Written in the (Evening) Stars

The Dinner

I was fairly certain that I had never been in such a fancy restaurant in my life. I had been to many fancy restaurants in my lifetime, but nothing like this. The floors were marble, the walls draped in dark-red velvet, and floor-to-ceiling windows that gave a surprisingly picturesque view into the city. It helped that the restaurant we were in just so happened to be in the nicer part of the city on the top floor of a 5-star hotel. A part of me wanted to take my shoes off so that I could dig my toes into the extremely plush carpet beneath my feet, but that wouldn't have been appropriate in the current setting. It was already bad enough that I was severely underdressed, but perhaps that would give me the perfect excuse to get away with doing exactly such a thing.

My musings were disturbed by the boring of Blaine's eyes into my skull. Even though I was looking at everything except for him, he couldn't seem to stop staring. With a sigh, I finally met his gaze, taking in his curious expression as he studied me.

"You've been into a place like this before," he said. I had expected him to ask it as a question, but instead, he responded with a statement.

"Yes," I answered. I took another look around, eyes falling on one of the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. "I have, but not as fancy as this particular restaurant. It's just a little over my price range."

"Well, lucky for you then this dinner is a company expense," Blaine snorted. "You wanted a meeting, so you're getting it. Don't get used to it."

I was about to make a snarky comment in response, whatever game we were about to play being interrupted by an almost nervous-looking waiter with black hair.

"Ah, hello, Mr. Sterling," the waiter said, his voice looking far more solid than the rest of him. He had an accent that I couldn't quite place - Italian? Greek? It was hard to tell, especially when we were in such a contemporary restaurant as it is. "Welcome back."

Blaine just nodded in response, not bothering to move his eyes from me. "I'll take the usual," Blaine said. "You know what I like and how I like it."

"Of course, sir," the waiter replied with a nod. "And, for the lovely lady?"

Blaine seemed to only stare harder at me as I tried to look through the menu. It seemed as though Blaine was testing me with how hard he was staring. If I ordered the wrong thing, then he would probably judge me hard for it. If I ordered the right thing, then perhaps things would move a lot smoother. I had finally settled on something to order when Blaine suddenly pulled the menu out of my hand.

"She'll have the same," Blaine said, ignoring my disgruntled expression. "We'll trust the staff to pick the correct wine. I think a red would suffice."

"Very well," the waiter said, taking the menus from Blaine's hand and heading on his way. Only moments later, another waiter came by with a bottle of red wine while another followed close behind and placed two wine glasses on the table. The blonde-haired man presented the wine bottle to Blaine, a dark green towel held underneath as he held the neck of the bottle.

"Leave it," Blaine said, waving the man off. "Just open it and we'll take the whole thing." The blonde-haired man didn't look remotely surprised as he carefully uncorked the bottle. He gave a small nod with the slightest of bows before walking away.

"Château Lafite Rothschild, 2006," Blaine said with an approving nod as he read the label. He lifted a glass, poured the wine into it carefully, swirled it to inspect the drink for any cork remnants, and took a sip with an approving nod. "Not bad," he added as he poured a second glass for me. Blaine handed me the glass, a slight smirk on his face. "Well, since it will take them some time to prepare our dinner, how about we get to know each other?"