The Moon is Made of Green Cheese

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

      We arrive at the restaurant and I can't help but side eye the food as we make our way to the table. The smell alone could make me drool. I was so ready to eat tonight. We were seated in the far corner of the room in a circular booth with a closable curtain.

Bruce let me take a seat first before scooting up next to me. He pulled the curtains back and put our menus up in such a way they would have blocked everything else from view if the curtain was open. Turning to me he smiles and hands me an empty glass. "Sorry, I enjoy my privacy."

"Besides feeling like teens who snuck into a restaurant they can't afford, I don't mind." Bruce rolls his eyes; unrolling his napkin and placing it in his lap.

"I can afford the restaurant, it doesn't mean I want to pay." The comment is under his breath and I can't tell if it was actually meant for me to hear of not. I can't help laughing anyway.

"So, what are we going to eat?" I peer at the menu, searching through foods. "God everything sounds heavenly."

"Most of the food here is quite spicy, be careful what you pick." He says absent mindedly writing something down on a piece of paper he withdrew from his pocket.

I glance at him and smirk. "Now I'm going to pick the spiciest thing they have. Also I'm going to take full advantage of having as much butter chicken as I can." Bruce stops to look at me with renewed interest.

"Do you know a lot about traditional Indian food?"

I smile, snatching away the paper in his hand. "Yes." I read the paper. "Isn't Ladakh incredibly expensive?" I hand it back.

"It is, but at least it won't be wasted on someone who doesn't know much about it and its origin." Bruce pockets the paper and turns to face me. He grabs the napkin in front of me and places it on my lap and then holds out utensils. My stomach flutters and I accept them with a large smile. The night was going to be promising.

The waiter comes and we both order, and Bruce hands him the piece of paper he'd written on. The waiter only smiles and nods and heads off. I turn to Bruce and ask him about his job, what he's interested in, the like. I wanted to get to know him better, besides my side mission of protecting him I still wanted to get to know the man in front of me.

And talk he did, he told me all about his work and the Gotham he was striving to achieve. He told me about Alfred, the man who was like a second father to him, how in the recent weeks Alfred had been pushing him, to go out of his way to make closer friends. And then he asked me about my life, my family, more specifically if I had started talking to them again like he had suggested. From there it went downhill rather quickly.

"My family is fine."

"Nothing more notable about them then that?" He laughed. It felt wrong to tell the man in front of me, the man who had lost all but one part of his family, that I was ignoring mine. I'd left them, even if it was from a dark place, I had still left them.

"No, not really." He stopped smiling and gave me a concerned look.

"Is everything all right?" He put his hand over mine on the table but I shirked off his touch. His face fell and he quickly covered up the pain that flashed across his face. I couldn't just tell him who my family was. They'd hurt people, I'd hurt people it wasn't as simple as we were evil, but it was a lifestyle and it was easy to ignore that guilty feeling when you were surrounded by family.

"I'm fine. Look, I think it's time I head home, I'll pay you back my half of the meal next time I see you yeah?" I slid out of the booth and started to stand but he caught my hand.

"Heather, talking about your family isn't waving it in my face that I don't have one. I did ask. I just want to get to know you, I asked you on a date because I'm interested in you. Not anyone else, so if you don't want to talk about your family, that's fine. There's a world full of topics, we can always pick a different one." He gives me a small smile. It wasn't that typical Bruce Wayne smile that had every woman swooning. It was one that was hopeful, weary, and a little hurt. I turned towards him and gave him a smile of my own. I'd be lying to myself if I said I wasn't interested in him too.

"Well, what do you say we pay and go get some ice cream?"

He let go of the breath he must have been holding and nodded. "I'd like nothing better."