nice. However, as he looks at the price tag, he begins to shake his head. Granted, Chuy offered to pay for the suit, he doesn't want to take advantage of his brother's kindness.
He steps out of the changing room and tells the salesman, "I'm sorry, this is nice, but I don't think I can afford it."
Francisco looks at the salesman, who is about to walk away; he spent so much time patiently helping him, that he feels guilty to put all of the work to waste. He didn't need the suit tailored and Francisco assumed that all he had to do was just keep the tags and he should be fine, so long as he didn't sweat and was careful at dinner.
"You know what," he stops the man, "I'll take it."
Lynn pulled into the driveway of Lucy's new home. After months of searching, she and her fiancé finally found a home that they both liked; it's nice and secluded, but close enough to still see their families, which checked the couple's dream home checklist.
"What took so long?" Lucy asked as she grabbed a box from the moving truck.
"I didn't take that long. After I got some breakfast with Lily and Lucy, I got some gas, and came straight here," Lynn said as she ran to the truck to help her younger sister unload some boxes.
"Lynn, it doesn't take you two hours to do all that," the younger sister looked at Lynn's car, "Did Dutch break down again?" Lynn stayed quiet, "Are you sure that you don't you buy a new car? Anything is better than trying to push it down 13 Mile and causing a traffic jam."
Lynn set down the box, "One time! That happened one time! Look, I'm here now. So do you want my help or are you just going to complain? Cause I can go if you want."
Lucy took her box and walked into the house, "I thought so," said Lynn as she went to the moving truck to see how much was left. "What the…Lucy, when the heck did you and Rocky get started?" she asked out loud.
"Three hours ago, before he got called into the morgue to cover a sick coworker," Lucy said as she snuck up behind her sister.
Lynn jumped a bit after being startled, "Then why the heck are there still so many boxes!? Do you honestly have that many books?" Lynn looked further into the moving truck, "And you still haven't unloaded all this furniture!?" she asked while pointing to a desk, sofa, dining table, and a variety of heavy furniture.
Lucy shrugged her shoulders and grabbed one box to take into the house. Lynn growled at her sister's inefficiency; at the rate she was going, she wasn't going to finish until Monday night, but she refused to let that bring her down, so she pulled up her imaginary sleeves and began stacking boxes to take more per trip.
When the two sisters crossed paths, Lynn would glare at her younger sister. She's giving up a Saturday to help her sister and her fiancé, and she can't even take more than one box; looks like it's up to her to pick up the slack.
She grabbed some boxes and stacked them on top of one another, and quickly ran into the house to set down the boxes before going back to her car. She came prepared and took out her lifting belt, and was ready to move the appliances that were still loaded in the truck. Normally, she would ask for help, but the way Lucy was moving, Lynn knew that she wouldn't get much help and would rather do it on her own.
Lynn positioned herself behind the fridge and pushed until she could no longer. She took a deep breath and continued; not noticing that she passed the kitchen and was pushing the appliance down the hallway.
Lynn continued this with the remaining boxes, and by late afternoon she was beginning to show fatigue. She wiped sweat from her brow, she looked at Lucy, who was still only moving one lightweight box at a time, "Gee, Luce, thanks for the help," she said sarcastically. "I couldn't have done it without you!"
Lucy set her box down, and went to get her older sister a bottle of water, "No one told you move as fast as you did, we aren't being timed, you know."
"Yeah…well I don't move slow, or take my time, or go at a turtle's pace. And thanks to me you were able to get all your things out of the truck before the sun set."
Lucy looked at the haphazard way that Lynn set down the boxes; in her attempts to finish the job quickly, Lynn randomly tossed light boxes wherever she saw fit, and made a game out of how far she could lift heavier boxes down the hallway.
"You're still going to help us put the heavier furniture where it belongs, right?"
Lynn finished chugging the water bottle and wiped the sweat from her face, "Yeah, I did promise to do that."
Lynn took a seat on the couch to catch her breath; they spent the whole afternoon going back and forth from the truck, and she wanted to relax and call it a day, but she also didn't want to come back tomorrow or spend the night just to move furniture; that and Lynn Loud Jr. was no quitter!
"Gasp!" It was the last thing Lynn heard, before Lucy pinned her to the couch.
"What the heck, Luce?" Lynn asked as she struggled to get out of her younger sister's grasp.
Lucy held her down and looked at the marks on Lynn's neck, "Who was the vampire that left those marks on your neck?"
Lynn blushed, "What marks?" she asked, feigning ignorance.
Lucy let go of her sister and took a photo before handing it to Lynn, "Don't lie. Who did that to you?"
"That's none of your business!" she said as she crossed her arms and looked away from her younger sister. Lynn got up, and stomped towards the door, "I'm going home."
"Lynn, you can tell me, you know that, right?"
