Lorna and Marcos learn about the date and the restaurant, and John and Clarice have to deal with the fallout.
Enjoy!
"Lorna, the restaurant's probably not even open at this hour," John says, warily watching Lorna pace up and down the length of their living room.
"I don't care, I'm calling them right now. I'd have done it last night if you'd told me!"
"You were in bed when I got back here."
Lorna stops pacing to looks at him. "You did get in late," she says. "Where did you go after...No, you know what, you'll tell me later. I'm calling them right now."
She resumes her pacing, taking her phone out of her pocket and scrolling through her contacts. John looks at Marcos, who gives him a helpless shrug.
"Hello? Yes, I'd like to speak to your manager, please," Lorna says when someone picks up. "I don't care that it's early, just give me your manager right now!"
John buries his head into his face as he makes out the fumble of the young woman on the phone, trying to explain that her boss is not in yet. He decides that Lorna's angry ramble at the poor woman is too embarrassing to listen to, and stands up from the breakfast table.
"I'm going to walk Zingo," he tells Marcos.
His friend gives him a desperate 'are you going to leave me here?' look. Lorna is too focused on her shouting to pay attention, so John gives him a wave of the head. "Come on."
"Thanks," Marcos murmurs when they're both lacing their shoes. "When she gets like this−"
"I know she thinks she's doing it for me," John says. "And I love her for it, but she's going slightly overboard with this."
Marcos nods. "There's no stopping her, though. Not now."
"Zingo!" John calls. "Come here, girl."
The three of them walk out of the apartment, leaving Lorna to her business. She sounds like she managed to get the restaurant's owner on the phone, so this might well take a while.
"So, what happened after you got thrown out?" Marcos asks once they're in the park. It's Saturday and the weather is warm, so there are too many people around for John to let Zingo off her leash. They walk slowly down the path instead, keeping her close and away from the other dogs.
"We went to the center," John says. He summarizes his evening with Clarice briefly, leaving out her panic attack as it seems too private to share.
"You got her pizza?" is Marcos's reaction. "After getting kicked out of a nice restaurant?"
"I don't think she'd agree with your definition of nice," John remarks.
"You know what I mean. But pizza, John? Really?"
"What? She likes pizza."
"Not for a first date!"
"So what other option did I have? Let us starve? Or try another restaurant and risk being thrown out again?"
Marcos sighs. "I guess you're right about that. But still, pizza is not first date material. Wait until Lorna learns about it."
"It is for us, now," John shrugs. "Though I won't tell Lorna anytime soon. I'll at least wait until she calms down about the restaurant."
"Aren't you angry about it?"
"Of course I am. But making it into a big thing is just going to embarrass Clarice further. She...it was especially hard on her."
Marcos nods. "I get that. So, are you going to do this again?"
"Get kicked out of a restaurant?" John smirks.
Marcos rolls his eyes. "Is that how you're going to play it? I meant date!"
John sobers up. "I don't know. I think we both want to, but we can't risk this happening again."
"So you're going to do what, never date again?"
"No. Just think things through more carefully."
"I had no idea that restaurant was like that," Marcos says. "We've been there quite a few times with Lorna, never had a problem."
"It could have just been a one-time thing, I suppose. But you haven't been there recently, have you?"
"The only thing we've had to celebrate were your progress, which you didn't let us do, and the baby. We didn't want to keep you out of that."
John sighs. "You don't have to be with me all the time, you know. I'm doing fine."
"It's not about that, John. You're our best friend, you're the one who introduced us, you'll always be part of the family."
"But you two deserve some date nights for just the two of you."
Marcos shrugs. "I guess that just means you'll have to take Clarice somewhere so I can make a candlelight dinner for Lorna."
"She would hate that," John says.
"I know. I've tried before. In my defense, it was back at the beginning of our relationship and I didn't know her well back then."
"Should we get back and see if she's thoroughly embarrassed the restaurant's owner?"
"Let's go," Marcos nods.
They get back to the apartment just in time to hear Lorna hang up the phone and curse out loud. John and Marcos share a look, amused, before they kick off their shoes and enter the living room, releasing Zingo from her leash.
