Isabelle had barely lifted the glass to her lips when Frank started backtracking, tripping over himself about what he’d ordered. She set it down without even taking a sip, her gaze fixing on him instead. Even if she hadn’t known him so well, the anxiety was impossible to miss; it was rolling off him in waves. “I haven’t even had a chance to taste it yet and you’re already writing its obituary,” she teased lightly, reaching across the table to place her palms over his. Her thumbs brushed slow, grounding strokes against his skin, softening the words with touch.
“Not that I'd ever turn down trying your drink,” she murmured, amused but still threaded with concern. “But this is good. You’re good here, okay? Have I ever given you a reason to think I don’t enjoy your company? Or that if the drink was terrible, I’d hold it against you?”
She let the question linger, then finally lifted the glass for a deliberate sip. Setting it back down, her lips curved into a smile. “It’s actually good,” she admitted, leaning a little closer. “And even if it wasn’t, I’d drink the whole thing just to see how much more you’d fuss. You’re kind of adorable.” A soft laugh escaped her as she squeezed his hand. “If anything, a few bad drinks here and there just make for a good story in the morning. We’re going to have a good time, that’s a guarantee. You don’t need to try so hard. What you do need to try is relaxing.”
He felt an air of embarrassment as Isabelle was quick to comfort and assure him. While he appreciated her validating his feelings without feeding into his anxieties, he hated that he was even in such a state that she felt the need to mediate between him and his own inner thoughts. "Sorry– how humiliating that I am just crumbling in front of you," he shook his head at himself, the feeling of her thumbs across the backs of his hands grounding him into the moment again.
Frank allowed himself to take a slow breath, settling back into his seat as she took a sip and complimented the beverage. "I can relax. I should relax," he acknowledged upon her suggestion, reaching for his own drink and trying to simplify everything down to just enjoying the coolness of it going down his throat. "Actually good though? When you say it like that you make it seem like there was a moment you doubted it there," he found himself picking up on to tease, trying to tuck himself into the comfort of sitting in the bar with Isabelle and dismiss his own doubts for the evening. "Adorable? Oh man, I am really embarrassing myself tonight, aren't I?" he shook his head with a laugh. "Maybe we should drink enough for me to forget my own shame in this moment," he offered up jokingly.
