juststopped | for Krem

It isn't the first time she's ended up somewhere she didn't necessarily intend. In private, she's done her fair share of crying over Flemming - she misses her daughter like a part of her, even after so many years - but in public, she's decided to put a brave face on it. After he'd delivered her to her apartment, Krem had told her that he'd be happy to take her for dinner, once she felt more settled. Adaline's done a little bit to make the apartment her own. She's gone back to the place that Sam bought her and put together a capsule wardrobe that's a sad shadow of her guest room back in San Francisco. She is, in short, trying. And that has to count for something.

It's the middle of the afternoon when she texts Krem.

Dinner would be nice - Adaline.

They arrange to meet at a place that Adaline's walked past a few times. It's not a particularly showy place, but she does make an effort, putting on a dress with a full skirt that reminds her of something she might have bought new in the fifties. She does her hair and make-up. She considers heels for a long time and then decides to wear them anyway. Krem strikes her as someone who doesn't lack for confidence, quiet though it seems to be.

She's a little late when she steps into the restaurant, shrugging out of her coat to let the hostess check it for her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

krempuff

Krem laughed a little bit and hummed. His own laugh was a bit of an upheaval at the moment, so he avoided the detail of that at the moment, as well. But his routine hadn't changed, spectacularly.

"I imagine it's like it is in any other city? It's not so different, even, than how it was back home. Everyone has their routines that they get into, and they tend to go about their business." He sipped his wine. "I work two jobs. I do athletics training at a gym, and tailoring at a department store. It keeps me busy, keeps me out of trouble."

He tapped his foot, thinking a little. "I told you about the street fairs, there's a fir amount of parties and the like. People find ways to pass the time fairly regularly. There's no way to travel, so it's a matter of filling the day to day, I suppose. I think that's a bit easier for someone like me, who didn't travel for the first near twenty years of their life and never saw any of this technology until he got here."

From:

juststopped

"I will miss travelling," says Addie, draining her glass and thinking about it for a moment before holding her glass out to him for more with a little smile. "I suppose I'll have to make my own fun."

Which is, after all, what she's doing.

From:

krempuff

"It is a damn shame," Krem said softly, almost wistfully. "Even if I never got to go home, I'd like to see some of the places I've read about since I got here."

He pulled out the bottle of wine again and filled up her glass. As he was finishing and refilling his own glass, the waiter came back out again with their entrees, placing them in front of them. Krem indulged himself in glancing over the waiter briefly as he walked away from their table, before telling himself that he was being rude. Even if this wasn't anything more than friendly dinner, Adaline deserved his undivided attention.

He lifted his glasses in a little toast. "To making our own fun?"

From:

juststopped

"I've been some amazing places," she says, watching as he refills her glass. The waiter puts the plate of pasta in front of her and she catches her hair back so that she can lean down and inhale the aroma of it for a moment. Over the years, she's eaten some amazing food. Thankfully, her metabolism has never let her down.

She lifts her own glass to match his. One eyebrow quirks.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out between us," she says, her face perfectly straight.

From:

krempuff

Krem was proud, both for his relatively olive complexion even in these winter months and for his own growing control, that he didn't immediately flush at her soft tone and direct gaze. He tipped his glass against Adaline's so that they gave a light, musical clatter, before taking a little sip and turning his attention to his pork and potatoes.

Everything lulled, briefly, into a pleasant and companionable silence that was filled with the desire to enjoy the first bites of their meals. After a few minutes, he looked up at her. "Would you like to try a bite?"

From:

juststopped

"Absolutely," says Adaline, nodding enthusiastically. "It looks absolutely delicious."

From:

krempuff

Krem smiled and cut off a bit of the pork and some of the potato, spearing both onto his fork and holding it out for Adaline to take as he grabbed his wine and took a sip.

From:

juststopped

Adaline takes the fork and pops the food into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

"Pork is never something that I think to order but this? Is pretty delicious," she says. "Shall I return the favour?"

From:

krempuff

"It's very well made," Krem agreed, smiling as she passes the fork back to him, telling himself internally to stop watching her mouth so intently before it looks rude. "Tender, which can be a bit hard with pork, I've found?"

He hummed a little, looking at her pasta before he nodded. "If that's alright? It does smell very good. Was yours called anything special?"

From:

juststopped

"Vongole," she says, twirling a decent mouthful onto her fork and then leaning forward, holding her free hand under the fork to save the tablecloth from drops. "Clams. Wine. It's good."

