Louis' Italian-American

“Helloooo? Earth to Chloe?”

The petite girl started slightly, and looked at Robin who was snapping at her.

“You with us Blondie?”

Chloe frowned slightly, but let the nickname slip. This time.

“Sorry, I was thinking about something else. You were saying?”

She was sitting at a table with Robin and Sarah in the hotel restaurant. The large breakfast spread had been replaced with a lunch buffet, mostly small cold-cut sandwiches and other finger foods. Despite the simplicity, the food itself was all of the highest quality. The three of them had finished lunch and were now discussing their explorations of the “city” street the hotel sat on. However, Chloe was finding it hard to focus on the conversation at hand. Her arousal had been inexplicably growing all day and it was beginning to get out of hand.

“We were asking,” Sarah explained patiently, “if you had your list of shops and stores for your side of the street?”

Sarah had given her and Robin each a notepad and pen from the hotel to write down each shop, store, and restaurant they ran across as they came down the street. At the time, Robin had made it quite clear how excessive she thought this was, but Chloe appreciated the thoroughness. Now, she was simply glad it kept her from having to talk more.

“Yeah, I've got my list right here.” As Chloe shifted to retrieve the list from her back pocket, the movement made her lower lips rub against one another. She had to bite her lip to stifle a small moan. She shifted in her seat again trying to get comfortable, but her panties were damp enough that they were clinging to her small feminine folds.

Fortunately, Sarah didn't seem to notice Chloe's discomfort as she eagerly took the notepad from her hand and began to look through it.

“Thank you,” Sarah said as she intently flipped though Chloe's list. “And thanks for actually adding some details about each shop. Some people just wrote down each store name.”

Robin rolled her eyes and gave Chloe a “Whaddya gonna do?” expression. Chloe gave her a half-hearted smile in return. The heat building between her legs was becoming impossible to ignore, and she found herself squirming in her seat.

“Well, that's three quarters of the street covered.” Sarah rose from her seat. “Want to knock out the last of it together?”

“I'm game,” Robin chimed in.

“I...I think I'm going to go rest up for a bit...” Chloe said. “I got a little overheated walking around earlier today...”

Robin gave her an odd look, but Sarah was busy gathering up the three notepads from the table.

“Probably a good idea,” Sarah agreed. “You look a little flushed.”

It was all Chloe could do to squeak out a quick “Bye” and leave the table hurriedly before her mortified blush reddened her face further. She rushed to the elevators, luckily without crossing paths with anyone else. As the elevator doors closed it was all she could do to keep herself from pushing her hand down her pants then and there.

She’d already tried masturbating in the shower this morning. All it had served was to further frustrate her and deny Robin use of the bathroom. She suspected this might be her Sampler transformation at work, but for the life of her she couldn't recall what had set it off. She was beginning to wonder if she had overheard something unaware and that was the trigger. Would that count? She wasn’t sure and the description was vague enough to leave her guessing.

The elevator doors finally opened and she bolted for her hotel room, hoping against hope that the only reason she couldn’t finish that morning was because Robin had interrupted her.

******

“So how’d you find this place?” Robert asked around a mouthful of chicken Parmesan.

“Sarah told me about it. Apparently she and some of the others went exploring today.”

Samantha had brought him to small, quaint Italian restaurant, the family type that littered nearly every city in the U.S.. Still, there was a particular air of familiarity around Louis'. The black and white hexagonal tile floor and white tablecloths were neat and clean and the restaurant's name was proudly displayed in neon lights in the windows. The food was hearty, filling, and generously proportioned. Robert was pretty sure he wasn't going to finish his dinner, but Samantha was eagerly working on her lasagna.

“Italian's kinda my comfort food. As soon as Sarah told me about this place I knew we had to check it out.” She explained between bites.

She was still wearing the same blue sleeveless blouse and knee length flowing black skirt she had on earlier when she had asked him out to dinner. Occasionally she reached up to push her long dark brown hair back behind her pointy ears. It was hard for Robert to keep his eyes off of them. Partly because it was just so strange, sitting there knowing that those were now Samantha's real, actual ears and not latex props. He didn't want to think too hard about the other reason he kept glancing at them. During the show opening Robert had said that those ears were his favorite transformation option for Samantha. He knew that ultimately it was the audience, not him, that had voted for them, but he still felt somewhat responsible. He wasn't exactly comfortable with the way that made him feel. Part horror and part...intoxicated, maybe? He pushed those thoughts aside for now. He didn't need to be soul-searching during dinner.

