July 2, 2015: part two

The restaurant was one of her favourites, Blu Ristorante, in the heart of the Yorkville area of Toronto. She'd first discovered the place a few years ago, finding it to be a sort of guilty pleasure because the first time she'd been, a young man had spent the entire time playing classic Canadian rock and pop songs on the piano in the corner. It didn't hurt that the food was to die for either— not literally, of course. Now, dressed in her slinky little black dress with her blonde hair in an elegant French twist, she felt regal and dignified. Thankfully her Kat Von D brand concealer had been good enough to cover the worst of the damage to her face and neck from Joe Ragnal's Thumbtack Meringue Pie (recipe patent pending), which was illuminated nicely by the two candles that had been set up on the table for them.

Matt Stone sat across from her, looking like a million bucks in his Armani suit and she felt a little thrill of pride knowing that every eye in the place was darting towards them. She could see the envious looks the other women gave her.

"Thank you for this, darling," she said softly, turning back to look at him after scanning the room yet again. "This is exactly what we needed after the weekend's..." she paused, wrinkling her nose, "excitement. Some us time."

"I couldn't agree more." He said, after taking a quick scan of the room himself, though he was more looking for the waiter than he was soaking in the envious feelings around them. "We haven't really had much time to reconnect as of late, and I figured this would be the perfect time to do so. I know you didn't really want to go out in public yesterday, staying at home for Canada Day was great, but you deserve a night out as well. We can stay as long as you wish, I made sure they wouldn't close down until you said so. Yeah, I have that sort of power." He adds with a sly grin like no one else had ever thought of bribing a piano player and a restaurant manager.

He reached across the table and took her hands into his own, looking into her gorgeous blue eyes. There were few moments in his life where he didn't have something to say, but he could stare silently into her eyes for hours if it would be permitted.

All the problems of the past few weeks were starting to be completely forgotten as she stared right back. "Matt... I don't even know what to say. You're amazing."

"I know," he quickly replies without even thinking. "You're worth all of this and much more, Nessa. Don't you forget it." He added, wanting to make sure that she knew how much she meant to him. "What do you recommend?"

"The sea bass is amazing," she replied with a dreamy smile, "so is the braised lamb shank. I had that the last time I was here and the beef tenderloin carpaccio is really, really good as a starter. We could share one of those, if you want." Matt just stared at her for a moment, a look of bewilderment on his face.

"You didn't even look at the menu...is it too late to get you as my waitress? You seem like you've got this whole thing down pat." He jokes, smiling over at her. "I would love to split it with you."

"Oh, and they have the most delightful hazelnut cannolis for dessert. You'll have to save room for that," she was almost gushing as she spoke, noting with relief that the waiter was finally on his way back from the kitchen.

"That sounds lovely." he said, actually thinking about how he could go for a Tim Horton's doughnut right about now. Matt waved his hand up for a moment and the waiter came right over to them.

"Hello there, my name is Gavin and I'll be your server. Can I start you two off with a drink?" Matt was going to reply, but the eager bombshell across from him cut in.

"Two glasses of your finest house red," she said, eyes narrowing slightly as the scent of his aftershave assaulted her senses, "and water, of course. We're ready to order, as well... aren't we, darling?"

Matt nodded, not even looking at the menu. "I'll have the sea bass upon the strong recommendation of this beautiful woman here. We'll also be splitting a beef tenderloin carpaccio." He said as Gavin began to write things down.

"I'll have the bass as well. And we'd both like to pair that with the wild mushroom risotto as a side." Nessa nodded, her eyes darting to those of her beloved before back to the waiter who lingered, still scribbling. "Did you get that, or do I need to go back to the kitchen and talk to the chef myself?"

Gavin was too busy scribbling things down to even register the put down, but it was someone else that got his attention next. "Excuse me, we ordered our food before the try hards even showed up, where is it?" Came the annoying voice from behind him, coming from a pretentious redhead sitting at the table beside theirs. "Coming right up, ma'am." Gavin said before finishing up writing down what Nessa had said. "Mushroom risotto, got it, coming right up" He said before scurrying off to the kitchen.

"Did that ugly bitch just call us try hards?" Nessa didn't even try to lower her voice, keeping it at a conversational level that carried easily over the piano playing in the corner.

Matt didn't even bother looking over at them, just watching Nessa's reaction. "I wasn't listening, I was too busy admiring the pretty blonde girl in the black dress." He said, trying to keep Nessa calm, knowing it was best for their evening.