"You should sue them," Lorna tells John sulkily.
"I'm not putting Clarice through that," John answers, dropping onto the couch and bending down to remove his leg braces. "And there's very little chance that we would actually win in court."
"I know," Lorna sighs. "Still, they deserve worse than a single bad rating."
"You know what? I'll let you take this to social media if you want, as long as you don't mention Clarice by name," John says. "You're right, they deserve some kind of comeback. You think the new owner is anti-mutant as well, not just the waiter?"
"Well, he certainly didn't seem worried when I told him I'd do my best so no mutant ever steps foot in his restaurant again, so I'd say he doesn't love us."
"Then you're welcome to do your worst if you keep Clarice out of it," John says.
"Thank you!" Lorna claps her hands, excited. John smirks at her, amused at her enthusiasm. Lorna is never quite as cheerful as when she's destroying something, even if it's just someone's reputation.
"So, what did you do at the center with Clarice, anyway?" she asks when she's calmed down.
"I don't think that's any of your business," John answers, throwing a dark look at Marcos who is struggling not to laugh.
"I'm not asking about your sex life, I just want to know if the date ended well after all."
John smiles. "Yeah. Yeah, it did. It was nice."
"Clarice is a nice person," Marcos says with a smirk.
John pretends not to notice his teasing tone. "She really is," he says.
Given the rumor mill that is the mutant community on a good day, John is fairly sure most of his friends know he and Clarice are dating by Tuesday, and what a disaster the restaurant was. Lorna's social media post about it is certainly eloquent, to Clarice's horror.
She spends most of Tuesday morning sulking and glaring at both John and Lorna, and it takes John most of her lunch break to convince her that no one beyond their friends will recognize her from Lorna's description in the post.
"But they're your friends, not mine!" Clarice protests.
John curses himself for not preparing her beyond getting her text permission for the story to appear. Lorna's crude rhetoric can be a bit much when you're not used to it.
"You're already part of this community, Clarice," John says. "You have been since the day you showed up here. And we're only talking about a small group here, not all the mutants in the city. Isn't Shatter your friend? Haven't you been chatting with Pedro almost every morning?"
"Yeah, but−"
"You're one of us, and there's nothing you can do about it short of moving to the other side of the country. We support each other, especially against bigots."
"But I didn't want everyone to know," Clarice says in a small voice. "I don't know most of you more than in passing, and this is embarrassing."
"I'm sorry," John sighs. "I didn't mean to make it bad for you, but this restaurant deserves to be called out. I swear that everyone here have been through things like this before and don't think any less of you for it."
"Even Sonya?" Clarice asks, looking away. Sonya came by in the morning and was her usual self, kissing John hello on the cheek and joking with Lorna. John didn't notice her talking to Clarice at all, but maybe this is where this comes from.
"Did she say something?"
"She didn't say anything. But I'm sure you never got thrown out of a restaurant when you were with her," Clarice says sulkily.
"So this is about her being my ex?" John raises an eyebrow. He carefully keeps a small smile on his face, to show Clarice he's not actually annoyed. If this is some kind of jealousy on her part, John knows it's more about her own insecurities than about him.
"Yes. No. I know I'm being ridiculous. I just...I hate this."
"I know," John says, putting his hand on hers. "I'm really sorry we blindsided you with this."
"You did ask my permission, I suppose."
"Yeah, but I should have warned you that Lorna can be...enthusiastic."
"That's one way of putting it," Clarice snorts.
Impulsively, John pulls her closer and kisses her. They haven't kissed in public yet, but they're in the backroom of the café, with the door only half-open. John tries to pull out gently when he hears Lorna coming closer, but Clarice deepens the kiss instead.
"Wow," Lorna whistles, walking in. "Do you guys need a moment? Or better yet, get a room!"
Clarice pulls away from John brutally, her face beetroot red.
"Like you and Marcos never kiss in here," John retorts.
"Not when people are around!"
"Right. So I didn't walk in on you two a dozen times in the last month."
"John, you live with us. And we've had a pregnancy to celebrate."
