Cross the Line

Part Seven

After a much needed drink, Naomi took Conor to a small restaurant she knew, a little place with mismatched furniture and a cluttered beer garden filled with potted plants, candles and wrought iron chairs. Sitting opposite her Conor took in the secret world with wide eyes.

                “I love it here!” he announced. “It’s so cool!”

She nodded, “I found it a few years ago. You feel like you’re away from the rest of the World. And the food is good. But you have to know about it, you can’t just stumble across it really.”

They’d been shown to a table out near the patio, and the waiter had taken their bulky purchases and deposited them in the cloak room. Naomi relaxed into her seat and smiled at him.

                “This is the sort of place you had in mind when you said you like nice environments and nice food?” when she nodded he smiled, “I just hope that my company lives up to the rest!”

She smirked, deliberately not answering as she picked up the menu to read it. Laughing heartily at her provocative lack of response, he picked up his own menu and started to browse.

                “So what do you recommend?” he asked from behind his menu, she peeped over the top of hers, just her eyes showing, glittering with enthusiasm.  There was something so vulnerable, yet provocative about the gesture that he found his body leaping into a rather enthusiastic response. Wriggling in his seat he managed to ease the tension of his suddenly too tight jeans. He’d not sat at a table with a woman and such a violent erection since he was a teenager...it’d been a long time since he’d been with a woman, this was his body’s way of reminding him he thought, then smiled to himself at the lack of conviction the argument had even to him.

                “Everything is good, but the veal escalope or the fillet steak are out of this world!”

Her voice dragged her back to the present and his eyes found hers, still peeking around the hard covered menu. Grinning he replied, “Well I never turn down a steak, especially if it’s recommended!”

The food was perfect, and Conor had picked a bottle of oaky red that matched their steaks perfectly. After laying down his knife and fork, he sat back his hands linked over his stomach, in a gesture that already Naomi was finding comforting, familiar.

                “That was top dollar! I will definitely come here again!”

She smiled, “I told you!”

Nodding he sighed in appreciation, “So how did you find this place? I mean I’ve not found somewhere so great outside of London, or at least one of the big cities.”

She nodded, “It’s definitely a bonus for this town that’s for sure! I can’t honestly remember how I actually came across it, but I have some friends, and we try and come here once every month or so. This place tops our list of eat-out venues.”

                “So you’re obviously local to here Naomi but other than that, I don’t know anything about you!” He was still lounging back, his eyes watching her lazily, but yet attentively.

She drank her wine, “my parents lived across town I was born here, schooled here. I went to London for Uni, but as I said, given the choice I came back here. Something about better the devil you know and all that.”

He watched her talk, the death of her parents obviously still upset her, was still raw, but he now knew that the death of her best friend somewhere in the middle contributed greatly. Now as she spoke, he knew that this grief was still a huge part of her makeup.