She basked in the compliment, still feeling a burning in her sinuses from the offensive cologne their waiter was wearing. "You look rather handsome yourself this evening, Mr. Stone." He beamed for a moment before being immediately annoyed by someone coming up to their table, clearly someone who didn't work here.

"You're Matt Stone and Nessa Wall, I can't believe it, I'm your biggest-" He started before being cut off by Matt.

"Listen, you. We are out on a date and couldn't be bothered to even pretend to be thrilled that you like us." Matt turned back to Nessa ignoring the man before he continued.

"Like you? I'm your biggest hater, I even made MattAndNessaAreTheWorst.net, could I get a photo for the site? It'd be great!" He continued, Matt glaring at him.

"No, please back away from our table." he said, strictly.

"Umm, actually, it's the restaurant's table..."

Matt interrupted. "This is our table, scrub."

"Yeah," Nessa sneered, "beat it."

Looking down the double barreled stare, the man walks off dejected and Matt chuckles, looking to Ness. "We make a good team, have I ever told you that?"

"You haven't... but it's true." She let out a soft little laugh, "and it's funny, really. I came to SVW because I wanted to join Team Kyle and tag with Mika. That never really happened and I haven't really thought about it at all until right now. Is that weird?" She shrugged, "oh well... instead I met my perfect match right here. No regrets whatsoever."

"I would hope not, that whole high heel headhunters or whatever it was that you called yourselves wasn't your best idea. You need someone that compliments you, both inside the ring and out, gorgeous." He added at the end to accent his point.

"I need someone on my level intellectually," she replied with an arch of her eyebrow, "someone who I know I can trust. I'm just glad I didn't give her the chance to stab me in the back like she did Harmony."

'Well no need to worry about that, Ness. No one can ever stab you in the back with me in your life, I've always got my eyes back there." He gives her a playful wink, trying to keep the mood light tonight rather than talk about those evil, evil women.

"Well, that's a relief," she kept up the playful banter, glancing towards the kitchen. "Wow, that's really sad. He hasn't even brought our wine yet!"

"Such a great place you picked out here, dear." He says with smirk. "At least at Denny's, we've had the Moon Over My Hammie by now." He finishes as he sees Gavin make his way out from the kitchen, finally, though he's not holding wine, he's holding the two plates for the table beside them, and he's moving rather quickly like his tip depends on it. "Now Nessa, don't get too snarky on him..." He whispers, knowing her well.

"Are you f—" she broke off at the start of the tirade, feeling her sinuses prickle at the scent of the returning waiter's skunk-like cologne. "ACHOOOOOOOOO!" She let the loudest sneeze imaginable rip to the side just as the man was drawing alongside their table. The waiter let out a girlish shriek of fear as he flinched, forgetting about the tray in his hands which he ended up dumping over the people seated at the adjacent table.

"YOU... HOW COULD YOU?!" The redhead screamed in outrage, now covered in a white cream sauce and poached sea scallops. Gavin was beet-red at this point, fumbling over some napkins as he tried to vain to clean up the God awful mess he had just created. Silence otherwise filled the restaurant, even the piano man took a moment to stop playing as he looked over at the source of the explosive sound, but the focus was quickly drawn to the irate woman who stood up, batting Gavin's hands away. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME! WHY I NEVER!" She started shrieking as another man walked up to the table, wearing a suit and tie.

"What's going on here?" He asked, noticing the woman covered with some of THE best cream sauce this side of the border.

"This clumsy oaf just threw our food at us!" She yells, pointing and poking Gavin's chest with her long, boney finger. Gavin stammered out something of an explanation/apology, but she was hearing none of it. "I'm going to report this to all of the newspapers, this place is going to be shut down!" She screamed again.

Obviously the suited man didn't like this news and he put his hands up in protest. "Oh no, ma'am, I'm sure we can make this right for you. Of course your wine and meal are on the house, and we'll get you a free meal next time as well." He said quickly to try and smooth everything over.

"Free food? So what, I can accessorize with this sauce?" She fired back, clearly still upset.

"That won't happen again, I promise." He said, turning to Gavin who was still speechlessly trying to stammer an apology. "Gavin, you're fired!" He said, displacing all of his anger towards him, who promptly broke down into tears before running to the back. The lady seemed satisfied with this and excused herself to the washroom to clean as three busboys ran over at the snap of the man's fingers to start cleaning up. "We'll find you another table, right this way." He instructed as the man at the table, someone who was also upset at the situation but severely less vocal about it, grabbed his napkin off the table and began to try and clean himself up as he's escorted to the new table.

