Not Our Decision

3. Dinner Date

He didn't bring his wife. Sherlock knew they were barely together so he didn't know why he bothered inviting her too. He stood outside Baker Street where he said he would meet Sherlock and banged on the door. The air was cold and he didn't want to wait for long so he got out his phone to distract himself and to stop him from making uncomfortable eye contact with people going passed.

Ten minutes passed and he was still waiting. He swore quietly and tried the door again. Mrs Hudson answered.

"Oh um hi, yeah, I was just looking for Sherlock?" It was a statement but he asked it as a question.

"Oh he's gone out dear, over an hour ago now." Mrs Hudson replied apologetically. Greg thanked her and apologised for disturbing her and walked off down the road.

He cursed Sherlock for a bit and then slowed, getting his phone out and bringing up Sherlock's number. He pressed the green button to call him and waited as the same ringing noise bleeped in his ear. Of course, it went to voicemail so Greg left a message asking him to ring him back and put his phone back into his pocket.

When he was about to get in his car, his phone started to buzz in his pocket. He got in and shut the door, taking out his phone as he put the key in the ignition and turned it. He wasn't going to drive, he was just putting the heating on.

"Sherlock! Where were you?" Greg asked before he could speak. "I was waiting for you!"

"Why?"

"You asked me to Sherlock, you said there was someone you wanted me to meet."

"Oh right that..." Sherlock tailed off and Greg huffed impatiently down the phone.

"Hm...we can reschedule." Sherlock gave him an adress and a time to meet tomorrow, a little cafe. Greg said bye and hung up, the annoyance fading a bit as he drove home.

***

Greg sat in the cafe waiting, his fingers tapping on the table. He only hoped however that Sherlock did show up - if he wasn't here in five minutes he would leave. However, in two minutes Sherlock sat in the seat opposite to him and a man he hadn't seen before sat next to him.

"Hello. Greg this is my friend James" Sherlock introduced him and looked at the menu. They both said hello to eachother and then Greg laughed.

"A friend Sherlock? Where did you find one of them?" Greg asked laughing, it might have sounded mean but he honestly didn't mean it. The James bloke laughed quickly, more off a huff than anything else and Sherlock smiled.

"Hm...yes." Sherlock replied. Greg looked at James. He was probably around the same age as Sherlock and had jet black hair.

Throughout the meal they talked easily. Not about much in particular but from the eyes of someone watching in it might seem as though they had been friends for a while, all three of them. Greg couldn't help but think how odd it was - Sherlock wasn't a very sociable person and didn't seem to really like people that much. The whole thing was weird, why was it just Greg here? Maybe James had already met John. Maybe Sherlock had replaced John. Unlikely but Sherlock is quite unpredictable. Greg tried to find more stuff about James but he was pretty closed. He and Sherlock seemed to be quite close though, good friends but other times they seemed as though they hadn't known eachother for a while. At least Sherlock seemed happy though which was unusual because Sherlock was normally happiest when figuring out how someone had got murdered or who had stolen something.

They all paid a third of the meal and left saying goodbye before Greg went one way and Sherlock and James another.