Beach City Grill, Santa Cruz, Thursday

[lovemykilt]

"Let the people rejoice!" Priestly slammed into the sub shop with his usual fanfare. "I have arrived!"

Tish threw an apron at his head.

"So, are you just, like, late every day?"

Priestly considered this. "Not every day."

Jen smiled. "Sometimes he's super-late."

"Only when class runs long." Priestly tossed his bag into the back room and turned to the grill, rubbing his hands together. "Okay, special today: foie gras on whole wheat!"

The verdict on that one was a unanimous "No."

"Steak tartare?" He looked around for some support. "Ratatouille." Jen made faces at him. "Come on, French provincial subs by the inch! It'd be the new wave of portable gastronomy!"

"New wave," said Tish, "should stick to music."

Priestly gasped and pressed a hand to his chest. "You wound me, Tish. Right here."

She flicked a dish towel at him. "I can't believe people let you near a stove."

"On a daily basis." Priestly grinned. "Well, except with the steak tartare."

And thus began another beautiful day at the Beach City Grill.

[ooc: open for phone calls]

Comments

[lovemykilt]

"You might have to send your own delivery person. I'm not sure we cover that in our insurance plan."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Awww. Well, since I know they might get mugged on the way here, that's... fair." Dinah grimaced, getting the munchies, and hopped off the wall to go find a food cart or truck. "It would make a sucky week much better, but not if we had to keep someone in the hospital to get me French Provincial. Hey, does that include Grey Poupon?"

[lovemykilt]

"Or stuck at Milliways on layover," Priestly pointed out. "And I'm totally going to pretend you didn't just say that."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah snickered. "Point. That would suck. And you tell me what you're putting on it. I'm looking for a sandwich truck." She sighed, dodging in and out between a couple of competing demonstrators. "Hey. You're a guy."

Conversations like that could turn ominous on a dime.

[lovemykilt]

"You are the only one I know who'd be totally brave enough to try steak tartare." Priestly frowned at that segway, flipping a few strips of roast beef onto the stove to heat them up. "And yes, currently. I checked this morning."

That sort of statement ended up a lot less snarky when one had lived in Fandom.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm. Dinah could smell grilled cheese. Not through the phone. Somewhere there was a food truck. She started following her nose down 17th Street.

"Good. So. I need your opinion, as a current guy." She grimaced. "Would you want to know, if you were, maybe, the rebound guy? And if you weren't the rebound guy, how would you be able to tell?"

[lovemykilt]

"This is about the stats tutor, isn't it. Dinah, I told you to tell him you might not be interested in more than just hanging out."

"Sooooo, not his girlfriend, then," Tish whispered to Jen. Jen shook her head.

"Nope. Just really close."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I did! And, and that's all we've done so far," Dinah said. "Coffee. And then a walking tour. You know? Stuff I'd just do with any guy friend. I said we'd see." She sighed. "But I'm supposed to see him tomorrow. And Jaime and I just had this huge, huge fight on Sunday. It's made me all weird. Er."

[lovemykilt]

"Uh oh. What'd you fight about?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I told him I wanted to date Kyle. And he -- well. Got mad. But in that really quiet way, you know? And denied it. Really intensely and unbelievably. Which didn't seem fair, he broke up with me, the least he could do was be honest, and then, I guess, we just had the break-up fight we'd been avoiding for two months." Dinah let out a breath, and turned a corner, quickening her steps when she saw a food truck. "So. We're not going to talk for a while. Too painful."

[lovemykilt]

"He -- dude, jerky move. Can I hit him?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and demanded, "Make Jen hug you since I'm not there to do it."

[lovemykilt]

Priestly glanced over at Tish and Jen. "Hang on." He flipped a bun onto the stove to toast, then pressed the phone to Jen's ear. She jumped and peered up at him.

"Uh . . . hi Dinah?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Could you give Priestly a big squishy hug for me? He's being protective and awesome, and I'm on the other coast," Dinah requested.

[lovemykilt]

"'Kay." Jen was agreeable like that. She spun on her stool by the computer and wrapped her arms around Priestly's waist.

Tish rolled her eyes. "Now I know why the Help Wanted sign said no normal people."

Priestly grinned at her. "Jealous?" He put the phone back to his ear. "Okay, I'm being hugged. But, yeah, definitely tell Kyle what's up. You don't wanna leave him hanging."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yay. Thanks Jen!" Dinah grinned, feeling obscurely better.

"Yeah? Yeah, I guess you're right." Dinah scuffed her feet, half-relieved, or at least less confused. as she waited in line. "I mean. It's a lot to tell him, but it's not like I'm dumping the rest of my weirdness on him yet."

[lovemykilt]

"He doesn't need the whole story. Just, you broke up with a guy recently and things are still weird, but you like Kyle. Let him decide if he wants to risk being a rebound."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Yeah. That'll work. This is actually his business." She gave the Cheese Guy a sad look as she hit the front of the line. "Brie and honey and pear grill, please... I hope he's okay with it." Dinah grimaced. "It's not like I don't have five hundred other things happening too. When I don't worry about people back at Fandom. It's not like I can do a big intense romance thing right now."

[lovemykilt]

Holy crap, that sandwich sounded good. Priestly stared down at the stove, then glanced over at Jen to mouth "Do we have any brie?"

Jen, with no idea what he was saying, stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, geez, don't remind me. Am I a bad person for just being happy you're not there to get sucked into hellholes, any more?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

It smelled delicious. Dinah had her nose pressed to the glass as she watched them prepare it, up on tiptoe.

"Only if I'm a bad person for being totally grateful you're in Santa Cruz, where you won't even get a power outage from a snowstorm." She sighed. "Tony's okay too. His apprentice is nuts, but he's fine. Oh! And Momoko is visiting. I'm meeting her in an hour."

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah?" Priestly grinned broadly, then caught Tish watching him out of the corner of his eye and cleared his throat. "Awesome. Tell her I said 'hi'. And that neither of you is allowed to -- uh -- 'get arrested'."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah snickered. "I will. And hey! We are totally careful here in New Gotham!... Barbara would kill us extra-dead if we weren't."

[lovemykilt]

"And then Alfred would just look at you all disappointed like -- crap!" His buns were burning. Priestly juggled the phone for a second before setting it aside so he could do a quick shuffle of ingredients on the grill. He picked it back up a moment later. "Remind me to get a hands-free headset."

"Or take an actual break when you're on the phone," Jen suggested.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Get a hands-free headset," Dinah said automatically, then winced. "Am I cutting into work too much? .... Oooh." Her sandwich was being handed to her, as she turned over a ten. "Okay, you have to try making one of these. I'm sure you could do it even better. Nom nom nom nom nomonomnomonmom... MMmmm!"

[lovemykilt]

"Never say someone else can make it better when you're standing in front of the chef," Priestly noted. "Everything else going okay on your end?"