Conversation Over Lunch

Viv looks at her watch, and gets a concerned look on her face, before going back to Chef Nguyen mode.

“The kitchen’s missing its timings if the desserts aren’t here yet. I’ll be right back.” Viv tells all of you before making her way out the function room.

“She’s something else isn’t she?” Paige asks with a chuckle after Viv has left.

“That’s Viv in a nutshell.” Stella replies.

“I guess I get what you guys mean now, Mr. Craig; when you said Ms. Viv’s different when she’s being flirty.” Maddy observes.

“Wait, Viv can stop being flirty?” Stella jokes.

“She wasn’t at all like that last night.” Maddy points out. “I wonder why she pretends to be flirtier when her normal self is much better.” Maddy observes.

“I think you have that backwards, Mads. Her normal self is her flirty self.” Stella points out.

“Nah~. I don’t think so. Her flirtiness felt exactly like what I was doing earlier. It was more pretend flirting than real flirting, if that makes any sense. That’s why I was comfortable not backing down. I knew we were basically just playing gay chicken.” Paige shares.

“What’s ‘gay chicken’?” Maddy asks innocently.

“Uh~ depends. It takes many forms, but the whole point is straight people doing quote-unquote gay things until someone chickens out.” Paige explains.

“I-I don’t get it.” Maddy admits shyly.

“Okay. I’ll demonstrate.” Cassie tells Maddy, trying to be helpful. “I’m going to kiss you, Maddy.” Cassie tells her.

‘I like where this is going.’ Your thoughts in Viv’s voice says in your head.

“Oh-uh… Okay?” Maddy replies unsure of what’s happening.

Cassie proceeds to place her hand on Maddy’s cheek, and slowly inches her lips closer to Maddy’s. Cassie’s mouth is open, and her eyes are staring at how close her lips are getting to Maddy’s. Maddy’s lips that have been unflinching at the start, begin to part as they’re being hit by Cassie’s hot breath. Maddy’s eyes are flickering everywhere. It goes from Cassie’s eyes, to Cassie’s lips, back to Cassie’s eyes, and then looking towards you in a matter of seconds. Maddy’s face is beginning to blush noticeably red again, before Cassie finally pulls away and lets go of Maddy’s cheek.

“I’m chicken.” Cassie says with a smile, resulting in Maddy’s eyes widening as if being freed from a trance.

‘BOOOOOO!!’ Your thoughts in Viv’s voice say in reaction.

“That’s basically gay chicken. First one to flinch loses.” Cassie explains to Maddy. Maddy bites her lip and nods her head in understanding, still obviously flustered at what just happened.

“You see that? The waitress would’ve popped up before Cassie would’ve even flinched. Lizzie’s getting a one-star review on Yelp.” Stella jokes.

“Just a few minutes ago you were paranoid of her appearing out of nowhere.” You joke back.

“Yeah~. I miss ‘the waitress’ already.” Stella says with forlorn. You rub Stella’s back to console her; first as a joke, but it seems to actually be something she needs from how she’s reacting. It could also be ‘Magic Touch’, you’re not sure anymore.

“It’s cool you guys are still the sweet father-daughter tandem that I remembered back in high school.” Paige says upon seeing you rubbing Stella’s back to console her.

“They’ve always been sweet together.” Cassie says to affirm.

“I only got to see it my senior year before I graduated, but I’m not surprised that’s true. You were always at our practices after school.” Paige shares. “At first I thought you were just doing it to carpool since you were subbing at the school, but even after that quarter you kept doing it. You even went to away games with her! It was really sweet and supportive.” Paige recounts.

“I wish I could’ve been there to see it.” Cassie shares.

“You’re here now, Cass. That’s all that matters.” Stella assures Cassie.

“We would’ve loved to have you on our team, Cassie. It’s too bad you moved. You were a pretty good middle blocker from what I saw from your drills earlier.” Paige replies to Cassie, and Cassie replies with a sincere “Thanks.” to Paige.

“What about you Paige? How has your volleyball career been since high school?” You ask her.

“Non-existent.” Paige answers with a laugh. “Unfortunately, I’m not like your girlfriends who are star volleyball talents.” Paige adds.

“You’re just being humble. We watched the tapes of games from your sophomore year. You were a pretty good libero.” Stella compliments Paige. “Before…” Stella adds, then motions to her own chest once more, and you connect the dots in your head why she said her body’s been a detriment to her athletic endeavors.

“Before these developed?” Paige asks, motioning towards her chest again. “Yeah. I know. It’s pretty fucking hard to dig with these.” Paige half-jokes in frustration.

“Not to mention your ass—” Stella adds before being cut off by Cassie.

“Stella!” Cassie interrupts her, and Stella immediately apologizes to Paige who just laughs it off.

