“Why the fuck are you wearing sunglasses indoors?” Ross asked as Izzy hoisted herself up onto the barstool, adjusting the baseball cap on her head and pushing her aviators further up her nose. They weren’t actually hers, but she’d discovered them in the lost and found at Chris and Carm’s and quickly claimed ownership.
“I’m in disguise,” she said, gesturing to her face as if that wasn’t already obvious.
She watched Ross raise an eyebrow.
“In a fucking Marvel movie? You look dumb,” he told her, before huffing out a laugh to soften his words.
Maybe she did look a little dumb, but she couldn’t strut into the restaurant in her usual bright dresses and cowboy boots. That wouldn’t be subtle and she needed to be subtle right now, else her cover be blown.
“Who are you hiding from anyway?” Ross asked, stuffing a dish towel into a crystal glass to clean it. As soon as Izzy leaned an elbow on the bar top, he tugged it out to playfully whip it at her and she grinned. She’d known Ross for years, having stumbled upon this little restaurant a while ago at one of Auggie’s recommendations. Well, he hadn’t exactly recommended it as such. In fact, he’d labelled it as Luc’s competition and Izzy, despite her proclamations about what a loyal friend she was, couldn’t help but investigate their menu. It was more than a little decent, but after two courses she’d found herself drifting from the main dining area and sitting at the bar and unloading her life story on Ross, who’d been younger then but just as sarcastic in a way that Izzy had appreciated immediately. He was a good egg, and never minded when she stopped by to order the cheapest drink on the menu and just shoot the shit with him to help his shift go by quicker.
For once though, Izzy wasn’t here to entertain Ross.
“My friend has a date. I came here to see how it’s going,” she stage-whispered, peering over the top of her sunglasses to see if she could spot Perry.
“Please tell me it’s not the sad looking guy on table 4 getting stood up,” Ross piped up.
Izzy whipped her head around to stare at him, aghast. At her questioning look, Ross nodded in the direction of the window and Izzy followed. As soon as her eyes landed on a dejected looking Prospero Parker, Izzy thought her heart might break.
There he sat, completely alone, no Chelsea in sight. The brunette in question had seemed perfectly lovely when Izzy had befriended her at the choux pastry tutorial she’d signed up for. She had quickly looked past the immediate red flag of Chelsea preferring baking to cooking in favour of finding out if she was single and then setting her up on a date with Perry. Perry, who was the most angelic being on earth. And who had, evidently, been stood up by Chelsea. Now, Izzy wasn’t in the business of calling women bitches - but she had less reservations about bakers. So, really, Chelsea was a bitch.
“Oh my god, there’s no way this is happening,” she said, covering her mouth.
“It’s happening,” came a familiar voice.
Izzy lifted her head to see Mika, the pretty looking waitress whose thighs Izzy had once found her head between at the restaurant’s Christmas party she’d somehow been invited to. No other regulars had been there but she supposed you did reap a few benefits when you were friends with the whole kitchen staff on Facebook after drunkenly adding them all one night.
“He got stood up?” Izzy asked, face creasing in worry.
Mika gave her a nod, shooting Perry a sympathetic look from afar.
“And now Justin is going to tell him to leave. This is the worst,” she said, before trailing after Justin. The new shift manager on a power trip. Izzy had yet to charm him and had only heard bad things about him from Ross and Mika.
Izzy’s heart thudded in her chest as she watched Justin make his way over to her friend. The minute she saw Perry’s cheeks flush deep crimson as he sheepishly grabbed his phone and stood up, she leaped from the barstool. Quickly, she tore her cap and sunglasses off, tossing them in Ross’ direction.
“Look after these for me!” she said, before expertly dodging around patrons and waiters as she made her way across the restaurant to Perry’s table.
“Sorry I’m late!” she cried, reaching Perry’s side and barely hesitating before she slipped a hand to the back of his neck, going up on her tiptoes to smack a kiss against his cheek. She rocked back on her heels, giving him a wide smile.
“You wouldn’t believe the fight that was on the subway. Totally delayed me and I had no signal to text you. It was crazy!” She turned to Justin, widening her eyes to accentuate how bad it had been. “Limbs were getting torn off. Blood everywhere. There was just a whole leg on the platform at one point with no body attached to it.”
A squawking sound came from Mika, who covered her mouth and quickly turned it into a cough. Izzy immediately fought to hide a grin of her own as she loudly dragged a chair out and winked at Perry, flapping her hand urgently at him to get him to sit back down.
“Anyway, I’m here now! And I’ll have the berry spritz please, Justin,” she said, a sick sense of satisfaction curling in her gut at the look on his face. She turned back to Perry. “What are you having, babe?”
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