"Everyone, Bon Appétit" The Suited man called and that was apparently the cue for the piano man to start up again, surrounding patrons to resume their meal and leaving Matt to watch the busboys feverishly try to clean up as quickly as possible, though none of them had spotted the lone scallop that had rolled ten feet away from them.

"Do they want to get ants? Because that's how you get ants." He said, shaking his head disapprovingly before turning to face Nessa, who was staring at the whole scene in open-mouthed shock/horror.

"Oh. My. God." She could barely get the words out before her appalled look morphed into a sadistic grin. "That..." she glanced over at the man, making sure he was out of earshot and his awful redheaded date was nowhere to be seen, "was the most stunning display of karmic intervention I've ever seen."

Matt smiled at her, though was leaning back in his chair just a bit as well. "I believe you earned yourself a 'bless you', dear. Feeling better?" He asked, making sure she was fine, glancing over at the busboys who were nearing completion.

"As long as that idiot and his Axe body spray stays away from me, I should be fine." She smiled sweetly at him, "I don't think that'll be an issue, really... since he just got himself fired."

"Right, he got himself fired." He says with a wink, sitting up more comfortably now. "My only concern is that now we don't have anyone to bring us our wine, I hope they send someone out quickly or else my sweet little karmic rectifier may have to get involved."

She nodded, "ah yes, the secret weapon. And unlike Harmony, I don't need a snootful of pepper to pull it off. Mad skills, right here."

Matt chuckles, shaking his head. "I meant you in general," he said, though he did shoot a glance at her nose to check for residual effects. "Not necessarily that." he added, only to have any further replies by Nessa cut off by the arrival of another server, this one a young girl with timod look about her.

"Uh... hi. I'm Stefany and I'll be uh... taking over for Gavin. Here's the white wine you ordered," she set down two glasses, only for Nessa to fix her with a withering glare.

"We ordered red, sweetie. Clearly Gavin was more inept than we thought— run along and fix this. Every extra second you take beyond the minute you need to get to the kitchen and back, I'm deducting a full 1% from your tip. Understand? Actually, just bring us the bottle, and I certainly expect that you won't charge us for the additional glasses involved in that since this was YOUR mistake."

The girl picked up the glasses, stammering, "yes, ma'am. Right away."

Matt watched the girl scurry to the back, looking across at Nessa following that. "A full 1%? That could be like ten, fifteen bucks to her. How deliciously cruel of you. It's like every day I find a new reason to be enamored with you, you know that?"

"If that's your way of saying I'm the perfect woman," she laughed in delight, reaching out to take his hand, "then I couldn't agree more."

Matt took her hand, looking across at her, finally feeling like the eyes that were on them, or at least centered on their area had finally passed. "Perfect is such a strong word." He said with a slight smirk spreading on his face. "But you're pretty damn close to, Nessa Éowyn Wall."

"Just close, hmm?" She pretended to consider the statement, "well then I suppose I'll have to try a little harder." That put a smile on his face, always enjoying when Nessa went out of her way to please him, but before he could reply to her, his pocket vibrated. Scowling, he reached in his pocket with his free hand and pulled out his phone, seeing who was bothering him on date night. He read it for a second, then put the phone back in his pocket, looking back to Nessa.

"Sorry, where were we?"

She frowned for a second, wondering who was tactless enough to send a message to her beau on such a special night. "Anything important?" She couldn't help but ask, a little hint of irritation in her tone.

He shook his head, not even planning on bringing it up. "Nothing at all, dear. Just someone asking me if I was at the arena, because apparently she's too high end to check Twitter like the rest of the people. My apologies, of course."

"Oh. I see." The words came out flatly, the jealousy she felt at Valentina very obvious for a moment before she forced herself back into good spirits. "Well not everyone uses social media as much as they should."

"True, maybe I should have texted her to be sure, I don't know. Been sort of focused on the number one girl in my life lately." He said, trying to keep the conversation away from Valentina, and other people in general.

"Well it's about TIME!" Nessa exclaimed, drawing a look of confusion from Matt before the waitress appeared, setting down a bottle of Pinot Grigio and two glasses.

"The manager sends his regards and wanted to make sure that neither of you were inconvenienced at all by Gavin's accident. So, I hope this is okay."

Nessa rolled her eyes. "I'm sure it'll be acceptable. Although it might be nice if our food could arrive sometime this century. I'm definitely going to go on Yelp tonight and leave a very scathing review about the gross incompetence here."

"I'll go check on it right now. So very sorry, ma'am... sir. I'll be right back." And with that she was gone.