"You've known for nearly two months!"
"We're going to have a baby," Lorna smirks. "We'll celebrate that every day until it's here. And then some."
"Fine," John relents with a smile. "I can hear it more and more, you know."
"I'm jealous," Lorna says. "I won't feel it moving for another month at least, but you get to hear my baby's heartbeat?"
"I wish I could share," John says.
Clarice looks between them. "You can hear the baby?" she asks.
"Yeah. It's heart has been beating loud enough for a few weeks now."
"That's nice," Clarice smiles.
"Did you like my Twitter thread, by the way?" Lorna asks Clarice, because she has a way to jump head first into the bad stuff that will always amaze John. He doubts she's missed the glares Clarice has been giving her all morning, and this is her way of clearing the air.
Clarice throws her a dark look. "It was supposed to be a short post, not a detailed call-out," she groans.
"They deserve it," Lorna says. "And then some. I hope they lose a lot of customers."
John doesn't formulate his agreement, not wanting Clarice to think he doesn't support her.
"But I didn't want to make a big thing about it," Clarice says, wincing at the weakness of her own argument. However much Clarice is entitled to her feelings, Lorna has the logical high ground and she knows it.
Lorna, unfortunately, tends to forget to take other people's emotions into account during an argument if she thinks she's right, so John decides not to let it devolve into one.
"It's out there now," he says. "But Lorna, Clarice isn't used to your...way of doing things, so maybe give her more warning next time?"
"You said she was okay with this!"
"I was okay with saying they're a bunch of bigots, not with telling the entire story to the world!"
"Your name's not even on it!" Lorna heats up. John sighs and rubs at his face. He's only managed to make it worse by intervening, of course.
"But now everyone knows!" Clarice exclaims, making a gesture to encompass the main room of the café.
Lorna blinks. "Is that what this is about?"
Clarice sits back, sighing. She looks away instead of answering.
"Nobody cares," Lorna says quietly. "We all know what it's like to be discriminated against, Clarice."
John nods at her echoing his earlier words, hoping that maybe Clarice will trust them more coming from Lorna.
"I'm not pretending that me, or John, or Marcos have it as bad as you do, because we don't. But nobody here is going to judge you for being targeted by freaking bigots, okay? We've all been there."
"Yeah," Clarice sighs. "I'm sorry. I'm not...denying that, just−"
"I should have given you a fair warning," Lorna offers. "Sometimes I get too deep into the activism side of things and I forget some people don't want to be a part of that."
"Thank you," Clarice nods. "I'm...I shouldn't have freaked out."
"I'm sure you have your reasons. It's okay, don't worry."
Before they can say any more, Marcos sticks his head through the door.
"Are you guys going to leave me alone out there for much longer?" he asks. "I'm willing to give you time to talk, but−"
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Clarice exclaims, looking at the time. Her lunch break finished ten minutes ago. "I'll be right there."
"Me too," Lorna says, following Marcos back outside.
Clarice stands up and looks at John.
"I need to go back to work too," he says. "Those books aren't gonna do themselves. But, Clarice?"
"Yeah?"
"I want to−" John hesitates. "The other night was a disaster, but...when you're ready, if you want, I'd like to try again. Dating, I mean, not the restaurant."
"Oh, John, it wasn't a disaster," Clarice says. "I mean, the thing at the restaurant was, but the rest of the night...I liked it. Of course I want to do it again. Maybe just...we could choose a better place? Somewhere we won't get kicked out?"
"I was thinking along those lines, yes," John smiles, relieved. He hadn't realized how worried he's been that Clarice doesn't want to go forward with their relationship.
"I think we should take our time, but...yes, I want to keep dating you, John Proudstar," Clarice says, leaning down to kiss him.
"Good," John says when she pulls away to go back to work, biting his lower lip. "I'm glad."
I really enjoyed writing this chapter! The friendship between Clarice and Lorna is developing in a way that was not at all planned, and it's a nice surprise. Also I'm all here for Lorna pounding at the bigoted restaurant owner.
I hope you enjoyed it too, please don't forget to tell me what you think!