Before entering Carbonna's, Frankie and John shared a mutual laugh after she finished telling the story of the day Mac had lost his mind with his sugar binge.
"Oh, man! Running naked through the house after eating ONE COOKIE?" John exclaimed.
"Yeah! I didn't know whether to let him exhaust himself or call the nuthouse!" Frankie said as they entered the restaurant, not noticing that a Ford Ranger had pulled up next to John's Camry. Before entering, Mac, Chris and Bloo went over their game plan one more time.
"I swear, if this doesn't work..." Chris mumbled.
Bloo said, "Oh, trust me, Chad, it will."
"CHRIS! MY NAME IS CHRIS, GODDAMMIT!"
"Okay, okay! No need to lose your head!" As the trio exited the truck and stood on top of one another--Chris on the bottom, Mac in the middle, and Bloo up top--Mac said, "I really feel like she's going to kill us over this."
"No, she won't! And if she does, we can scatter the ashes on the front lawn," Bloo said.
Mac sarcastically replied, "Thanks for the encouragement, Bloo. Thanks a lot."
"Anytime, Mac."
With Orlando Bloo now assembled, Chris maneuvered them into the restaurant to get a bead on where Frankie was. He noticed her sitting near the same spot where Dylan had revealed his true colors when the maitre-d' approached them and said, "Do you have a reservation, sir?"
"Why, yes I do," Bloo said in his exaggerated Orlando voice. Mac gestured to where Frankie and John were sitting as Bloo continued--"I happen to be with that young lady over there."
"Her reservation was for only two, sir."
"Yes, yes, funny thing, that. She must have forgotten to include me."
"Very well. I shall inform her you have arrived."
Meanwhile, while all this occurred, Frankie and John were engaged in conversation.
"So what do you do at Foster's?" John asked.
"Well..." Frankie fidgeted nervously and fumbled with her glass of water.
"It's okay; I won't laugh. What do you do there?"
"I'm...basically the housekeeper. And believe me when I say that taking care of a place that big takes up a lot of my time."
"Oh, I believe it. Just looking at the place from outside convinced me."
"Some days it's a breeze, but most of the time, it's just a pain in the ass. Sometimes I think Herriman just makes up half of the stuff I need to do."
"Who's Herriman?"
"He's the head of the house. Basically, whatever he says goes. But on the plus side, I'm the granddaughter of the lady who started it up, so he can't really do anything drastic about me without her approval."
"Family connections...nice. And believe me when I tell you, I mean that in a good way."
Frankie chuckled and asked, "So, what do you do, John?"
"I'm a contractor. My company just nailed down the rights to build a new subdivision outside of town earlier today."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. It's actually the first big job my company's ever had; we usually build stand-alone houses for customers..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the maitre-d' approached Frankie and said, "Excuse me, madam, but your other guest has arrived."
"Other guest? It's just me and--" Frankie suddenly blanched white and mumbled, "Oh, no."
"What is it, Frankie?" John asked.
"Oh, NO!"
"What's wrong?"
"John, I'm so sorry, but..."
"FRANKIE!" Bloo shouted as he approached the table. "How silly of you to forget about me!"
"Who are you?" John skeptically asked.
"Why, my good man, I'm Frankie's first love, Orlando."
"Orlando Bloo? Yeah, I know who you are."
"You do, do you?"
"I do, do I. Frankie told me all about you on our way in here."
"John," Frankie hissed, "what are you doing?"
"It's okay. Really." He turned to Orlando and said, "Grab a seat. You must be hungry if you're here, right, Mac?"
"Yeah!" Mac answered. Upon hearing his voice, John got up and whipped off the trenchcoat to reveal the trio stacked on top of each other.
"I've got to admit, that's pretty clever, trying to spy on me like that. You don't trust me with her, do you?" All three were struck silent with embarrassment and were too afraid to answer.
"You don't have to worry. I'm not a monster. And hey, if you want to stay, that's fine with me."
Frankie insisted, "John, really, that's not--"
"Well, they put in the effort, and if they want to stay behind, I have no problem with that."
"Well," Mac said, "I appreciate the offer, but I've got to get home. It's a school night."
"And I need to get back to Foster's before Herriman loses it," Bloo said.
"And I've got to get back home to...uh...feed my fish!" Chris said as the three left the table in a hurry.
"Wow. That was odd. So, where were we?"
Frankie stared at John in total surprise. When he pulled off the trenchcoat, she had expected the worst. Dylan had lost it when he found them out, so why wouldn't he? But seeing him maintain his dignity and try to diffuse the awkwardness he'd created cemented her assumption that he was a decent, genuine guy. She leaned in to ask him a question but never got a chance to get it out, as Mac, Bloo and Chris bolted back into the dining room with worried, panicked looks on their faces.
"Uh...who owns a blue Camry?" Chris shakily asked.
John stood up and tersely asked, "What happened to my car?"
"You'd better come out and see for yourself," Bloo said. John bolted from his seat and ran out to the parking lot with Frankie close behind yelling, "John, wait up! John!" The five ran around the back of the building to where he had parked and saw an ugly, heart-stopping sight. John's car had been horribly vandalized.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" he screamed as he rushed towards the shattered remains of his Toyota. Whoever did this had done a number on it--all four tires had been slashed, the side view mirrors on both sides had been knocked off and were laying on the ground beside their respective doors, there were deep gouges in the paintwork and up and down the sides of the car, and all the windows had been smashed with some kind of blunt object.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" he repeated.
"John, please don't be mad at us! We didn't do this!" Chris pleaded.
"It's okay; I believe you," he answered. "I'm just fuckin' shocked, is all." He pulled out his cell phone and called a 24-hour towing service to pick it up as Frankie cautiously approached him and said, "John, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry, Frankie. It's not your fault; I really had a nice night despite this." She smiled and put her head on his forearm as he began to talk to the towing company. While staring at the ruin before him, Mac noticed a note tucked under one of the windshield wipers. He took it off and read it, only to instantly turn pale. Frankie noticed this and asked, "Mac, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Mac said nothing as he gave Frankie the note. She read it and instantly paled considerably. As Chris and Bloo got a look at it, John flipped his phone shut and said, "What's up with a note?" A decidedly white Chris handed the note to John--he opened it to be greeted by an ominous two-word message written in heavy black, jagged letters with the final word underlined for greater impact:
SHE'S MINE.