As Nessa was berating the waitress in a rather sexy manner, at least to Matt, he was opening the bottle of wine for the two of them, pouring each a glass before setting the bottle down. He moved her glass closer to her, raising his own shortly thereafter. "To us," he exclaimed as Nessa lifted her glass, clinking it with his.

"Yes. To us. The greatest team the world has ever known."

Matt brought his glass back to to himself, taking a sip, but keeping the glass up. He made it very obvious he's staring at her chest for a moment. "And to the greatest pair the world has ever known."

Nessa actually blushed, looking away as she laughed softly. "Oh, you. You always know just how to make me feel like a goddess."

Matt caught on the not so subtly used there, but again he wanted to keep things focused on Nessa. "Trust me, hun, if you were standing and I could see your best asset I would be worshipping you right now."

"As you should," she replied, reaching for her wine. Taking a small sip, a contented smile spread across her lips. "This is fantastic."

"Any time I spend with you is fantastic, Nessa. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, and as much as it may annoy me, I made sure that the idiot over there..." He points to the man at the piano. "Knows all of your favourites, so if you have any requests, just tell the idiot seeking our food and it'll be done."

She nodded, too overwhelmed to say anything as the man in question launched into a lovely version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow at that very moment. "Speak of the devil," she finally said, nodding her head towards the waitress who was on her way towards them again with a tray. The idiot girl set down the appetizer and their main entrees along with their sides before scampering away again, muttering, "oh crap. So sorry. I'll be right back."

Matt looked down at his meal, everything looked good, at least, and the order wasn't messed up any further than the wine situation. He glanced back up at the Princess across from him. "Did she forget something of yours?" He asked, not really thinking about it as he lifted his fork to try the fish.

Nessa frowned, "no, I don't think so—"

And then there was a giant pepper mill thrust between them, the top already being twisted to add a garnish to the top of the risotto before Nessa could even wave her off. "Please... I don't want any... ahhh..." her nose twitched.

Matt's eyes widened and he quickly reached across the table to move the mill as far away from Nessa as he could reach, taking Stefany's arms with it. "That'll be all, thank you." He said without the slightest bit of sincerity in his voice, looking directly across at Nessa. "Nes, sweety? It's gone, you're going to be okay." He said, hoping the damage hadn't already been done.

She nodded, eyes wide as she held her breath for a second. "Uh huh. I think I'm okay. I was just startled is... ah... all."

Matt took a deep breath after hearing that like he was just told she wasn't pregnant and sat back down in his chair, relaxing again. "That was a close one," he said to himself, starting to cut his fish.

Nessa scooped up a forkful of the risotto, watching the steam waft up from it, bringing the heavenly scent of roasted wild mushrooms with it as she brought it towards her mouth. "Oh, this smells delightful. I bet it—" her nose twitched and before she could give any warning, the sneeze broke free, sending the creamy rice flying off the end of her fork to splat down on top of Matt's fish. That wasn't the worst part though. No. The gale-force wind blew out the candles and her beau was showered with a fine misting spray of her saliva. "Oh... oh no. Matt... honey, did any of that get on you?"

Matt didn't even have time to agree with her about the smell, which should have been a tip off with Nessa, before shit went down. Something about tonight seemed to make it so Nessa had no time to prepare herself and it showed with this one. The fact that it was now darker at their table wasn't a big deal. The fact that he now had some extra side dish to go with his side dish wasn't even that big of a deal, but the fact that she, again, found nowhere else to go but right at him was what was really troubling, coupled with the fact that everyone was now laughing at him, at least in his head, that was getting him even more annoyed. He picked up the napkin slowly and started dabbing it at his face, first, to get some of the mist off.

Nessa felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at that icy silence, wishing she'd thought to use her Flonase spray before leaving home. It was clearly the fault of Gavin's nauseating cologne that had started the awful reaction in the first place. "Honey..." she looked around, "I don't think anyone was looking."

Despite Nessa's claim, there were a few people looking over, though that was more in response to the overpowering noise that has just come from their table; Matt wasn't even looking at them. He was fighting the urge to freak out on her right here at the table, but knew that wouldn't help matters and despite the most recent events, he did do all of this for her. Deciding he needed a moment to collect his thoughts, he pushed his chair back and got up, putting down the napkin he had been using to, for lack of a better term, dry himself off. "If you'll excuse me," he said through gritted teeth and made his way over to where the men's room was.