Lynn turned around and looked up at her little sister, "Right now, there's nothing to say…I'll tell you when I'm good and ready."
Lucy felt the emotion behind her sister's words; it wasn't her usual boastful confidence that she was used to hearing from Lynn, it was timidity. She knew to tread carefully here; if she pushed Lynn too far, she would close off, and won't say a thing. She placed a hand on her older sister's shoulder, "C'mon…I'll help you push the refrigerator."
'And maybe help you with your makeup,' thought Lucy, after noticing the lackluster job Lynn did on her neck.
Francisco looks down at his phone as he tries to follow along with the video that is teaching him to tie his tie. The salesman and the video make it look easy, but Francisco can't get the hang of it; his brain has an idea of what to do, but his hands don't want to cooperate. It is frustrating and he's just about ready to give up and go for a more casual look.
The driver and Caroline would occasionally glance at him he frustratingly undid his tie again.
"Do you want me to help you?" offers Caroline.
"No, I've got it. Just let me rewind the video again."
Three times – that's how many times, he's rewound the video as they were chauffeured to the restaurant. He was proud and didn't want to admit defeat on such a simple task, but Caroline knew that he needs more practice.
"Francisco, we're almost there. Are you sure that you don't want me to tie it for you?"
He concedes and let her do it. He wishes that he didn't completely undo the tie when he arrived home from the store, but he wanted to practice and now he feels silly for having Caroline properly tie his tie for him.
She gets closer to him, "Were you working on your brother's truck before we arrived?"
Caroline was used to him smelling somewhat like a garage, but she assumed that after seeing himself stressed over looking nice for dinner, he would have made more of an effort to complete the whole package.
"I did, but I guess it didn't do me much good."
Truthfully, he was afraid of spraying cologne on his clothes and leaving a stain; although sweating through is going to make the return a much more difficult ordeal. I'll just rinse up when I get inside.
She sighs, "I know that you're nervous, but you'll be fine. My parents are going to like you and you'll eventually forget everything, I promise."
He smiles. Most the stress over the last few days was self-inflicted, but he couldn't help it; he never worked so hard to impress someone and he's never met anyone's parents in such a setting. His previous dates were girls from school, but he knew them, and their parents usually weren't wealthy; Caroline and her family on the other hand are different than all those other girls.
The driver stops in front of the front door, and the couple exit the car.
As the two walk into the restaurant, she turns to him, "You are going to be okay. I promise."
Francisco looks up at the ceiling and all the decorations in the restaurant; it was like nothing he's ever seen before. His usual outings to restaurants were casual so it felt as if his breath was taken away as he looks at the view, the pianist playing classical music, the warm but somewhat private ambiance; it made him feel out of place.
"Caroline," the couple hear from an older gentleman sitting a table with two other women.
The couple walk towards the man, and with each step Francisco can feel his throat tightening as he approaches the family.
Lynn took a deep breath, and looked at herself in the mirror; she wasn't used to seeing herself in a dress or with makeup on, unless it was a special family occasion, "It's not a family occasion, but it's still a special moment," Lynn said to psych herself up.
She was happy that Lucy was willing to help her learn how to apply makeup, but she felt robbed of her confidence when she presented herself in such a feminine way. Despite being alone in the apartment, she felt that as soon as she stepped outside, eyes would lock in on her and she would be talked about in ways that she wouldn't appreciate.
All Francisco told her was that they were going to a nice restaurant, which could mean anything depending on whose definition they took. "A nice restaurant…easy! Just don't burp or expect food I can eat with my hands, don't yell or make a scene, follow church rules and I should be good."
She heard a knock at the door, and her heart began to race. She is nervous. Even after knowing each other for so many years, the thought of him seeing her dolled up in makeup and nice clothes worried her.
She opened the door, and saw him, "Hey…you look nice," she complimented.
"You look nice too, beautiful really," he retuned before leaning down to give her a kiss.
Lynn isn't used to receiving attention on her appearance, but at least after hearing him say that she looked beautiful got took some of the pressure that she placed on herself off.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, let me just get my purse."
The two walked towards his truck, and Lynn noticed that the truck was much cleaner looking than he normally had it, even when they stepped in she noticed the fresh scent and the shiny interior.
"You really are trying to woo me, aren't you?" she teased.
"Is it working?"
"Maybe, so you never told me where we were going?"
"I thought that it would be more fun to surprise you," he said, slightly teasing her.
"Really? You don't want to tell me? I don't mind, ruin the surprise."
"No, I'd rather keep you in suspense."
Lynn began to list a variety of nearby restaurants that she would consider 'nice', but he kept shooting down each one. As Francisco pulled into the parking lot, Lynn's mouth opened in surprise, "Corbett's Lodge? Are you serious? I mean, not that I don't mind, but I don't want you to make such a big deal out of my birthday or something. Maybe we can go somewhere, you know," she hinted at him to finish her sentence.
