What's for dinner

Sitting in the booth Derrick held the wine list discussing with Amanda next to him what they might want to try. When a waiter came by a lean older man in his fifties to drop off small glasses of water for everyone. “I will be right back for your drink orders, I just have to drop these off.” Bailey watched the man walk away with a tray that held a long island iced tea and a bourbon on the rocks. Candi didn’t notice where her friend looked, but noticed the little bit of sadness. “Hey, did you hear about the **** at your school?” Bailey wasn’t sure what local school he was supposed to have attended; there were multiple to choose from and was suddenly worried Mandy built more onto the story without telling him. “Oh no, that sounds terrible.” The worry was real, just not for the topic. Candi already started to giggle seeing her friend's concern. “Its like okay, he woke up!” The giggling continued as she leaned into Bailey. “He woke up!” It wasn’t funny, but the joke and the girls natural charisma worked. All the sudden stress and tension fell away as Bailey couldn’t help himself from laughing along with her. “Okay, okay. Why was the math book so sad?” The joke could barely be called that, but she still had to fight through her giggling to build up the next one. “Cause math is like hard.” Bailey didn’t mind math, he was good with numbers, he helped with his parents books when he was a manger for their store and did most of the finances for Mandy and him, but it sounded like something Bailey Ann would say and think. “No silly, well yes, but because it had too many problems.” Bailey made a face like he swallowed a lemon. “That is so bad!” But still he laughed along with her.

Derrick nudged the wonderful woman at his side, the girls were using inside voices but it wasn’t hard to overhear what they were saying and definitely not difficult to see the fits of laughter. He shared a look with Amanda, both happy to see the two so happy. Amanda looked at her feminized boyfriend, seeing no trace of the man he was a week ago, just a truly happy girl. Who was enjoying something so small as a silly joke with a friend. Bailey looked so happy and in return it made her feel that way too. When she was on the way back home she started to feel guilty about what she had done, even if it was with Bailey’s permission. By the time she was sticking her key in the door a knot had formed in her stomach, but seeing what to the world looked like an eighteen year old girl happily getting ready for a night out the knot loosened, and now forgotten. While Derrick looked at the two amazed at the bond he was seeing, the two acted like they knew one another for years. He worried about Bailey after what happened at the water park and thought she might have been putting on a brave face and trying to keep busy with everything she accomplished with her Aunt and Mandy for dinner, but seeing her right now, like this. He knew she didn’t have a care in the world, the only thing that mattered was right now. She might not be the type of person to be good at planning things for the future, but he didn’t know many who could just live fully in the moment and it kind of made a bit more sense why she had a hard time focusing if the girl was trying to make sure she remembered everything that was happening. To try and not forget what she had, like when he caught Candace looking at a photo of her mom and struggling to remember. Then there was Candace, he still remembered the day he first held her in his arms. He never thought about being a father and was terrified he would break her, and now she was almost all grown up. Looking more and more like her mother everyday. Derrick looked at them and took Amanda’s hand in his, forgetting about the menu he held in his other hand, trying to take a page out of Bailey’s book and just sit and enjoy the moment and try not to miss anything so he could remember it all.

It was Amanda’s turn to nudge Derrick as he completely missed the waiter coming back. “Oh, umm welcome back. We were just making our final selections.” His voice was steady, but Amanda wasn’t fooled by his words to buy a few more seconds. “A bottle of your Sauvignon Blanc please, and two glasses.” Derrick named the wine that Amanda’s long nailed index finger was pointing at. “Coke for me!” Bailey declared before Candi looked at him. “Giving up on our diet tonight?” Rolling his eyes Bailey looked back to the waiter. “Fine… water with lemon for me.” He said in a very defeated whine. “Sparkling grape juice for me please.” Candi said to the waiter as Bailey looked offended. “Hello, the diet?!” He said annoyed at the little hypocrite. “One glass will be fine, it has like less than twenty calories. How many would your coke have?” Bailey really had no idea, other than knowing it had a lot in it. “Ahh maybe like 50?” He guessed. Derrick actually knew the answer to that one, back in college he did a paper on different sodas and how bad they were for you. He still drank them, but it was an easy topic when the cans had a label on them to tell you everything you needed. “Just under a hundred a fifty Bailey. Have one if you want, but it is not diet friendly I’m afraid. But if you do have one I wont tell anyone, just a secret between the two of us and whoever listens in on others conversations.” He mock whispered the last part across the table. Even if Bailey was going to take him up on the choice, the water was gone, leaving the group to decide on their meals for the evening. Candi poked Bailey in the side in a way that tickled him. “You should know by now I’m a nosey sister, I listen to everything. No soda!” With the second and third poke, Bailey was back to not being able to contain his laughter, continuing for a few seconds after she stopped to get himself under control. “I got it, I got it. You win, you're the boss. Just no more of that please.” He said trying to catch his breath and the corset under the little dress wasn’t helping the task.

