Love At First Text ✔️

Him

Sebastian offered his hand to Eden's as to help her out of the car. She took it with a smile on her face, keeping her fingers threaded with his as they approached the door to the restaurant. Seb pushed the door open from up high so Eden could walk through first without needing to even pause.

Her hand stayed in his. He loved that.

The restaurant was lovely. Dim lighting cast beneath old wire lampshades glowed across the warm wood floors and oak bar that sat in the centre of the building. The place was busy, most tables full, the beautiful smell of spices and flavour floating in the air alongside the gentle chime of music that matched the ambiance of this place.

A young girl dressed in a black shirt, apron tied around her waist grinned as they set foot inside. Sebastian nodded with light acknowledgement, but first, he moved to take Eden's jacket from where it was draped her shoulders. It was warm in here, and she was wearing a beautiful shirt dress with sleeves dropped off of either shoulder, held to her frame mostly by the jewelled collar around the base of her throat. He wanted everyone to see how stunning she was. So, off with the jacket.

She made some sort of sigh at his behaviour – likely because she was more than capable of removing the thin jacket herself. Sebastian had no intention of that at all. He wanted to carry her coat. He wanted her to have both of her hands free so that he could hold it again.

"Do you have a reservation?" The girl asked.

"Under the name Osborne, I think. The rest of the table is already here." Sebastian watched as she tapped away on her iPad, but her face fell into a frown.

"I'm sorry, sir. We have nothing booked under Osbourne." She said, a grimace twisting her lips. "Is there another name it could potentially be booked under?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Try Hendrix?"

A pause again, and then she smiled. "Oh, yes. Charlotte Hendrix? If you'd both like to follow me!" She chimed, picking up two menus and leading the pair across the restaurant.

Eden took his hand again and pulled on it slightly for attention. He looked at her frown. "They're not already married, are they?" She asked with a touch of panic. Knowing Eden, most probably because if they were, she'd feel guilty for not having gotten them a gift in congratulations.

"God, no. She decided tonight would be a good opportunity to try out her maybe-new name." Eden laughed, as did Sebastian. "You know Char well now. The girl was slipping designer Bridal magazines into Elijah's dissertation folders. You really reckon she's forget about her dream wedding to run off and elope?"

"Well, when you say it like that." Eden conceded, just as their table came into view. Everyone was already here, minus Noah, who was at work, and apparently not officially invited on this quad-date night, for he, Zoya and Nat were not actually dating. Sebastian decided not to entangle himself with the semantics of that, because the last time he had heard such words, it had been him speaking about Eden, and he didn't feel like he was in any position to talk about how they were blind.

Alena and Collins sat opposite the two girls, with Charlotte and Elijah beside them. Opposite the engaged couple, two empty seats for Sebastian and Eden.

The waitress gestured to their table, laying out the menus in their assigned seats. At the intrusion, Charlotte's eyes lifted from her own menu and split a grin. She all but leaped from her seat, doing a half-sort of jog to round the table with her arms wide open, taking Eden into a tight hug. As much as he loved to see that his best friend and girlfriend were clearly getting along fine, he couldn't help but be slightly sour that he was no longer the first person that Char gave her attention to. Clearly, Char was much more fond of his better half.