His Brownie

|7| Seafood and Flowers

⚠️tw: vomit⚠️

"You're so beautiful." He complemented sounding completely out of breath.

"Really? It's not too much is it?" Imelda asked feeling a bit self conscious.

"Absolutely not, you have an amazing body, you should flaunt it." He answered as he guided her over to his table.

Imelda noticed a few familiar faces from WoodChester High; there was a boy from her Journalism class here and a couple other students she'd seen in the hallways.

Rouge felt a tinge of pride as she sat next to him, all eyes on the table where on the both of them monitoring their every move.

"Why they starin' like that?" Imelda whispered tugging on the hem of her dress.

"'Cause you look stunning." Rouge answered "but ignore them if your uncomfortable."

Imelda shifted uncomfortably in her seat, squirming under the piercing gazes of the people at her table.

Rouge noticed her discomfort and hesitantly grabbed her hand half expecting her to pull it away in disgust. But she didn't, she allowed his hands to wrap around her manicured ones, their hands were almost the same size so it was perfect.

"So tell me, what did we do to be graced by your presence this fine evening?" Rouge asked in a fake British accent making her smile.

"Well if you must know, my parents have some meeting here and I was dragged here against my will, why are you here?"

"Same reason except I came here on my own account, my parents wouldn't bring me here if their lives depended on it. People stare a lot when they see Black parents with a caucasian child, s'makes them uncomfortable." He shrugged.

"Your parents are black?" Imelda asked in confusion.

"Yeah, I'm adopted."

"Oh." Was all Imelda could come up with. She had never come across an adopted person before, she didn't know whether to apologize or be happy for them.

Rouge chuckled at her facial expression, she looked like she had crossed a few boundaries unintentionally. "It's fine." He assured with a smile, "they're like the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"And I came here because Samantha and I had a little argument." He said shifting his free arm uncomfortably.

Imelda raised an eyebrow glanced over at his right hand, she hadn't noticed it before but there were a few scratches and two Batman plasters were around his middle finger and pointer finger.

Her eyes widened in realization and stared at him accusingly. "You hit her?" She whispered.

Taken aback by her question, Rouge replied, "the fuck I did not, I would never hit her, i was helping in the kitchen and I sliced my fingers."

Imelda heated up in embarrassment, cringing at her own behavior. "I'm so sorry for assuming that." She said apologetically.

"Good evening sir, ma'am." Said a Japanese man with a kind smile interrupting their conversation, "tonight's special," he presented placing two plates of Bouillabaisse before them, "its the best on the menu." And with that he walked away, holding the empty ceramic tray in his hands.

Imelda stared at the dish and back at the table, to her surprise, everyone had the exact same dish and they all seemed to be enjoying it.

She had never had it before and she wasn't especially a fan of seafood but decided to give it ago anyways, besides, what's the worse that could happen?