Page 40 of The Restoration Program

Having the corner booth meant less of a view, but sure enough, there were still several eyes on her. She swallowed her apprehension and stared right back as iftheywere the weird ones. To her relief, that seemed to snap them out of their trance and make them mind their own business—most of them.

A sharply-dressed woman with perfect waves of dark hair whispered excitedly into her phone, eyes fixed on Nicole. Instead of looking away when their gazes met, the woman offered an unabashed smile like they were old friends. The smile was hardly sinister, but the knot of anxiety in Nicole’s stomach tightened.

“Nicki?”

Nicole flinched and looked up at Ryan.

“You’re fine with roasted potatoes?”

“Yes,” she said immediately, not wanting to admit that she hadn’t heard a word of their order. She forced a smile up at the waiter. “Yes.”

The waiter stepped back. “Your order will be right out.”

The moment the vibration of his footsteps faded, Ryan touched the back of her hand. “Are you okay? You’re doing great.”

“I’m fine, I just…” She looked past him and saw the stares were back. The woman smiled at her again. “I’m fine.”

Ryan didn’t seem convinced, but he busied himself with taking out her utensils. Perhaps he thought she would feel better if she saw her laughably small accommodations. At least she could get a drink of water from her tiny glass after he filled it with an eyedropper.

Their order arrived at the table so fast, she had no doubt it had been expedited to get them out of there sooner. She clenched her jaw, unable to believe that her presence was causing any sort of fuss. Still, she thanked the waiter and tried not to wrinkle her nose at the overwhelming scent of chargrilled salmon as a wall of steam rose up between her and Ryan.

He portioned a serving onto her tiny dish, and Nicole giggled at his sloppy attempt to imitate the chef’s plating technique. The food was seasoned to perfection, rosemary and lemon mingling on her tongue with each bite. She wished she had more of an appetite to appreciate the meal—a thought that dulled as she watched her boyfriend take a bite of salmon as big as her thigh.

Still, she warmed at Ryan’s obvious effort to make her experience “normal”. It was hard not to fall a little more in love with him with the way he tried so hard without complaint. Being faced with her stares athimall throughout dinner couldn’t have been easy, either.

By the time the waiter had taken their dessert order, Nicole found herself sitting on the table against Ryan’s arm. She put her hand on his sleeve and leaned into him comfortably, watching how her nearness made him light up.

As much as she wanted to relax entirely, the abject stares continued to come and go. New diners arrived every so often, and hardly anyone had the willpower to avoid gawking for at least a few seconds. She tried to ignore them, tried not to wonder about the number of posts and texts being sent out about her bizarre presence that night.

Sure enough, their dessert was brought out within minutes of being ordered.That’s fine, she decided. The sooner they were done with their date, the sooner she could go home and decompress.

“Hang on,” Ryan said when she reached for her utensils. He took his spoon and scraped up a tiny bit of sorbet on the tip.

“You’re kidding,” she scoffed, her face flushing as he brought the gigantic spoon in front of her mouth.

Seeing Ryan’s little smirk past the bulk of his hand, she rolled her eyes and leaned in. It was like eating off a shovel, but the taste made her moan with delight. She wiped at the bit that smeared her cheek.

“Since you put me through that,” she said, “I dare you to go back there and ask for the recipe in return.”

“That good, huh?” His smile tugged wider as he gazed down at her. “You’ve got half of it on your face—can I have some?”

“Ry,” she giggled as he leaned in and kissed the stickiness off her face. His hand came up from behind to keep her from falling back.

For a few blissful seconds, her grin stayed strong. Everything else faded into background noise, and she couldn’t care less about the other patrons in the restaurant. That was, until footsteps strode right up to the table. And they didn’t belong to the waiter.

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” an unfamiliar voice said.

Nicole nearly jumped out of her skin, thinking for a moment that someone had come to voice their disgust about her and Ryan’s PDA. She was just as chilled to see the woman who had been smiling at her before. The smile hadn’t faltered.

A TV smile.

Clenching her jaw, Nicole quietly gripped one of Ryan’s fingertips, willing him to tell the woman to leave them alone.

“Can we help you?” Ryan asked.

“I was wondering if we could have a chat,” she said with warmth in every syllable. “I’m Emily Hinton. Assembly News, Channel Nine. I couldn’t help but notice you two. I invited my colleague over to take some photos. I hope you don’t mind.”

Nicole noticed another person approaching behind Emily. “We’re not supposed to talk to the press,” Nicole said before Ryan could answer. “You can contact the Restoration Program for your story.”