Best Laid Plans

[st_clare]

Julianna decided on seafood instead of steak when she and Devin finally got to arrange their dinner plans, and she'd dressed casually because she didn't want the writer jumping to conclusions about this evening. Yes, she found him attractive, and she'd like to get to know him better, but the 'maybe' column wasn't a terrible place to occupy.

The hostess had already seated her, and she sipped at the beverage she'd taken the liberty of ordering while she waited. She'd slept alone after the event at the Skylark because she'd sent Nathan home after a fairly intense make-out session on her couch. He'd grumbled, but he'd left accordingly.

The Watcher picked up the spoon where it rested to the right of her place setting, examined it critically. One could never tell whether or not the flatware would be completely clean. She had a very slight knot of tension in her stomach, one she had yet to really acknowledge.

Bugger that. This was just dinner, testing the waters. She could live with the results either way.

Comments

[st_clare]

Commitment issues. She recognized the sudden twitchiness. The way he patted at his hair was adorable.

"I've seen a bit of America, but never this far out west. I bought a coffee table book of photographs of the desert. They look lonely and beautiful."

The mushrooms arrived, and Julianna waited for Devin to take one first. "Did you come from a military family? Is that why you moved around so much? Or was it a case of wanderlust as you got older?"

[devin_capshaw]

He kind of felt like he was being interviewed, but he didn't say so. He put one of the mushrooms on his appetizer plate.

"When I was published, I had the excuse I needed to break away, so I did. I like to travel. The idea of waking up in the same place every single day, doing the same job, it's not really for me."

Devin spread butter over his bread. "What about you? Did you come here with family, or...?"

[st_clare]

"No, actually. My parents traveled extensively in Europe and the Far East, but the closest they got to America was a brief stopover in New York back in the nineteen fifties. I'm afraid they were a bit provincial in their thinking, didn't care for the States."

Julianna let the silence hang between them while she buttered a piece of bread and took a bite of it. The sound of her own voice wasn't so important to her that she had to prattle at him every second. She didn't want to be reduced to saying whatever inane thing that popped into her head.

"Sounds as if you came from a close family," she said once she felt a decent length of time had passed. "I was born last, the youngest of four, so I understand that feeling of wanting to break free."

[devin_capshaw]

Devin laughed, sampling the stuffed mushroom. "No, I mean, with husband, children, et cetera?"

He raised his eyebrows, washing the appetizer down with some more wine. "Too close, sometimes. But you know how it goes." He shrugged out of his jacket.

"Do you ever slum it?"

[st_clare]

"Ah, right. No, I never married." She showed him her left hand, the lack of a wedding ring. It was the only time she'd ever gone against Mother's wishes, a symbolic rebellion. "I was an intellectual in a time that profoundly did not favor women, and I didn't see the need for a husband. I can never decide if that makes me cold or not."

Julianna ate more bread, picked up a mushroom. "And I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'slum it'," she said in a more neutral voice. It sounded faintly provocative, and she wanted to keep her mind out of the gutter tonight.

"I like to relax as much as the next person, the stereotype of the fuddy-duddy professor aside. You might have to be more specific about what you mean."

[devin_capshaw]

"I mean, do you ever eat in a restaurant that doesn't have a tablecloth? Have you ever been camping? Gotten your hands dirty?"

Devin switched from wine to water. "Don't see how that makes you cold. I'm definitely not the marrying type, either." He had one serious relationship, once, that was seemingly headed in that direction, and he completely flaked, and invented imaginary conflicts to justify ending it.