When the waiter returned with the drink everyone quieted down from this discussion about dinner and the different options. He started at the far end of the booth with Candi. “I saw some lamb earlier in the week and Bailey looked to just love it. So The lamb shoulder with eggplant please.” Bailey had looked through the menu, and right away was intimated by the lack of prices on the menu, it just said all food was priced at market rate at the top. Much of it sounded incredible, his eyes went to the porterhouse steak, but things like the lamb, or the duck sounded great. He doubted he could get away with the steak, and was glad he had other good options instead of things like the veal tongue. The lamb with eggplant sounded good and he was going to go with that, but when Candi mentioned the meal from earlier in the week Bailey thought about being fed by August and then he thought about swallowing what the man gave him in the theater, and his stomach turned at the thought it and wondered if he would ever be able to have it again without thinking of cum. “Ahh, come back to me please.” To Amanda the lamb sounded good, and she thought it was funny to see Bailey look over the menu in concentration, not able to make up her mind, but she knew exactly what she wanted the second she saw it on the menu. “The Artichoke foam and lightly smoked salmon sound too good to pass up.” Derrick passed his menu to the waiter. The porterhouse, medium rare with the garlic butter. For a side could have sub the baby carrots for some mashed…” Derrick stopped when he saw both the girls across the table glaring at him. “Daddy, try to be a little healthy.” He figured Bailey was eyeing him for the same reason and held up his hands in defeat. “The baby carrots are a fine pairing with the steak I’m sure, we will stick with them. Thank you.” Bailey somehow hated this man more than he ever had, more than when he called him princess, more than he did when seeing him kiss his woman. Bailey had seen and smelled someone else getting that steak and he really needed to have it. “Mr. Connors, that steak is awfully big and it sounds yummy. Do you think I could have some?” Derrick looked to Bailey then gave a second for a glance to the other two women at the table to see if they were going to shut the poor girl down. “Not sure if this is a trick to get me to eat less steak, but it is hard to say no to you princess.” He looked back to the waiter. “Could I have that steak cut in half, an extra helping of carrots and two..” Derrick looked around the table again. “A small house salad for each of us I think should keep them from being unhappy with my choices for most of the evening.” The taste of victory was almost as savory as the steak he was going to get to eat, and it was a double victory. He got what he wanted and deprived this man from having some of it, all the while having to pay for it. Bailey was busy self congratulating and didn’t notice Amanda openly kiss Derrick on his cheek and thanking him for what he did. “That was sweet of you to do. She might not look like it, but Bailey could eat that entire thing herself, you might have just won points with that little maneuver.” Sliding his arm around his waist Derrick pulled the blue eyed blonde closer to him to kiss her on the lips. Looking into her eyes as the kiss ended he smiled that big contagious smile. “I would share everything with you and yours Mandy.”

Amanda felt her cheeks getting warm again so she broke the embrace. “Good, because I am taking what is yours.” She said, pouring his still full wine glass into her half empty one, ignoring the mostly full bottle at the center of the table. She tried to calm her heart down a little bit, the closeness, the kiss and his words brought all sorts of thoughts from earlier today and of things that could be to her mind. They weren’t ones she could afford, she would enjoy tonight, but then he was going back to California and things would go back to how they were. As high as her heart soared from what just happened, as she completed that thought it felt like she had grounded herself with more disappointment than she would have expected.