“I apologize for the lewdness of my daughter.” You apologize to Paige.

“It’s fine, Mr. Craig. Stella’s been a firecracker since I knew her. Glad to see things haven’t changed too much.” Paige tells you.

“Why were you practicing with Stella and Cassie if you’re no longer playing volleyball?” Maddy asks. “Oh, sorry if that came off as rude. I was just—” Maddy added immediately.

“You guys can relax around me, okay?” Paige says with a chuckle, noticing that there were two unnecessary apologies addressed to her in a row. “I wasn’t practicing, really. I work at the Sports Complex part-time while I continue to look for a marketing job full-time.” Paige explains. “I’ve been really hoping to get a position at Hoffman Enterprises but they haven’t called me for an interview yet.” Paige adds.

“Good luck on the job search, Paige. I remember it was hard to get something full-time when I was a fresh grad too. Just trust the process. You’ll find one eventually.” You encourage her.

“In the meantime, you can continue doing drills with us.” Stella says in excitement.

“I’ll be at the Sports Complex.” Paige replies with a smile.

“You could join us at our workouts too. If it’s not inconvenient for you.” Cassie suggests.

“Oh yeah! You should come to our gym with us! Brooke’s going to love you! Especially your booty!” Stella invites Paige excitedly.

“~And we’re back to the booty talk.” Cassie says in half-fake exasperation, making Paige laugh.

“I’d love to go. It’s not like I’m busy.” Paige says with a self-deprecating laugh. Cassie tells Paige that you all plan to go tomorrow and Paige answers, “I’ll be there.”, to the delight of Cassie and Stella. Maddy’s smiling, but you’re not sure if it’s genuine; as it feels like she’s just being polite. A pause occurs in the conversation for a moment, and probably not wanting it to prolong any further, Paige breaks the momentary silence.

“What about you, Mr. Craig? What have you been up to? Do you still travel to watch Stella’s games?” Paige asks you.

“Unfortunately, no. I haven’t watched a volleyball game that wasn’t animated since Stella graduated high school.” You answer her.

“Animated? Oh! You mean Haikyuu!!? I love watching that too. I just finished reading the manga.” Paige shares.

“What’s Haikyuu!!?” Maddy asks, and Paige explains that it’s a Japanese volleyball anime that adapted a weekly manga series. “Oh! I’d love to read that some time.” Maddy tells her.

“The English translations are all online. It’s pretty good even when you’re not a volleyball fan.” Paige tells her, and Maddy has an excited look on her face similar to the look she had when Viv shared her book recommendations with her.

Speaking of Viv…

The doors to the function room open once more and Viv enters with Lizzie the Waitress right behind her carrying a tray of desserts.

“Sorry for the delay everyone.” Chef Nguyen says upon entering the room.

“Why do you have a stick up your ass again— Oh! Hey, Becca!” Stella was about to ask Viv, before she saw Becca entering the room.

“Hello again, Stella. Everyone. We hope the delay for your desserts wasn’t too long.” Becca addresses your group in a very professional manner.

“Didn’t even feel like it was delayed, Becks.” Stella replies playfully, making Viv suppress a smile at the nickname. Chef Nguyen immediately went into describing the different desserts that they’re serving, most of which you didn’t even order, before Becca could react to the new nickname.

As Lizzie the waitress makes her way to leave the room, you notice she doesn’t leave entirely. Instead, she’s keeping the door open for someone.

“I wanted to drop by once more to say my goodbyes.” Becca tells everyone.

“It was nice meeting you, Becca.” Maddy starts, getting a smile out of Becca. You and the girls say your goodbyes to her as well which she receives with a warm smile.

“Thank you for upgrading us to this room, Ms. Hoffman. It was incredibly generous of you.” Paige tells her. Unlike with the four of you, she doesn’t even acknowledge Paige.

“I’ll leave you once more to the care of our head chef, Chef Nguyen. I hope you all enjoyed your meals here at Pho Hoa.” Becca tells your group. “On that note, I apologize if it’s rude for taking you away from your meal, but may I borrow you for a moment, Mr. Craig?” Becca asks you seriously.

“Oh, of course.” You answer her before standing up and leaving the room with Becca.

As you exit the private function room and Lizzie closes the door behind you, Becca turns around towards you but addresses Lizzie first.

“Thank you.” Becca says politely, before immediately saying, “Leave us.” with authority. Lizzie immediately scurries away from the two of you. Becca goes back to looking at you sternly.

“Please be honest with me, Jay.” Becca goes back to her polite tone, but her look remains stern. You immediately nod in response to assure her.

“What slander has that Paige girl been spreading about me?” Becca asks in a not so polite tone.