She was awakened by the distant echoes of Alex's voice. Actually he was still right next to her but in her subconsciousness, he sounded like he was meters away. She blinked her eyes a couple of times without opening them as her consciousness began slipping in.
"I'll need some time to rest my bones when I arrive, so make sure not to schedule anything for today." She heard him say.
"Yes, yes! Tell him that I'll see him first thing tomorrow morning." He said after a while.
Lara yawned lazily, as her drowsiness slowly faded, she blinked her eyes open, stretching her limbs.
"Hey sleepy head." Alex said as he got off the phone. He rubbed her head like she was a kitten
"Hey." She smiled back at him. She was lying on his lap, how she got there… She had no idea, plus he was fully dressed too. "How long have I been asleep?"
"Uhm… close to 3 hours, I guess. We made a stop, so I decided to get you the gown, do you like it?"
It was then that she realized that she too had clothes on, but it wasn't what she'd been wearing earlier. He'd gotten a simple sleeveless fluid gown with dotted red flowers imprinted on it.
She slowly sat upright to have a better look at the dress.
"Are you kidding, it's beautiful. I love it." She said with a smile. "Thanks." She looked up at him and smiled.
"Anything for you sweetheart….and you woke up just in time."
"In time for what?"
"Aren't you hungry?" He asked instead. He had arranged the seats back to normal while she was asleep. He leaned back and pulled her closer by his side.
"Oh my… I'm starving."
"Great! There's a gas station just ahead, we'll stop there and get something to eat, hmm?" He kissed her briefly.
"Yeah."
*********
He held her hand as they walked towards the little local restaurant adjacent to the gas station.
The place wasn't that fancy, but it was decent enough to grab a bite... mostly for travelers.
They exchanged greetings with the waiter as they took their seats.
"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." Lara commented when she glanced through the menu. Technically, there were only two dishes on the menu aside from the fast food options.
"Well at least you've got two to choose from."
"Nah, I'll have a burger, it's always the ideal shit when I get confused on what to eat." She replied. "What would you have?" She raised her head and stared at him.
"Whatever you are having, my love."
He said with a smile.
"Great. We'll get two double burgers, if possible and…." She abruptly paused the order she was passing to the waitress "... what did you just say?" She directed her question to Alex.
"That I'll go with whatever it is that you are having…" he replied, not sure whether he was answering her question right.
"No no no, what the fuck did you just call me?" She leaned forward with her boobs pressing on the table, enunciating her cleavage.
The waitress stood there with her pen in mid air staring from Alex to Lara and back.
Alex kind of retracted back in his chair a little… out of freight of course, trying to remember exactly what he said that might be his potential ticket to hell. His eyes switched from looking at her boobs to her face, he wasn't sure where exactly to focus his eyes. He swallowed hard.
"Hmmm….?" He blinked his eyes, staring from the waitress back to Lara, hoping that the poor clueless waitress could give him a hint, but she just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and continued chewing on her gum.
"I guess I'll come back for the rest of the order, in the meantime, I'll just get your burger, right?" She asked. The couple were paying zero attention to her, she glanced at each of their faces for confirmation.
"Double burger it is. Be right back."
Even after the waitress walked away, the two didn't take their eyes off each other.
….then it registered to Alex what he said__ unconsciously. He froze. 'Fuck!' he cursed internally.
"I said that unconsciously," he stupidly defended.
Lara just stared at him without saying a word.
He was confused whether or not she was offended by him calling her 'his love' or if she really wanted to be his love. Her expressionless look right now wasn't making it any better for him.
The romantic atmosphere quickly turned super awkward out of a sudden.
"Oh… yeah, of course you did." She finally replied with a dry smile after a while.
Poor Alex was conflicted on whether or not it was a good sign or he just fucked up.
Lara had her back facing the door, so when Alex abruptly raised his head and stared at the door, Lara was forced to turn her head to see what caught Alex's reaction.
"Hey Alex Beau." Claire said with a smile as she approached them. Since Lara had her back to anyone walking in through the door, Claire didn't get to see whom Alex was with since the person just shot a glance and turned the face back.
"Hey." Alex replied in a polite but aggressive tone.
"Oh, I know you." She said when she finally looked at Lara's direction. "Lara, it is, right?" She asked with a smile.
Lara just stared from Alex to Claire, gauging each of their reactions and wondering how they knew each other.
"You know each other?" Alex was the one who asked the two women.
"Yeah, we... should I say, uhm… we're almost friends…" Lara was the one to respond. "...right?" She directed the question to Lara.
"Almost friends?" Alex narrowed his eyes on her.
Lara just kept on sweeping her eyes between the two.
"Yeah, we were getting along just fine, but then I got busy." Lara explained, still maintaining her wide smile.
"You work together?" Alex stared at both women in request for an answer.
"Actually…" Claire started.
"How do you two know each other?" Lara interrupted.
"Oh, good one. Can I take a seat?" Claire asked.
"No."
"Sure."
Both Alex and Lara replied in a chorus, one for and the other against.
They locked eyes with each other. Claire, who was about to sit, froze in mid air given the controversy.
"It's not so polite for her to keep on standing, she can join us." Lara said, as she shifted her butt to create space for Claire besides her.
"There are other empty seats, honey, she can sit on any." Alex argued.
"Of course she can, but it's no big deal."
Claire was confused as she stared at the couple. Luckily, the restau wasn't crowded. Apart from them, there was only an old couple at the other end, minding their business as fuck.