Rick

The ride to the restaurant was short - shorter than I anticipated - but I was excited anyway. When we got to the restaurant, I got out, went to her side of the truck, and gave her my hand, to help her out of the car.

"Thank you," she smiled as she stepped out.

I just nodded and closed the car door behind her. I hurriedly went over to the restaurant door to open it for her. She entered and I entered after her. Almost instantly after we entered, a waitress approached us.

"Hello, sir. Ma'am. You have a reservation?"

I nodded. "Grimes, please."

She nodded and grabbed two menus before taking Michonne and I to our table. Michonne sat down and I sat opposite to her as our waitress put our menus down on the table in front of us.

"I will be back in two minutes, give you two a little time to get settled." She smiled before going to another table.

"Reservation, huh?" Michonne opened her menu and smiled jokingly at me.

"Only the best for the best." I smiled back at her. I opened my menu and scanned it.

"What are you thinking about getting?" Her face was still buried in her menu.

"Maybe steak. But what about appetizers? You want something?"

"Nah.. I don't wanna be that girl."
"You can be whoever you want tonight. I asked you out for a reason," I glanced over my menu to see her looking back at me.

"Well, thank you," she looked back down at her menu, "Really. It means a lot, Rick."

"I'm just being honest," I closed my menu, "So if you want an appetizer, help yourself."

There was a brief silence in the air, other than the general conversation and slow jazz buzzing around us, until she spoke.

"I think I do."

I nodded. Like clockwork, our waitress came back to our table.

"You guys ready?" She smiled sweetly at us.

"Yes, we are," I smiled back and stayed quiet while Michonne ordered.

"Oh, I just want the grilled chicken salad. No onions, extra tomatoes. And can we have the mozzarella sticks as an appetizer please?"

She wrote down Michonne's order and looked at me. "And for you sir?"

"Just the steak and potatoes. Can I have it medium rare?"

I grabbed both menus and handed them to our waitress.

"Drinks?"

Michonne spoke first. "Just white wine, please?"

"I'll have what she's having. Just bring a bottle, please?"

She nodded at us before she spoke.

"Alright. I'll have it out to you two momentarily." She took our menus from me and made her way back to what I assumed was the kitchen.

I looked up at Michonne for a minute; a little longer than I intended, I'm guessing. She gave me a quizzical look before she spoke.

"What? Is there something..?" She trailed off, reaching her hand up to her face.

"No," I chuckled, "I know I already mentioned it once, but you just look really beautiful tonight. That's all."

She looked down and smiled. "Thank you, Rick. You look really handsome, too."

She fixed her attention back to me again, and I allowed myself to get lost in her dark brown eyes.

"Your eyes," I started, "They're so radiant and full of life."

I couldn't believe that I was allowing myself to go on, but I did. And I kind of liked it.

"Your eyes, Mr. Grimes, are very beautiful and blue. Like, a very icy, cold blue."

I smiled at her; the fact that she was comfortable enough to return the same energy that I was emitting made me giddy. 

"Is icy blue a good thing?"

"A very good thing. I could look into them all night if I could."

"What's stopping you?"

Just as she was about to respond, our waitress returned with the appetizer.

"Here you are," she placed the basket of mozzarella sticks in the middle of our table. "Your orders should be out very soon. Would you like me to bring your wine out now?"

I looked at Michonne for her response.

"Oh! Uh, we can wait until our food gets here."

Our waitress nodded and hurriedly made her way to another table.

"So, tell me more about you and your life. What made you come to King's County?"

"Well, you already know about Mike.. So really, after him and I split, I wanted to get away from Atlanta. I know King's County isn't that far, but it was far enough for me. Yet, somehow, he still makes it his mission to come and ruin everything for Andre and I," she shook her head in visible disappointment, "I just want my baby to have a normal life."

I nodded. "I definitely understand. He seems like a handful, and then some."

"He is. And I think that deep down in my heart, I always knew that we wouldn't last. It just made everyone else happy, so I just said what the hell."

"And you were never really happy?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Most relationships have the ups and downs. And we had ups, but the downs just overpowered them. He's got a bad, bad temper. Its like he's a whole different person when he gets angry. He's put his hands on me before. It happened in front of Dre once or twice.. That's another reason why we had to split. I couldn't have my son watching that."

"Lori's the queen of physical misconduct," I scoffed.

She shook her head. "You two got into arguments a lot?"

I chuckled. "A lot isn't the right word. We got into it over the stupidest stuff. It got really bad once Carl turned about ten. It got so bad that I used to have to take him to my mom's house for hours when her and I couldn't agree on something."

She opened her mouth to speak but our waitress came with our food.

"Here you are," she said as she set Michonne's salad in front of her and my steak in front of me. Then, she set a bottle of wine in the middle of the table and took the basket in which the mozzarella sticks sat before we ate them. "I'll be right back with your glasses. I hope you enjoy your food tonight."

"Thank you," I smiled at her.

Michonne and I began eating and our waitress brought our glasses. This might was an amazing one, and I wanted it to last forever.

After Michonne and I finished eating, we got our bill - which she insisted on paying half of - and we left. We went straight back to her house. She spoke before we got out of the truck.

"I had a really, really great time tonight. Thank you."

I smiled at her. "I had a great time, too. It was my pleasure."

We got out and she unlocked the door so we could enter. When we went in, Andre, Carl, and Noah were all on the couch in the living room. Andre was knocked out, and Noah looked like he was about to clock out at any moment, but Carl was still wide awake.

"How was it?" He spoke cautiously, trying to avoid waking Andre.

"It was nice," Michonne said, sitting down next to him. "How was everything here?"

He nodded. "Everything went fine. We ate pizza and hung out all night."

I smiled and sighed. "I guess that means its time for us to go now."

"Can I stay here with Noah and Andre?"

Carl's eyes were tired, but they lit up when he asked.

"You know I don't mind," Michonne said, and I shrugged my shoulders.

"If its okay with her, its okay with me, too. But it looks like those two are done for the night," I chuckled. I sat down on the floor, causing Michonne to sit next to me.

We all talked and talked before we finally couldn't fight our sleep anymore. First it was Carl, and then Michonne, and then after a while of watching TV, I couldn't help but to allow my eyes to fall shut.

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omg, a double update? yes, you are seeing this correctly. sorry if this chapter is kinda iffy. i promise i'll make up for it soon ☺(drama on the way 😉) either way, i hope you all enjoy. buuuut its almost two a.m. so im gonna call it a night lmao. xo.

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