Tightrope

Chapter Four

Tori had been worried by Jade's sly smile, but the girl had directed her to a relatively safe – health-wise, at least - restaurant, which Tori had actually eaten at before and could reasonably assume would not cause her any harm. The problem was the price. The only other time Tori had eaten there, it had been with the man who had signed her record contract and a few other people, and she'd never seen the bill, but even though she hadn't seen the menu or the prices that time, she knew how expensive it had to be.

Taking her seat with Jade at a table in the back of the restaurant, Tori nervously opened up the menu for the first time and nearly swallowed her own tongue when she saw the prices on the appetizer page alone.

"Umm, the plate might actually cost less to eat than the food. Are you sure about this place?" Jade just set her own menu on the table without bothering to open it and smiled mischievously.

"Don't worry about the prices."

"Well it's kind of hard not to when a loaf of garlic bread costs fourteen dollars."

"Yeah it's a total rip-off, but I've slept with the owner a few times. I get a pretty good discount here."

"You what? H-"

"Speaking of the owner..." A smile appeared on her face as a shadow fell over Tori, who turned around only to see a very familiar face.

"What? Beck! You own this place? Since when?" His mouth formed a slight smile as he moved further into Tori's line of sight.

"My great uncle built the place in the '80s. He died a few months ago and left it to me." Beck ran his fingers through his hair and pulled at the bottom of the dark grey vest he was wearing over a blue dress shirt, before he changed the subject. "So what are you guys doing here?"

"Oh, umm..." Tori mumbled, trying to come up with a good story that wouldn't require telling the truth.

"Discussing a business deal. Tori paid my rent the last few months so we're figuring out how I'm going to repay her." Jade answered flawlessly. She gave Tori a slight nod, urging her to go along with it.

"Uhh, yeah."

"Lots of boring money talk, which we'll only be able to tolerate with the alcohol that you're going to bring us."

"Sure thing. I'm gonna have to charge you double though." He joked, as he flagged a waiter. "The usual for you?" He pointed a finger at Jade, who nodded just as a handsome blond water appeared at his side.

"And just surprise her." Beck nodded with a knowing look on his face, which Tori figured meant that Jade's word choice had some kind of meaning to the two of them that she didn't understand.

Beck whispered something to the waiter and then took a seat beside Tori, leaning back casually in his chair with no idea of how awkward he was making the one who hadn't dated him feel.

"Have you seen everyone else lately?" He asked, directing his question at Jade.

"Not since the last time I was here." She answered him without having to think about it.

"I had dinner with Andre last week." Tori added to the conversation she wasn't so sure she was a part of. Beck just nodded, causing Tori to realize just how long it had been since she'd spent any time with him. He launched a lively – on his end, at least - conversation with Jade about what she'd been doing since they'd last seen each other, which started to drag on and on. After a while, Tori gave up on trying to participate in the conversation, and just accepted her fate. The same blond waiter from before returned with a bottle of wine that Tori couldn't pronounce the name of, and two very expensive-looking plates filled with the most appetizing pasta Tori had ever seen in her life. She played with her food, pushing it around on her plate while she slowly ate it, savoring the taste while noticing that Jade hadn't even touched hers yet, due to Beck's excessive talking.