Dinner Out
The building was quite open, but that's to be expected for an establishment such as this. The situation was known, but we still had not prepared for it.
Ash got scheduled for bus and detention duty today. She was going to be home late, yet we had planned poorly. A rare occurrence, but it had happened. And so we ended up there.
There was a sports bar a couple blocks from us that we made do. The food was alright, it felt kind of dingy inside, but it was inexpensive and we had been before. A couple times, actually. It seemed to be our "last minute, and I don't care" choice for food.
"I feel like we come here way too often," Ash said, looking around the place as we waited for a table to open up.
"Yeah... I know," I sigh as we get waived over by one of the waitstaff. "Would you rather go somewhere else?"
"Well, not necessarily."
We got shown our table and we ordered our drinks.
"I don't dislike this place, but there are probably other things to try around us, right?" Ash said.
"Probably, but here is easy. I'd be down to try out other stuff, but when its kind of late, and we just need something, I feel like here works."
"For sure," Ash said, smiling.
Our waitress returned with two tall beers and took our orders. The menus left our table without being opened.
"Detention go okay today?" I asked.
Ash sighed and slouched slightly. "I guess. Just one kid. And all because they had their phone 'out'."
"I always hated the idea of giving someone detention over a phone, or a game, or whatever."
"They weren't even using it either. It was just in their bag, sticking out ever so slightly and old, grumpy pants decided to give them a detention." Ash was fuming.
"That seems a bit excessive."
"I know, right! If it weren't for her I would have been home so much earlier."
I reached across the table and took Ash's hand in mine.
"It doesn't bother me you had to work a little later. I still got to see you today," I said. "And that's better than some of the days I was held at work until after you had already gone to bed."
"Yeah... I know." Ash relaxed a little and smiled at me. "Thanks, Jenna."
Soon our order arrived. For me, my usual burger and fries, and a plate of boneless wings was set in front of Ash. Another round of drinks was brought as well.
As we dove into our dinner we continued to chat idly through the din of the restaurant, watching various sports on the TVs strewn about the walls, and occasionally stealing nibbles at each other's plates. Various people came and left as we were enjoying our. We had a final round of drinks before we paid and lingered slightly longer.
As the entrance started to crowd with a later rush of diners we decided it time to walk back to our apartment.
"Ms. Emerson."
A smaller voice cut through the noise as we were at the door and stopped us in our tracks. Someone slightly smaller came pushing through the crowd toward us. As they approached, they stopped in front of Ash. I assumed it was one of her students based on their size.
"Hello, Sage." Ash addressed the kid before her. Seems like I was right. "Are you to eat as well?"
"I am," Sage responded. "My siblings like coming here so my parents bring us pretty often. Who's this?"
"This is Jenna. She's a friend of mine from college."
"Hi, Sage. Nice to meet you," I say offering a little wave.
"Nice to meet you to," they respond. "I'm sorry for getting detention today, Ms. Emerson."
"Oh, you're fine, Sage. Mrs. Foster is just grumpy and mean sometimes," Ash replied. "I just hope your parents weren't too upset about it."
"No. Not really. They thought the reason for it was pretty dumb though," Sage explained.
"You must have some pretty understanding parents," I say.
"They are," Sage said smiling.
"Sage! Table!" A deeper voice called over the crowd.
"Sounds like you should go," Ash said. "It was nice seeing you."
"Yeah. It was nice getting to meet you Ms. Jenna." Sage said, starting to making their way back through the crowd. "And I was glad you were running detention today Ms. Emerson."
Sage disappeared back into the restaurant and we stepped out into the evening air.
"That was nice," I said. I nudged Ash softly with my elbow.
"Mmhmm..." Ash hummed.
"Feeling a little better about detention duty today?"
"Yeah..."
Ash took my hand in hers and put her head on my shoulder. We quietly made our way back to our apartment.
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Author’s Note: Dunno why I kept with Ash and Jenna for this one... Don’t really expect me to keep doing that. Again, just a random idea I had and went from there. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it.