Corbett's Lodge, from what Lynn heard, is a popular five star restaurant frequented by wealthy patrons in the Michigan area. He had to be kidding. It's definitely a nice restaurant, but never the sort of place that Lynn would picture herself even being at unless she suddenly became a millionaire.
"It's fine! Money isn't a problem. Don't think that I can't afford this place just because I work some lowbrow job or can talk to the dishwashers," he said loudly, surprising Lynn with his sudden outburst. "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from."
"Its fine…but what was that about?"
Francisco shook his head, "It's not important, right now," he said as he parked the truck.
'So far, so good,' thinks Francisco as he takes a bite of his steak.
For most of the night, Caroline's parents were mostly catching up with her and had only asked him if he was enjoying himself. He was happy that the attention wasn't on him, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before they would ask him some something and expect more than a short response.
"Francisco, I feel like I've taken up the conversation all night, I want to know a bit about you," Jacob says as he takes a sip of his whiskey. "Caroline mentioned that you're studying engineering."
"Right…Right…my brothers and I used to tinker around with our family car and fixing things when we were younger, so it seemed like a good fit."
"Engineering, huh?
Francisco nervously nods; not noticing Caroline's younger sister eyes rolling.
"That's rather impressive," Elizabeth compliments. "I've met a lot of smart young people who are put off by the demands of the coursework. Have classes been going well for you?"
"It has it's challenges, but everything has been going well for the time being."
Jacob speaks up, "So was your father an engineer too?"
"Dad," Caroline says in a quiet, but reprimanding tone.
"I'm sorry, it slipped out," he responds.
Francisco shakes his head, "It's fine. I mean, some time has passed," he takes a deep breath. "No, my dad wasn't an engineer. He worked in the plants in the city, but he was definitely no engineer."
He takes another bite of his steak, and tries to ignore heaviness in the air. He doesn't want to talk about his family, at least not at the moment. After hearing about her picture-perfect family, he knows that all he would do is bring them down if continues to talk about his own.
"So," Francisco starts as he turns towards Elizabeth, "Caroline mentioned you volunteer with a charity. What's that like?"
The family begins to talk again; ignoring the slight tension that arose from Jacob mentioning Francisco's dad.
Away from everyone's view, Caroline takes Francisco's hand and gives him a soft smile. When no one noticed, she silently whispered, 'I'm sorry'.
'It's fine,' he returns.
He knows that it was reflex, and he knows that Caroline probably told her parents to not mention his dad, but he isn't going to hold it against anybody for a tiny verbal slip.
Francisco takes another bite of his steak, when some sauce drips onto his tie. He takes a deep breath, "I guess someone was really craving that bite," he jokes.
Jacob and Elizabeth laugh, and Francisco excuses himself to the washroom to clean out the stain before it sets.
"I'm going to go make sure he's okay," Caroline says as she excuses herself. She catches up to Francisco before he enters the men's room. "I am so sorry about that. I told them not to bring up your dad and he still did it."
"Its fine, it happens. I mean, I'm sure that they've probably asked that before and it's a reflex at this point. Besides, I knew that it would probably come, I'm not upset, okay."
Lynn opened the menu, and was shocked by the prices, 'Holy crap…I get the caviar being expensive, but the salads too!? Be real guys, vegetables shouldn't cost so damn much.' She looked up from the menu and stared at Francisco. She hoped that he would realize that this was too much and just say that they should go somewhere else.
"What the heck is good at a place like this?" Lynn asked herself quietly.
"This place is mostly known for their steaks and wild game meats, I thought you would like it," he responded after hearing her.
He was right, she would like a place that specialized in proteins from the safe and simple chicken to the more gamey caribou and even those disgusting fish eggs; at least it gave her options. She focused her eyes on the menu again. Lynn couldn't bring herself to order anything off of the menu, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all, a five star restaurant isn't exactly somewhere that she gets to eat at often.
'I guess, I could order chicken, but I can get chicken anywhere. And what the heck do these guys do that justifies forty dollars on a meal? Bathe a living chicken in wine? Massage it all its life? Did they capture a time-traveling chicken and breed it? And what about the sides? Fifteen dollar mac and cheese!? I don't care if you add lobster, that's just highway robbery!'
The waiter walked up to the two, "Good evening. I'll be your waiter this evening. May I interest you both in a bottle of wine from our private collection? We have a fine selection of red and wines, as well as some champagne and sparkling wine."
Francisco shook his head, "I'll just take a water, flat."
The waiter turned to Lynn, "Same."
"Water…" the waiter scoffed as he turned around, "Big spenders tonight I see." He said to the two as he walked away.
Neither one said anything while he was within earshot, but their eyes told the other that what they were thinking about the man that just took their orders.
