Carter's War - 14. Chapter 14

The restaurant was packed when they walked in and it took Will only a moment to see why: the all-you-can-eat buffet was in full swing as businessmen piled plates high with overcooked pasta and yesterday's left-overs. It looked utterly unappetizing, and he wondered at why Marc had chosen this place until he saw the young man staring over at the buffet with wide appreciative eyes. Well, that answered that.

"Afternoon, gentlemen," the hostess greeted them. "Table for two?"

Will nodded, "Please."

She guided them through the tables towards the back of the restaurant. "I take it you're here for the buffet?" she said matter-of-factly as she motioned to the table tucked back and out of the way.

"Buffet for me," Marc said with enthusiasm.

"I'd like a menu, please," Will said as he sat down. "And a coffee."

She looked surprised, "You're not having the buffet? Growing lad like you, you should eat something hearty."

Will was taken aback, "I...err..."

"He'll have the buffet," Marc said with a grin at the waitress, who was gone before Will could say anything.

Will never had any luck with waitresses, it was as if they simply knew he didn't tip well and so gave him bad service. Often he just didn't tip well because of the bad service, a perpetual circle that doomed him to being one of those poor souls who would wait half an hour for a refill on his coffee, which would turn out to be stale, burnt and naturally as awful as his mood by that point.

The waitress returned and placed a mug of coffee down in front of Will along with a small dish of creamers, "The buffet is down at the front, and the plates are there as well. Simply go and help yourself, and when you go back for more leave your dirty plates on the table. Enjoy, boys."

Will stirred the cream into his coffee as he looked up to see Marc smiling at him. "What?" he asked.

"You drink a lot of coffee, don't you?" Marc smiled.

Will nodded, "Lots of all-nighters in university, I swear caffeine addiction is a requirement to graduate these days."

Marc beamed, "You went to university?"

Will nodded, "Kings College in Halifax, I was studying business."

"Cool." Marc stood up and waited for Will to join him as they both walked to the buffet tables.

Will examined the salad with a certain amount of trepidation. It looked vaguely like a Caesar salad, even smelled like one. He added a little to his plate as he moved down to the vast arrays of pastas that all looked like they had been sitting under the heat lamps for too long. Lasagne added to his plate, he took a bread roll and moved to the end of the tables to wait for Marc who joined him moments later with a heaped plate of mixed pastas and a slice of pizza on top for decoration.

Safely back at the table, Will resumed his conversation, "So where did you go to school?"

Marc shook his head, "I didn't, and... well, I did, but dropped out."

"Oh," Will said as he stared down at his plate, feeling suddenly awkward.

"I had a lot of trouble in university," Marc explained. "I kept cutting class and goofing off so it was my own fault. In the end I just dropped out for a couple of years."

"You didn't graduate?" Will asked in amazement; his father had been strict about him going to school, and after he had left home it had never entered his mind to quit. He kept on doing his homework, and when he had graduated he had naturally just gone on to university.

Marc grinned as he wolfed down the pasta. "No," he said between bites, "I did get my high school diploma, but I had to go to the adult high school to get it. So I was a bit older going on to university and I just didn't fit in there." He shrugged, "At least I managed to get high school, you can't go anywhere without an education these days."

"That's true," Will admitted as he sampled his salad, surprised that it wasn't bad. "I mean, if you don't have at least grade twelve, my office won't look at your resume. Which is a shame, because some of the positions we have we do all the training for, anyway." He tried the pasta, glad there was parmesan on the table for him to hide the taste, "So, what do you do?"

"Oh, I am on a government-paid, extended vacation at the moment," Marc replied looking up at Will with his deep eyes. "I just got into town, staying with Libbet..."

"I don't understand," Will said after a moment. "Government vacation?"

"Welfare," Marc said as he dropped his voice a little. "It keeps me fed, plus I do a bit of under-the-table work when I can, to, you know..." he winked.

Will nodded, "Yeah, I get you. So Libbet's your girlfriend?"

Marc winced. "Sort of..." he sighed. "Well, she used to be, things weren't going well when I left; now that I'm back we tried to work things out, but we're just not..." he waved a hand searching for the right words. "She's not...you know?"

"I think so," Will switched to his coffee.

"How about you?" Marc asked as he leaned back in his chair. "You got one?"

"A girlfriend?" Will asked. "No, had a relationship until a little while ago. Pretty serious, but it just fell apart in the end; I had my career and my life to lead and, well..."

"That sucks," Marc replied. "Do you still see her?"

"Him," Will corrected, nodding. "He lives in Ottawa, articling with a big law firm. He does okay, I stop by there when I'm in the city, we're still good friends. Which is okay I guess, he's happy."

"Cool," Marc cleaned off the last of the pasta and stood. "I'll be right back."

"I'll be right here," Will replied, amazed at how fast Marc had gone through his plate of food; Will was having difficulties with his first.

He followed the strange young man with his eyes, again wondering what he was doing there. Marc was so completely different from him. Here he was, a director of Avery-Woods, the model of responsibility, and he was sitting down with a high school dropout living off of the government. A young guy who had more energy than anyone else Will had ever met. When had he let himself get old? He was only 26, time wasn't supposed to touch him, but he felt really old at times, the weight of the years mounting on him. It came with the job he supposed, that and responsibility.

Marc returned a few moments later with a second plate piled high with food, and sat back down. "So where were we?" he asked brightly.

Will smiled, "We were talking about our love life. I was telling you about Andrew."

"That's his name?" Marc smiled. "Cool. So how long were you together?"

"Awhile," Will replied vaguely. "I thought that I'd finally found the right one, but we both wanted different things out of life." He sighed as he pushed a piece of lettuce about his plate.

"So you're gay, huh?"

Will nearly dropped the fork, "Huh?"

Marc grinned at the startled reaction, "Well, you dated a guy long-term, pretty safe guess that you're gay. Do you like me?"

Will blinked at the question, he hadn't expected Marc to be so... forthright with asking. Wasn't it something you danced around, working every angle subtly till you were comfortable enough to ask it. That would have allowed Will to come up with a polite way to say he wasn't interested.

However, Marc had gone straight for the jugular, the big one, before Will could figure out how he was going to answer it. That was cheating; the Ref that watched the game of life had to be blowing his whistle to declare a foul play.

"I...well, I don't know," Will admitted after a moment's hesitation. "I guess I do, a bit; I mean, you're handsome and such, but I wasn't... you gay?"

"Nah, bi," Marc replied casually as if he was ordering another drink. "I used to think I was straight, but it's all about the prostate."

Will blinked, "What?"

Marc waved him off, "That was a joke, I find it's easier to hook up with a guy than a girl. It's more that I'm indifferent. I don't care what gender they are, I like the person and that usually means I sleep with them."

Will nodded in fascination, "That's a very different outlook on it."

"Don't get me wrong," Marc said with a grin. "I like women, sex with a woman's great and I'm attracted to them, but sex is sex, ya know?"

Will looked about for the waitress; catching her attention he lifted his empty coffee mug. He decided to play a safety and change the subject, "So what made you come back to Toronto?"

Marc went quiet and focused on the last of his pasta, "That's a long story, I was... I had..." he went quiet again.

Will saw the discomfort and shrugged, "Hey, it's no big deal." He pointed to Marc's now empty plate, "Come on, let's get some more, I'm craving some of that..." he searched for the right word to describe the food, "well, let's get some more."