Watching him go with a sinking feeling in her stomach, Nessa reached for her purse where it rested on the floor beside her chair, pulling her cell phone out from inside. Quickly, she tapped out a couple text messages to the man who'd just left her side: "I'm so sorry. Please don't be mad at me. If you want to leave, I'll ask them to pack things up in a doggie bag."

Nessa's phone didn't receive a reply from him, though he did rejoin her a few minutes later, acting like nothing had happened. He carefully brushed off the extra risotto on his fish and cut off a piece, bringing it to his mouth to taste. "Fish is good." He finally says to her, though in his voice it's easy to tell that he's upset, but at least trying to be civil with her. He takes his wine glass and practically chugs down the remaining portion starting to pour himself another.

"Matt..?" Nessa began, biting her lip as she gave up at the sight of how tightly he was holding the bottle of wine. "Yes," she finally said, "it's... delicious."

Matt looked up only for a second when she spoke his name before looking back down at the fish, the hand holding the fork was literally shaking as he brought a piece of fish up, but put the fork down back on the plate, still full of fish and glared back across at Nessa. "Why?" He simply asked.

"I..." she seemed to almost shrink back in her chair, that glare having the power to make her feel a half-inch tall. "It w-was the pepper," she said softly, her voice trembling as she tried to hold back her own emotions, "and I really don't think we need to make a scene about it, do we?"

"A scene?" He asked, seemingly taken aback by that. "You don't think that's already gone past when you spat all over me? That's a usual day in the life of us, now, isn't it?" He asked, snark coming out of him at a rate only matched by, ironically enough, the woman he was talking to.

"Can you please not make me feel..." she sighed, dropping her fork before lifting the same hand up to rub her nose.

"Make you feel..." he started, questioning her before he noticed Nessa start to rub her nose, sending warning signs in his brain and he literally flinched seeing it. "You can't be serious..."

She missed what he was looking at as her head snapped up, her eyes locking on his before narrowing. "Of course. I can't be serious when I tell you that you having some weird aversion to me sneezing yet you're totally fine with kissing me, and sharing an appetizer and even tasting something off a fork I've been eating with— what's the difference, Matthew? No, seriously... explain to me what the difference is because it's not as though I sprayed you with gasoline or garbage water, for crying out loud! You know where my mouth has been."

Matt was a little taken aback by that, listening through her tirade and remaining perfectly still, not wanting to interrupt her train of thought as she seemed to have been wanting to say this for some time. When she finished, he waited a few seconds before replying, making sure he was being clear. "I'm not concerned with germs, per say, Nessa and I'll prove it by kissing you whenever you want, and I wouldn't say it's an aversion to you sneezing, either, because when you made that waiter wet his pants? That was awesome, it's just, it feels like a complete lack of respect when you, or anyone, sneezes on me. You've heard the expression, right?"

"Nothing to sneeze at? You mean that one?" She shook her head, picking up her fork only so that she could stab it into the fish. "Right, because that's what I'm trying to telegraph here— a complete and utter lack of respect."

"Even if it's not..." he started, sort of showing doubt in what she said. "That's the way it comes off to everyone else. And I don't know if you know this or not about yourself, but when you..uhh...do it, you have a way of getting people's attention, Nes." He said, alluding to how unbelievably loud this relatively tiny girl could be.

She dropped her fork again, completely beside herself. "You're being," her voice started to rise and it took all her effort to keep it under control. "I do not want to have this conversation here. I just wanted to have a nice night where I didn't feel like some second-rate loser. I guess that's not possible when I'm stuck trying to please the King of the World— you know who cares about what other people think, Matthew? Not me. Because if I cared... I would never have come back after you threw me out of our room in San Juan."

Matt didn't say anything at first, just mindlessly broke the fish apart on his plate with the fork, occasionally taking a bite as he thought through everything Nessa had said. He wasn't used to her talking to him like that, or anyone talking to him like that for that matter, and he wasn't sure how to react. "Nessa, I..." he started, failing to find the right way to phrase what he was thinking, and the next time he opened his mouth, it was just to put some risotto in it. He spent the better part of the next minute just avoiding eye contact with the woman who, previously, he would have gladly spent the entire minute, or eternity, doing nothing but make eye contact with.

Nessa, on the other hand, was still staring at him, hoping that he would say something, anything to let her know she hadn't just crossed a line. Instead the silence dragged out, punctuated only by the man at the piano who was currently playing a fairly decent rendition of Matthew Good's Us Remains Impossible. As that recognition came crashing down over her head, she scooted her chair back slightly, mumbling, "I'll be right back." A few seconds later she was inside the ladies room and as soon as the door swung shut behind her, the tears started to well in her eyes.