"Well he's a freaking ray of sunshine," Lynn remarked as she rolled her eyes.
Francisco smirked, and held back a laugh. "Tell me about it. He could have at least waited until we couldn't hear him."
"I know. At least we're courteous," Lynn set down her menu, "Alright, I have no idea what to get here."
"Well just the description, I'm sure that–"
"You know dang well what I mean," she interrupted.
He sighed and sternly reminded her, "I told you that money isn't an issue. I can pay for it."
Lynn raised an eyebrow, "Really? You have no issues with me ordering anything off of this menu?"
He shook his head.
"Even if I order one of everything and only take one bite and have everything thrown away?"
"Just be realistic," he said as he looked down on his menu.
She silently sighed as she looked at the menu again. No matter what he said, she couldn't bring herself to let him spend a ridiculous amount of money on her. He has a daughter and bills and plenty of more important things to spend his money on than some date.
'This is what I get for trying too hard on his birthday.'
When the water returned with their water, the couple gave him their orders
She asked, "No appetizer?"
"When have I ever ordered one?"
"Fair enough."
The tables around them had couples talking as they sat quietly and listened to the pianist play a soft song for the patrons. Neither one was sure of what to say, despite dining at the restaurant once before, Francisco still doesn't feel comfortable, and he can only imagine that Lynn was probably not faring any better as she tapped her fingers on the table.
Lynn spoke up, "You are definitely making a good first date impression," she commented.
"Thanks. I was hoping that you would like it."
"Can I ask you something, why did you pick this place?"
"I thought that you deserved to go somewhere extraordinary after our rough start, but also to make up for not being there for your birthday and for being a bit immature and avoiding you for this time."
She felt guilty. She knew that she was also avoiding him and made things worse as well, but he was going through a lot of trouble to make it up to her and she was going to appreciate it and make it up to him one day.
"Thank you."
As the night draws to a close and dessert is served, Francisco looks at his watch and notices the late hour, "I should get going. I told my family that I would be home before it got too late out. Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich, it was a pleasure to meet you, and I hope that we can do this again sometime."
Jacob gets up and extends his hand out, "It was nice meeting you this evening, Francisco."
"N-Nice to meet you too," he replies, as he shakes the older man's hand.
Jacob notices the tag sticking out by Francisco's wrist, but keeps up his smile as his daughter and her date leave the restaurant.
Francisco takes a deep breath, "It's nice to be able to breathe again."
She giggles, "Should I be worried?"
"No," he shakes his head, "I just felt like I didn't belong in there. Not that it was anybody's fault," he assures her, "I just think that this regular guy needed some time before he's completely used to a more luxurious place."
She places her hand on his cheek and smiles, "I know it's hard, but my parents liked you. Before you know it, you won't feel as nervous being with me and my family."
He returns the smile, "I hope so."
Francisco's ride pulls up in front of the couple, and he gives her a kiss, "Just so you know, I had a great night."
"I'm glad. I'll see you at your place for Christmas Eve?"
"Of course," he says before getting in the car.
"So what did you think about birthday dinner?" he asked as they walked up to her front door.
"I think that you went to too much trouble. I mean seriously, a five star restaurant!? When have you known me to ever be impressed by all the fancy-schmancy rich people stuff?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe I wanted to treat my date right by making a great impression. Besides you can make it up to me on my birthday. I want to try the elk next time, maybe caribou."
Lynn snorted, "For your birthday, I could probably buy you a boat and sail around the state for less money."
He snickered, "Well a boat would be nice too, maybe a fishing boat or a pontoon to dock at my lakeside cabin up north."
"Wow! A cabin? Are you telling me that we could have actually hunted out food and cooked it over an open fire instead of settling for sitting down in a stuffy restaurant? I mean how much fresher can you get?"
"You didn't like it?"
She looked away from him, "That's not what I meant. I just felt out of place there. Do you understand?"
He nodded, "I get it. Maybe next time we'll go somewhere more reasonable. What do you say?"
"Yeah, I'd like that," she said as she pulled him down for a kiss.
"Wh-What are you doing!?" he asked as he lightly pushed her away her lips on his neck.
She snickered before opening the door, "I'm paying you back. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt." He looked away from her as she giggled, "Oh c'mon, I didn't make a big fuss to you for last week, so don't complain. Anyway, do you want to come in?"
"F-For a nightcap or the…"
"I don't know. Did you bring your lucky half dollar this time?"
He stood there stunned at her sudden gesture. His hand instinctively rested on the spot where Lynn kissed him, and he felt a little flustered.
When he didn't respond, Lynn took the hint, "It's okay, besides I don't think that we want a repeat of last week. Good night," she told him before walking into her apartment. "By the way, I had a great time."
As the door closed, he said out loud to himself, "Repeat? I was the one in a vice grip."