Her Italian pronunciation, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

From:

krempuff

As opposed to Adaline taking the fork from him, Krem leaned over the table just a little, enough to wrap his lips around the tines of the fork and get the bite of pasta from her. It still got a little sauce on his chin, and he laughed at himself a little, pulling back as he smiled, his attempt at a flirtatious move mostly a failure, probably.

He chewed thoughtfully, covering his mouth with his napkin, before he nodded.

"It is good. I'll have to look up a recipe some time."

From:

juststopped

He's handsome and he smells good and Adaline does get just the tiniest bit flustered when he means in a little closer. She laughs when he gets sauce on him, shaking her head.

"You cook, too? My goodness."

From:

krempuff

Krem hummed and shrugged. "Mostly home recipes, but I'm a decent hand in the kitchen beside. My mother taught me. Said it would make me a good catch some day."

It had certainly kept the other Chargers well-fed when they were on the road, and none of his friends here in the city complained when he foisted food on them. But it was the furthest thing from his mind these days.

From:

juststopped

"I do like a man who can cook," says Adaline, smiling, taking another bite of her pasta. "There's something very comforting about it." She takes a sip of her wine. "Maybe your mother had a point."

From:

krempuff

Krem smiled, and it was a cryptic sort of look for a moment, he knew, because he knew that his mother had not meant anything about him being a husband and a man who could cook. It was simply the neat presentation he was in this city, and had been for years.

"Well, I'm sure she'd appreciate knowing she was right about that," he said, washing the bitterness out of his mouth with a bit more wine.

From:

juststopped

"My mother was with me the day I met my husband," says Adaline, wistfully, taking another sip of her wine. "She was old-fashioned too. It's one of the reasons that I know how to bake."

From:

krempuff

Krem didn't pry about the husband, as Adaline had not pried about any partners--past or present--in his own life, but he smiled a little at the idea of his mother meeting anyone he'd been intimate with. She'd probably have died of shock.

"What's your favorite thing to bake?" he asked Adaline, finding that somehow infinitely more interesting than any curiosity he might harbor about a husband who wasn't here anyways. "My mother taught me her family's recipe for lemon cake, that's been my favorite for years."

From:

juststopped

"Bread," says Adaline, without any hesitation at all. "Any kind of bread. The smell of it is just so glorious." She tilts her head, studying for him for a moment. "What exactly would a girl have to promise to do to get lemon cake baked especially for her?"

From:

krempuff

"A loaf of bread," Krem said, quite simply and without any particular hesitation. He smiled softly and the effusive confidence he'd had for just a moment eased back to something a bit more sheepish. "And we could make the meal to fit between the two together?"

From:

juststopped

One of Adaline's eyebrows quirks and she can't help the pleased smile that blossoms across her face.

"Is that you asking me out again?" she says. "Just so we're clear."

From:

krempuff

Krem smiled, still a little soft and sheepish, and he let himself have a sort of private laugh at his own expense. He sipped his wine, and nodded, minutely.

"If you'd be interested in having dinner together a second time then, yes. I'm asking if you'd like to have dinner again some time."

From:

juststopped

Adaline pretends to think about it for a second, taking a sip of her wine, brushing a tendril of blonde hair back from her face. She tilts her head, studying him for a moment, wondering if it's possible to make him blush.

"I think I'd like that," she says.

From:

krempuff

His smile grew wider, a bit more confident again, and he nodded. Internally, he told himself that it was only dinner; this was friendliness, politeness, and nothing more. She was lovely, and he could appreciate that. But he had to be better than he'd been over the past months, and that meant caution first before tumbling head first into anything silly. And dinner was going very nicely.

"Any thoughts on dessert yet?"

From:

juststopped

"Chocolate," says Adaline, without a hint of hesitation, draining the last of her wine, very aware that that's her second glass. "And more alcohol. I'm definitely not ready to go back to that apartment, yet."

It feels unbelievably lonely without a dog. How long as it been since she was without a dog?

From:

krempuff

Krem looked at the bottle they had, and laughed softly; they'd mostly finished it off, and he doubted it would have matched well with something chocolate, at any rate. He poured what remained of the bottle into Adaline's glass, since she'd just finished, and hummed as he polished off his second glass as well, happy to be only a moment behind her in their cups.

"Chocolate it is, then. I might have their sommelier recommend something to go along with whatever you pick, though, I'm honestly dreadful with wine pairing."