iii @seasrising
The restaurant was not somewhere that one would typically expect to see Aaron Griffiths. With his shaggy hair and rugged beard he did not exactly fit in with the well groomed and clean shaven patrons, though he had put on a button down shirt and pair of dress boots (for once not combat boots) for the occasion. But he knew the chef - she trained at his gym - and so he had been able to snag the much coveted chef’s table.
It was not something he would have done for just anyone, but she was not, and had never been, just anyone.
As it turned out Aphrodite had been in his orbit for some time, not that he’d realised it. Scarlet had been his fan and for reasons he still did not entirely understand, nothing had ever come of it. And then once he had known it had felt wrong somehow to pursue her too enthusiastically. So he had tried to keep her close, but not too close.
That had been before he’d known Hephaestus was prowling around and he’d be damned if he let the other man find her and seduce her before he’d had a proper chance.
When the maître d' showed her to the table Ares stood to pull out her chair. He might have been many things, but he could be a gentleman.
“You look lovely this evening.”