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“Sure, let me get ready and I’ll be down in a minute.” Owen turned to walk back into his bedroom and started to shut the door. I got one last curious look from him before he closed it. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I told myself that anything was better than indifference or anger.
I just hoped I was right.
Chapter 10 Owen
Denny’s wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I wasn’t going to say no to a meal somewhere other than the house. Adrian and I had been managing pretty well on our — very — limited budget, but it didn’t leave much room for variation. We’d gotten creative a few times, for better or worse, but we’d both just grimaced and eaten what we’d ended up with anyway.
The idea of letting someone else cook and clean as well as having something different from our usual fare was more than a little appealing. As long as I didn’t have to go back to “would you like to make that a large for a dollar more?” for the evening, I was pretty much set.
It was odd, though. The restaurant was half-empty, and there was a sense of quiet that I wasn’t used to. People murmured to each other, but the seating was haphazardly spread across the place — to give everyone a bit of privacy, I supposed, since they had so much space.
So many empty seats didn’t bode well, to be honest, but food was food.
I picked up a menu, trying to pretend I didn’t notice the spot of syrup exactly where I’d put my fingers, and started to flip through it. I’d forgotten what it was like to go somewhere with options, and the sheer amount of choices was a little overwhelming at first.
“What are you gonna get?” I asked Adrian, my nose still in my own menu.
“Well, I ended up getting a little bit of a bonus from putting in some extra hours at work.” Adrian gave a half-hearted shrug. “If you can call getting handed a prepaid Visa that looks like it was left over from Christmas a bonus. I wasn’t going to complain, though. Fifty bucks isn’t bad.”
“Not at all,” I agreed. “Appreciate you taking me out to eat on it.” That… sounded wrong, like I was thanking him for treating me to a date.
Well, if I tried to fix it now, it would draw more attention to it. I kept my mouth shut.
Adrian started looking through the back of the menu. “I know it’s not like fine dining, but I was going to get a roast or some meatloaf. We should probably buy groceries with it or something more practical, but I thought this would be fun?” The sentence came out more like a question and he looked at me like he wasn’t sure what I would think.
“Doesn’t have to be fine dining to be fun,” I told him with a shrug. “I’m just glad I don’t have to eat my own cooking.” Sure, it would’ve been nice to go somewhere a little classier, but like he’d said, the cost of a dinner out could buy a lot of food if we were careful. We had to live sometime, though, and I think both of us needed to take a breath and do something normal.
Families went out to eat all the time, so this was a nice glimpse of what normal looked like.
Breakfast was pretty much out. Eggs and pancakes were cheap enough to cook that I’d had breakfast for dinner more times than I could count now. I flipped over to the dinner section, wanting something substantial but not even knowing where to start.
Adrian seemed to be having the same problem. His eyes were going over the menu again and again, but he kept going back to the section with the meatloaf. Finally, he looked up at me. “Is it stupid that I can’t decide?”
“Seeing as how I’ve been sitting here for ten minutes trying to choose? Nope,” I replied, flashing him a grin. I picked up the insert with their specials, arching a brow as I read out, “Smoky gouda prime rib and broccoli skillet. Since when does Denny’s do fancy?”
Adrian grinned. “Since when is anything in a skillet fancy?”
“There’s prime rib, duh,” I retorted, but I found myself smiling back at him. “Screw you,” I said lightly. “I’m trying it.”
Adrian’s smile widened. “I’m getting the steak.” The smile faltered, and he started looking a little less sure of himself. “Um, do you want to split it? Like you get half of mine, and I’ll get half of yours? So just in case yours sucks you’re not out dinner?”
I doubted a Denny’s steak was going to be anything more than meat-flavored rubber, but I didn’t point that out. “Yeah, sure,” I said. “As long as you’re not going to order your steak well done.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, just waiting for him to tell me he liked it the consistency of shoe leather.
Adrian just shook his head. “Medium? So it’s not too tough? I don’t think I’ve eaten a steak well done in years.”
It had been years since I’d gone out to eat with my brother, too, and it shouldn’t have surprised me that so many things had changed. I didn’t know Adrian, not really, and he wasn’t the easiest person to get to know. He was so serious, so earnest, but at the same time…
He was vulnerable, unable to hide his emotions worth a damn.
I couldn’t help but wonder if I was unreadable to him, if everything was as new as it was to me or if I was more predictable.
“Medium’s good,” I agreed. “That’s a pretty drastic change,” I said, smirking. “Next you’ll be telling me you like boys.”
And if he does?
That would make everything even more convoluted and complicated than it already was. I took a sip of my water, trying not to squirm.