“Are you from L.A. originally?” Robert asked as he idly poked at half a chicken breast he wasn't intending on eating.

Samantha nodded as she swallowed some pasta.

“Well, Riverside actually.”

“Any family still there?”

“My parents and my abuela. She's lived with them ever since my grandfather died when I was six.”

“That must have been nice, having your grandmother that close.”

Samantha laughed.

“The food is great, but abuela has some strong opinions about how “young ladies” should conduct themselves.”

Robert wasn't sure what to expect when Samantha had asked him out on a date. That had honestly never happened to him, and he was especially dubious of it considering their (semi-)shared circumstances. How much fun could they have when the foundation of their acquaintance was so ****? However he was pleasantly surprised to discover himself enjoying the evening. It was partly the good food and bottle of cheap red wine they were sharing, but it was mostly Samantha herself. He was discovering they had similar tastes in movies, which was leading to some spirited discussion.

“Oh come on! Age of Ultron was good, but it wasn't better then The Avengers!” Samantha exclaimed a little too loudly. She was already halfway through her second glass of wine. Besides their waiter, they were the only two in the restaurant so Robert didn't see any reason to attempt to quiet her.

“Honestly, I don't like origin stories as much. It's more fun watching everyone with their powers kick butt.”

“It's not an origin story, it's a team-up story. There's a difference! They had to set the groundwork for the future movies!”

“I know, I know,” Robert held his hands up defensively. “I just don't like that style of story as much.”

It was a good-natured argument. It fondly reminded Robert of the discussions he used to have with his college buddies over various nerd minutia.

“Not to mention I feel like they really wasted Ultron.” Samantha was now enthusiastically making her point while brandishing a bread stick. “There was too much going on for him to really shine. It's a shame, he's one of my favorite villains from the comics.”

“I never really got into the comics.”

“You never got into the comics?!”

Robert couldn't help but smile at Samantha's mock(?) outrage. He loved watching people talk about what they were passionate about, and as the curvy screenwriter dove into the intricacies of Marvel comics vs. movies, he found he could almost forget that they had both been forcibly bound together at the whims of a reality-bending TV show. It was almost like a regular date.

He couldn't deny that Samantha was attractive. She had a cute face, and her large glasses just seemed to accentuate her warm brown eyes. The neckline of her blouse was high-enough that she wasn't showing any cleavage, but the curve of her generous bust visibly filled the garment out. Finding out that she was even nerdier then he was really sealed the deal. As long as the conversation didn't turn to...

“Speaking of disappointing adaptations, how about The Hobbit trilogy? I had such high hopes for those once they confirmed Peter Jackson was coming back...”

Robert gulped hard. He hoped Samantha couldn't hear him.

“I, uh, I never actually saw them.”

“You didn't miss much,” Samantha said as she poured herself her third glass of wine. “They're such a disappointing follow-up after Lord of the Rings. You have seen those, right?”

Robert **** a smile.

“Y-yeah! I've seen them!”

He knew what question was next and he was dreading it. It was always the same question. He braced himself.

“Which one is your favorite?”

“The Two Towers.” He answered quickly. Almost too quickly, but Samantha didn't seem to notice.

“Me too! So many people say Return of the King, but I think that's just because of the Battle of Minas Tirith and because it's the last one. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but 'Two Towers' is actually the better film. You see, what Jackson missed is...”

But Robert wasn't listening anymore. He was still smiling, and nodding his head, but his mind was twelve years in the past. He was back in front of that house, making a promise he'd never get to keep...

“Hey, did you see the newest trailer for The **** Awakens?” He threw the question out there desperately, like a life preserver. Anything to change the subject.

Samantha's mouth gaped awkwardly for a moment. He obviously had interrupted her mid-sentence. But instead of calling him out for it, she eagerly began to discuss why Disney was right to ignore the Star Wars Extended Universe. He felt guilty for a minute, but her enthusiasm soon sucked him back in, and he found himself mostly enjoying the date again.

Mostly.