Lady ~ G.Blythe [2]

one.

+ french literature +

I tapped my finely polished nail against the white table cloth, nervously biting the inside of my cheek as the chatter surrounding us in the busy restaurant was completely blocked in my mind. I was focused on looking at everyone's faces, trying to figure out if I recognised anyone here even thought I wasn't quite sure what my reaction would be if I did. The light bulbs that were strung from the ceiling were illuminating the restaurant in a warm glow as women in long dresses and men in suit coats and shirts laughed and dined, enjoying the Friday night that set off into the fresh weekend.

"Will you stop being so stressed?" Gilbert asked, setting his menu down as he shifted in his chair, looking over at me with his eyebrows raised. "Hmm?" I asked, lowering my own menu onto the table as I clasped my hands in my lap, trying to stop the nervous jittering. It failed, my leg bouncing on the ground as my heel made a clicking noise every time it hit off of the floor. "We're fine" Gilbert assured me, hooking his leg behind mines to stop as I stopped shaking it, letting it lean against his for support.

"We are a bit close to the University, a professor may see us" I told him, instinctively looking around once again as he let out a sigh, shaking his head as he leaned his arms on the table, leaning towards me with a reassuring smile on his face. "Katie, it's fine" he said to me quietly, making me let out a sigh as I nodded my head, not as convinced as he was as I picked up my menu, resting it on my hands as I read over it again. "No one is looking for us so they won't recognise you" he added as I looked over at him for a moment, almost holding my breath as I thought it over

"Yeah, you're right" I said with a deep exhale as I shook my head, knowing that I was being way too uptight. Gilbert and I hadn't seen each other in a few weeks, not since I left for finishing school on the other side of Sydney at the beginning of the month. We had been sending letters to one another in the mean time, and it was a miracle that I even managed to make it into the city this weekend, so we had planned to spend as much time together as we could, which seemed good logistically if you didn't add in the doom of us being recognised.

My parents didn't particularly know about the pair of us yet, considering how they reacted last time. When Gilbert had taken my fathers offer at Camperdown I was sure that it was evident why he wanting to come to Australia all the sudden, but neither my mother or father said anything about it, so I just assumed we were in the clear. But all it took was for one person to notice me and for them to tell my father they saw us together, and the whole act was up. I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary at finishing school, knowing that it wouldn't make my life any easier at the academy or at home. I was the perfect student, which wasn't that difficult considering we just learnt how to have proper manners, and it was exactly tedious to follow an instruction manual on how to hold a teacup properly.

"How's school going?" I asked him, gabbing my glass of water as I took a sip slowly, my throat scratchy and dry from nothing but the nerves that had rooted themselves in the bottom of my stomach. "I'm drowning in work" he told me, looking up at me from his menu as I smiled softly at his exasperated expression. "Is that not expected?" I asked jokingly, making him nod his head as a smile grew on his face, having walked straight into that one.

"We work on cadavers" he said to me as I made a sour face, looking over at him as I shifted in my seat slightly. "As in" I started, being met with Gilbert nodding his head slowly. "Dead bodies, yeah" he replied as I cleared my throat, shivers going down my spine as I raised my eyes quickly. "That's appetising" I said as Gilbert let out a small laugh, nodding his head with his eyebrows raised. "I won't talk about that bit" he replied to me with a nod of his head, coming to a silent agreement that it wasn't w good conversation topic for right before dinner.