Two Seconds

Thirty-One & Thirty-Two

PART THIRTY ONE

“What do you want?” Aston asked me as we stood together at the bar of a small pub around the corner of the restaurant we were headed to.

“White wine?”

“Ok, coming right up,” he grinned, turning to the barman to put in our orders. A glass of the house white was placed on the counter followed by a pint of beer.

“I’m going to get a table,” I said as Aston grabbed out his wallet. I wandered through the pub for a minute with my glass until I found a small table in the back corner. 

“Happy Birthday!” Aston said once he’d arrived, his glass held out for me to clink mine against.

“Thanks again for taking me out,” I said, “I can’t believe my parents have just pissed off like they have.”

“Well its their fault,” Aston replied, sipping his beer, “If they can’t handle reality then they don’t deserve to be a part of your special day.”

“Still, I’m surprised I haven’t heard a thing from them. I was pretty sure my Dad would show up at mine today to have it out!”

“Maybe he hasn’t yet?” Aston asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Ha! Well he’ll miss me then, since I’m out tonight.”

“You know what I can’t believe?” Aston asked after a minute.

“What?”

“I can’t believe you’ve spent every single one of your birthdays with your parents, and you’re what, 23 today?”

“Yeah…” I sighed.

“I’m going to show you just what you are missing out on by having such lame birthdays!”

“I don’t doubt that,” I replied sardonically, “Just keep in mind, as much as you might like me to get wasted and dance on table tops, I do have training tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry…” 

“You say that a lot,” I replied, “But when it comes to things involving you, I do worry!”

“Cheeky,” laughed Aston.

We sat and bantered about in the pub for a bit longer, while we killed time before our dinner reservation. When it finally came round we walked round the corner to the sushi place where we were led to a table in the back of the restaurant, two menus set before us.

“I have an idea,” I said slowly as I looked over the menu.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“You said you didn’t like sushi,” I said with a smirk as I inspected the menu.

“So?”

“Well if I have to go with the flow tonight, so do you,” I said.

“You’re not making me eat sushi.”

“Fine,” I said pushing myself back from the table, “I’ll just go back to being rigid. You know I’d do fine just making some pasta at home by myself like I always do…”

“You win!” Aston said, defeated. I slid my chair back into the table with a triumphant smile on my face as I scanned the menu again. When the waiter came around I ordered for the pair of us, since Aston had absolutely no idea what the different types of rolls actually were.

“Just place them in the middle,” I told the waiter when the food arrived. I watched as he laid several different plates of sushi in front of us, my mouth watering just a bit.