The Great Mouse Detection

Chapter Four

"What will be your pleasure my dears?" asked the waiter as he served the dangerous dating duo

"Coffee. Leave the pot" a bored Danger Mouse replied.

"I'll just have a Rice Crispy cake and some soup for starters" Dawn requested.

As the waiter headed off to take their orders, Dawn franticly looked through her diary.

"Don't forget to remember" DM observed in a thinly disguised voice.

"Just a couple of reminders, there's a great little venue just by the harbour where they're holding singing auditions, I made a list of all the dates where they're known to be holding them, I'll be trying out for them, the gig is good for at least three months, a tidy sum of money in it too"

"You don't seem to that hard up for cash" DM observed.

"It's the opportunities that interest me" said Dawn.

Danger Mouse stretched his arms out as another yawn overtook him, he then leaned over and gave Dawn a telling look.

"Do I still interest you?" he said.

"Very" said Dawn, tickling his nose with her fingers, "And don't worry, I'm sleeping on the inside too, this place was so much more lively earlier"

"Yeah, blame the music" Danger Mouse said, spotting the two Magpie singers entertaining the audience.

"I swear one of them is singing like the last remnants of her private little world came unglued"

"Think it's always this sort of way?" asked Dawn.

"The world collapsing around our ears? Depends on how well this date goes" DM joked.

"I'll level with you, I'm here to work" Dawn revealed.

"Yes, but it's my dream to do business with you" Danger Mouse replied.

"So when are your friends coming?" she asked.

Danger Mouse looked at his watch, glimpsing Penfold and Squawk approaching their location on a video screen.

The coffee soon came for DM.

"I'm afraid there's only one main special on the menu today, largely in part due to unaccommodating kitchen problems" revealed the Waiter, "I'm sure you can understand"

"No, no, we're fine" Danger Mouse replied, and started sipping from the pot

"So...what else do you dream about?" Dawn asked

DM put down the coffee jar.

Now he was interested.

Penfold and Squawkencluck found a lot to talk about in the back of the taxi as it sat amongst many others that were currently victims of a traffic gridlock.

"All I'm saying is not a lot of restaurants have been up to my particular standards the last couple of years" Squawk insisted

"Such as?" a curious Penfold asked

"Well, when I was in America, Subway was excellent, until they disposed of that five buck footlong deal" she continued

"Burger King for me" Penfold added, eager to one up his date, "Once they changed the recipe on their nug..."

Penfold caught himself.

What an idiot he thought.

Of all the things to bring up to a chicken, you use nuggets