Private Finished Tricycle Lunch

Avigail had been quiet for most of the night after Avram had asked the woman from the Grey Raven out to lunch. It had been so spur of the moment, she hadn't really had a chance to respond before the words had come out. And even weirder, she'd said yes. It had been after their shower, when the twins were winding down for bed that she'd finally spoken up

This isn't a date, you know. She's pitying you. Nothing's going to happen.

"We'll see," had been Avram's response. He didn't have the patience to deal with his sister putting him down right now, and he was too excited about the next day to let her get him down.

Now he was standing outside of the cafe she'd mentioned, For You Too. He was dressed as nicely as he could manage: khaki slacks and a polo shirt, hair combed and parted down the middle, and his face freshly shaven. Avigail said it gave him a baby face. And maybe she was right. But Tasha seemed to like that he wasn't some giga-Chad.

Checking his phone, he let out a sigh. Despite trying his best to push down his anxiety, there was a definite fear building. What if she was just pitying him? What if the 'cute' comments were strictly platonic.

What if she was just leading him along for a laugh?

Avram checked his phone again, looking at the time and subtly dreading that Tasha actually showed up. Avi would never let him live it down if he got his hopes this high only to get stood up.

Avram was... kind of speechless when he turned to see Tasha, her voice registering and making him jump just a bit in his skin. He almost hadn't expected her to show, and now that she was here he caught himself staring half a second longer than he probably meant to.

Gross, said the voice in his head, snickering at him.

"No, no you look great. You look great."

Realizing he was going to end up repeating himself if he didn't move on, Avram grabbed the door handle and held it open for her. She may have been the more assertive of the two, but his parents had taught him to be a gentleman at the very least.

"I haven't been here before, but I did take a look at their menu online. You weren't kidding about it being healthy. We didn't have most of this stuff back home." He had also looked at the menu to make sure that there was something kosher that he could order. He had realized too late that his personal dietary restrictions might have caused a problem on a lunch...

There was still that question. Was this a date? He didn't know, but he also didn't want to make things awkward by asking. So he'd just let her take the lead and if it led anywhere, then he'd just go with whatever happened.

How me-like of you, baby brother.

"We didn't have a lot of places to eat that weren't fast food back home, but Dad owned the grocery store so we always had food to cook at home," he continued as they found their way to their seats. He pulled her chair out for her, but didn't hover as he allowed Tasha to sit down. "Avi and I learned how to make roasted chickpeas when we were pretty young. Never touched a bag of chips after that."

He laughed a little, feeling himself grow more at ease as they talked. It wasn't just like when he would help Ms. Tremblay's research project, but it was similar enough. He could call on the confidence he'd learned with her to try and skip at least a few awkward steps.

"What do you usually get here? I've kind of already got an idea of what I'm getting; I can't really do pork or anything with meat and dairy together. But I'm open to trying new things, if you have a favorite to suggest."

"I can work with that," Avram said with a slight nod. He perused the menu even though he already had an idea of what he was going to get. When the server came to take their order, he only stumbled a little when he ordered a Mediterranean spinach tofu wrap. As soon as the server was back out of earshot his nose wrinkled against his will. "Gross. Tofu, Avram? Really?"

His lips pursed together as he argued for a moment with Avi in their shared head space. But he kept it brief, because he didn't want to ignore Tasha. "So how are things going at the gym? I know Avi still really wants to go for that massage, but we've been so busy catching up with classes and other stuff that it's been hard to carve out an exact time to go. Honestly, we should probably just schedule an appointment. I'd definitely make us stick to that if we had a scheduled time."

He laughed a little, and Avigail actually laughed with him. It was true; the embarrassment of having to reschedule an appointment would be too great and he'd make time for it so he didn't have to do that.

"Then we'll make an appointment for this upcoming weekend. It'll be great."

"You know you've gotta give me full control over the body, right? I like my massages particular, and I don't want you feeling me letting someone get handsy with me."

Avram wrinkled his nose at Avigail's bluntness, but tried to laugh it off as much as he could. "I don't think it's that kind of massage, Avi." Though even as he said the words, Avram's gaze drifted back over to Tasha and he blushed slightly. Secondhand embarrassment for Avi's sake, sure, but also the stray thought of if Tasha herself was a masseuse.

Avigail's thoughts echoed in his head, if she is then I'm definitely not letting you be conscious for it.

"Maybe I'll check out the actual gym sometime. I'm not really, ah... that into fitness or sports or whatever. But it could be good for me, yeah?"