AN: Thank you for the continued reviews, they mean a lot to me and do actually inspire me to write more often.
For those that want to visualise it, Maestro's is believed to be the restaurant the HA kids frequented in The Great Ping Pong Scam.
6:30 in the morning. My alarm should NOT be going off at 6:30 on a SATURDAY morning! But here we are, Saturday morning, detention with Dickers – and a whole day alone with Jade – just the two of us. It could go very badly, or it could actually go quite well given how civil we were towards each other a few days ago. Parts of that conversation are just starting to prey on my mind a little, though I've able to push those thoughts aside for the time being, particularly after last night.
We were both there for 7 a.m. but I'm sure neither of looked particularly awake. After a draining night of karaoke I felt exhausted this morning, perhaps Jade and I need to take it easier next Friday night as we're both back here again next Saturday, but damn it I want to spend Friday nights with my awesome boyfriend and I won't let Dickers stop me. Talking to Jade on the way to the classroom we'd been ordered to, we agreed that if it came to it we'd crash on the comparatively comfortable couches in the library – or at least we would have been able to if Dickers wasn't LOCKING US IN THE CLASSROOM! With a promise that he'd "see you girls at 3 p.m." Ok, Tori, just let Jade fume for a while. Say nothing that could provoke her – that could get you hurt. She ranted for fully 25 minutes, with me interjecting the occasional "sure", "yeah" or "I agree", each of which seemed to earn me nothing but a glare and some more of Jade's ire, but eventually she cooled enough to breathe – or it could have been that she finally ran out of invectives. Either way, by 7:30 she was ready for a new subject.
"Do you want to rehearse the duet?" I asked her, "Or some of our other lines and shared scenes? A couple of our songs maybe?"
"Sure," she said, "We may as well get something out of today."
We both dug in our bags for our scripts and got to work, spending most of our time on the duet. By midday we had it down pretty well, we were looking for the best way of singing to complement each other's voices and to try to bring the best out of the song. We had most of our lines and timings down as well, along with our individual songs, and with opening night drawing nearer I was feeling fairly relaxed. I was confident that, if I had to, I could perform it tonight. We then spent the afternoon working on school stuff, trading mindless chatter, if not quite ENJOYING each other's company, at least she didn't give any impression that she wanted to kill me today. Finally Dickers returned and unlocked the door. He seemed disappointing that we were both still breathing. With a snarl he reminded us that he'd be seeing us next Saturday morning as well (thankfully that would be our last Saturday detention, though the following Saturday was opening night so we'd still be at school that morning!)
"So, how's things with Freddie?" she enquired as we were leaving. "You two looked pretty cosy last night."
"Things are great at the moment, I'm really happy" I smiled, a little surprised at her genuine-sounding interest. "He's an amazing guy, especially compared to some of the losers in my past, he's just fantastic!"
"Aw, the girl-next-door gets her boy-next-door" she joked.
"I guess so" I responded, but then a couple of things that had just started to bubble in my mind about our relationship came to the fore and I realised something… "Jade, I need some advice and I don't know who else to ask. I know we've just spent eight hours locked in a room together, but at the risk of you killing me, how do fancy coffee and some girl talk?"
I had texted Freddie as we left school, letting him know that I'd be a little late in meeting him. I texted him again from the coffee bar as Jade and I parted. It had been a productive chat, I'd been open with her, with what was on my mind and, to her credit, Jade had had some really good advice for me. It had certainly cleared up a couple of things for me and helped me to organise my thoughts. I drove to the UCLA campus to meet Freddie. After his windfall from last night he was treating us to dinner at Maestro's, a fancier date just for the two of us after last night's group event, so I'd picked out a nice, sparkling pale blue dress for the occasion. Freddie was already dressed to go in a smart shirt, tie and dress pants.
"Hi handsome," I said, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. He chuckled and gave a smile that may have held some nervousness or awkwardness, I wasn't quite sure. He told me he'd call the restaurant to make a reservation while I used his bathroom to change.
I changed, fixed my hair and make-up in the mirror and emerged from the bathroom, feeling a little self-conscious in my dress, until I saw the look on Freddie's face.
"Wow Tori, you look absolutely amazing" he told me, his eyes full of sincerity. Now I was the one wearing the awkward and nervous smile. I offered him my hand, he took it and we made our way to my car, then I drove us to Maestro's.
"Table for two, name of Benson" Freddie told the Maitre d', who led us to our table and handed us menus. A waitress arrived soon after and we ordered drinks. When our juices arrived we placed our orders (we decided to share a barbecued ribs starter, Freddie ordered steak and fries, I opted for a half roasted chicken and fries) and the waitress departed.
"So how was spending the day with Jade? Must've been ok if you two went for coffee afterwards as well" Freddie observed.
"It was better than I expected." I conceded. "We spent most of the day rehearsing really – I'm happy that I've got my lines and songs down now – and if I do say so myself, our duet should be AMAZING."
"In that case, I can't wait for opening night. Did you talk about much else during your long day together?"
I took a quick sip of my drink while I formulated my reply.
"We did schoolwork, a bit of girl talk…" I caught his sceptical look and grinned, "I know, not exactly Jade's style is it? But she's mellowed towards me… a little anyway." Freddie laughed at this. I took another sip of my drink and continued.
"It was good really. You know, just girl stuff. She was there, I was there. I'm not sure I'd say we 'bonded', but it was good."
Further talk was curtailed by the arrival of our starters. The food was as good as I remembered, though I reminded myself not to order any caviar. I smiled at the memory and relayed the story to Freddie as we waited for our entrees. He shook his head, Oh Robbie, and I explained how André and I had saved the day, with a little help and a borrowed dress. Now I look back, it's actually quite a funny story – though none of us were laughing at the time.
"How was your day at work?" I asked him.
"Fine" he said. "Things are getting busier, mostly people from the campus – as you predicted they've broken their stuff during frat parties, or just looking for the latest upgrades. We get a few people from town coming into the store as well, but it is mostly college kids at the moment. The manager said they may ask me to go to the store downtown for the occasional shift if things slack off, but we'll see how it goes for now."
Our meals were served at this point, we ordered another drink each and savoured the excellent food. Freddie stole a bite of mine before offering a bite of his own to 'appease' my pouting look. We traded a couple more bites as we finished our entrees.
"You got room for dessert?" Freddie asked.
"No," I groaned, "the desserts here are great but no."
"Ok" he said and attracted our waitress's attention to ask for the check. When it arrived he slid a few bills into the wallet and smiled at me saying "Thank you guys!" I grinned back. We stood up, he took my hand and we left the restaurant.
I was unusually quiet on the drive back to Freddie's dorm, so much so that I caught him shooting me slightly concerned glances out of the corner of my eye. He didn't enquire, though I had the excuse of the meal we'd enjoyed to fall back on if he had done. I didn't want to lie to him, but I felt that a small fib would be for the greater good in this situation. After what seemed an eternity, we pulled into a spot outside his building and left my car. We walked to the door and I wrapped him in my arms, planting a passionate kiss on his lips, slipping my tongue into his eager mouth, trying to say with the kiss what I wanted to say with my words. Eventually I had to surface for air and pulled myself slightly away from him, took my arms from around him and stepped backwards. I looked him in the eye and said simply,
"I love you Freddie Benson."
Then I turned and walked back to my car and drove away without giving him a chance to respond.