Adventures in Dating - 2. Dinner Disasters

Both boys were surprised to find that there was mutual interest in each other. Riley always assumed that Chase’s flirtations with girls were completely real and not just a fabrication, and Chase assumed the sometimes cold and distant persona that Riley projected was his own way of showing he wasn’t interested. It was Chase who first proposed the idea of a night out for dinner, both boys saw it as a chance to learn more about each other without there being too much stress involved.

Chase looked across the table at Riley, wondering what he was thinking while they both read through the Olive Garden menu. Chase was relaxed, used to the intricate play between two people on a first date. He knew what was going on in Riley’s mind, and for once he wasn’t planning on trying to use it to charm his way into a lucky evening for himself, he was serious when he said he wanted to try something new, something more stable than his last few months of ‘dating’.

Chase figured that Riley was trying to analyze the situation still, figure out how to proceed in a logical way and that he was going to be a bit too stressed out to really enjoy the evening if Chase didn’t do anything to help loosen him up. It was endearing at times, and there was no doubt that Riley’s steady mind had saved his and the others’ lives more than once, but this wasn’t something you could apply a formula to, it was just something you felt and went with the flow with.

The server came and took their orders, looking a bit strangely at the pair of them.

“Hi, I’m Taylor, I’ll be your server today. So, what can I get you two?”

Riley answered first.

“I’ll have the garlic rosemary chicken.”

“And I’ll have the sausage stuffed giant rigatoni” Chase interjected immediately after.

The waiter wrote down their orders, and then took one last look at the two of them before he left to put their orders into the system.

“Nice to be the one giving an order for once eh mate?” Chase said, easily slipping back into his comfort zone of taking the initiative with the person he’s with. Chase was openly smiling and relaxing, trying to project an aura of calmness towards Riley, who looked much less at ease with their whole situation.

“Did you see the way that waiter was looking at us, he obviously knows we’re on a date and was judging us for being different.” Riley fumed and crossed his arms, clearly upset with what he perceived as an insult.

“Relax little raptor, I’m sure it wasn’t anything. Just focus on me and the food when it comes, this is supposed to be our chance to get to know each other better, remember?”

Chase reached over the table and grabbed hold of Riley’s hands, squeezing them before he put his hands back in his lap. The brief contact made Riley blush and smile shyly back at Chase, who was openly grinning that he was able to do something to help the younger boy feel something other than stress about this new situation they were in.

“What was life like back on the ranch anyway? I grew up in the city so it’s nothing I’ve really thought about before, but I guess things would be pretty different when you’re out with just your family close by.” Chase asked.

Riley cocked his head and looked thoughtfully back at Chase. He hadn’t known much about the Kiwi to be honest, only that he was from New Zealand and that he was here in Amber Beach to study Archaeology. He hadn’t really thought about how different their lives would have been before they were Rangers because of course now they did almost identical lifestyles of school, work and Rangering.

“I guess you could say that it was quiet. I mean, there were always chores and its not like the animals ever got quiet, but when the only other humans around were just your family and everyone else lives far enough away to make seeing them difficult, you just figured it was normal. When I moved here after finding my Energem, I was surprised at how much louder things were in the city, or at least louder in terms of human voices and human created sounds.”

Chase nodded, eager to hear more about what Riley’s life had been like, but the younger boy was staring out into the distance, seeming to be lost in thought. After a few moments, Riley shook his head, shuffling around some of the dirty blond locks of hair and he continued on.

“I miss it a bit. Not the work or the chores or anything like that, but just that it was peaceful there too. I miss my brother Matt and my Mom and Rubik, which is funny because without Rubik I wouldn’t have ever become a Ranger.”

Riley gave a little bit of a chuckle about that. Chase knew most of the story about how everyone found their Energems and became Rangers, but he was surprised to see how easy it was for Riley to talk about home; Chase thought the younger boy might have been a little homesick from the way he was always phoning home and asking to put Rubik on. That, or Riley was unhealthily obsessed with talking to his dog, which could be cute in its own way.

“What about you Hotshot? You getting used to America yet? It can’t be too much different from back home for you.” Riley teased, clearly just as curious about Chase’s roots as Chase was about his.

Chase laughed “Nah mate, it’s not too different, but there’s always something to learn and figure out that’s not quite the same. Kendall was pretty good at helping settle me down in Amber Beach once she realized I had the Black Energem, and I’ve had plenty of tutoring about American style customs that I might not have otherwise known about.” Chase said that last part with an exaggerated waggling of his eyebrows which caused Riley to spit out his drink laughing.

At that moment, the server came back to deliver the food.

“Alright, so I’ve got the eggplant parm for you” handing over a plate to Chase. “And the steak toscano for you” placing the other plate in front of Riley, who immediately looked at it like it was still alive.

“Excuse me mate, these weren’t what we ordered. Any chance you could take these back and make sure there wasn’t a mix-up?” Chase asked, clearly as confused about the food as Riley was.

“Oh, I’m sorry, let me get those out of the way for you” their server said, not sounding particularly sorry or even confused about what happened.

Both plates were cleared away and both Riley and Chase looked at each other, exasperated by that first experience. Both boys were beginning to get hungry and had no idea how long it would take to get their orders again.

“So baby raptor, what should we talk about while dinner gets cooked again?” Chase asked.

“How about how you actually got the nickname hotshot. I can’t think that people back home know that you’re such a good shot, and you did shoot Fury instead of the E-Tracer.”

“Hey there” Chase protested. “I did pretty well there thanks, at least Sledge doesn’t have it. I actually got the name from all my skateboarding, I used to show off at the trick parks back home and people just started calling me hotshot because of how awesome I am.”

Riley couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but was spared more questions when the server came back with more food.

“Alright, here we are. One garlic rosemary chicken and one sausage stuffed giant rigatoni. Enjoy.” Before either boy could respond, Taylor was gone again, off to some other helpless table.

After the meal, Chase and Riley were stuffed full and feeling sleepy from having eaten so much. When Taylor arrived with the cheque, both boys reached into their wallets to pay for the meal.

“Hold on mate, I brought up the idea of going out for dinner, I’m paying for it.” Chase said, already pulling money out of his wallet.

“We wouldn’t even be doing this if I hadn’t said anything to you the other day.” Riley replied. “I’m definitely paying for it.”

Taylor just stood there, watching Chase and Riley both grab at the bill and try to put down their money. Finally, the poor server had enough.

“I’m splitting the bill, you can both pay for your own or each other’s, but you’re going nowhere and at least this way you can both say you paid.”

A few minutes later, the server came back with two bills for the boys to pay. As they were leaving, the two Rangers were still arguing about who should have paid for dinner.

“Riley, I brought you out here and I’m the older one. I’m paying next time.”

Riley stood in front of Chase and menacingly poked him in the chest with his finger.

“Chase, I was the one who told you I liked you, so we only started going on dates because of me. I’m paying. And who said there’s going to be a next time?”

Chase smirked at Riley. “Oh, there’ll be a next time, you can’t resist me.”

Without waiting to see Riley’s reaction, Chase started running away, back towards where both their apartments were. Riley’s annoyed shouts were right behind him the rest of the way home.