I'd managed to get there late - which I always hated. My mum was always late and so I'd made a point of being early my whole life. Cobie's birthday party was in a little restaurant in the city, and traffic was abnormally shit. I'd come straight from a meeting and ended up running the last few blocks. I flustered in, and spotted their table at the back "here she is!" Taran announced as I apologised and gave the birthday girl her gift and a kiss on the cheek before grabbing the empty space at the end of the bench.
I sat down as shook off my jacket and held out my hand to the guy next to me. "Hi, I'm Marnie" I smiled as I sat down.
"Ryan, hey" He shook my hand and then shuffled over so I could get my coat under the seats. I bent down and as I put my things away I realised how cute he actually was, and as I was bent rather close he smelt incredible. I took a deep breath and shuffled with the menu. "You good?" He asked as I huffed as I saw the waiter taking orders at the far end of the table.
"Yeah, fine. I fucking hate being late! And then having to choose under pressure" I looked over at the impending server.
"There's no pressure, I can stall!" Ryan said quietly my way with a cheeky smile. The waiter got to our end of the table and Ryan started asking about what was in a few of the dishes and what the guy would recommend. He ordered, after a good faff, and I had plenty of time to figure out what I wanted.
"Thanks for that" I filled my wine glass with the communal wine on the table and offered to top his up.
"No worries. Cheers!" We clinched glasses and got chatting. Being at the end of the table, I'm sure he just felt sorry for me as he was not really paying the guy next to him much attention. There were group conversations, Cobie in the middle of the table ensured we all talked, but at each lull we eneded up back in our little bubble at the end of the table.
"Marn' come with me" Cobie dragged my hands and I headed to the restrooms with her.
"Sooo?" She asked as the door closed.
"So, what?"
"You and Ryan seem to be getting on well" she headed into the stall.
"Yeah he's cool."
"Cool? He's fucking perfect! Did he tell you he plays the guitar and piano? He's beyond talented"
"How do you guys know each other?" I asked as she flushed and headed to the sink.
"He did my last movie, like wrote, directed and did the music for "
"And why are you selling him to me?" I leant over and shared her lipstick from her handbag.
"Cos He's single and ready to mingle!" She Bumped her hips to mine. "And you need to get laid! He's beyond hot and not just superficially so. So if you can get him in your pants, he might be worth keeping around for a bit!" She winked and slapped my ass giggling.
"So you're trying to set me up?"
"Not really. I had no idea you two would sit next to each other. I'm just letting you know that my hot friend is single and that, because I know you both, I recon you'll have really cute babies!"
I headed back to the table and she gave me a wink and a nudge as I set off to my seat.
"What's that all about?" Ryan asked as I sat down and unfolded my napkin ready for the dinner which had arrived.
"You don't want to know! I think she's rather drunk already. This good looks yummy" I smiled "thank you for the extra thinking time, I feel like I put it to good use"
We continued to easily fall into chatter as we ate, we found out about each other's lives a little more. "So we filmed it like forever ago, but it had a re-realise so it was all go again. I was doing that and the blacklist was finishing and then this latest thing landed and I kinda shot that whilst doing press for the movie"
"So a nice chilled few years then" I teased.
"Ha! Yeah it's definitely been busy. But I'm a bit more settled now I think. Settled in Brooklyn, holidays with my folks or my sister. How about you? You keeping busy?" He picked up his fork again and waited for me to fill him in.
"Yeah as much as I'm up for. The marvel thing has finally ended, I mean it was an amazing ten years but my knees fucking hurt now and I'm happy to not do the massive press tours for a little while, settle somewhere"
"Are you living in New York?"
"Umm just kinda rentals for the moment until I figure out where I fancy. My family are in London for the moment so I might head back there. I've got a few plans either side of the Atlantic so I'm not too sure" I picked at my food, I'd been worrying about somewhere to settle down for a while and talk of it brought my stress a little higher than I would have liked.
"Well you're here now, let's drink to being in New York" he topped my glass up
"For now" I winked
"For now then" we took a big slug of wine and talked more of upcoming film plans on my part.
Dinner flew, Cobie was rather drunk and after getting after the meal I realised I was pretty tipsy too. Once I returned from the bathroom everyone was stood and Ryan had my jacket. "Everyone's heading out out!" He smiled "you coming?" He had a glint in his eye I couldn't resist.
"Of course"
"Whooooo let's go dancing!" Cobie cheered as she headed out the door and we followed.
