Lunch and Sympathy (rp for zippyknowsbest)

[a_chaitlin]

Things change, things stay the same, and sometimes they do both at once. Cait once again had a lunch date with Zippy Levine, and once again there were family issues and heartaches on the table for discussion. But they would eat this lunch amidst the artistically lit black-and-chrome of Elle, one of the writer's recent finds as far as eateries

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[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy did indeed suck in a little harsh breath when she saw the interior, judging prices well before she saw a menu. Oy. Still, she managed a wave and a smile, if a slightly tired one, at Cait, and made her way over with only a minor hiccup when the hostess tried to guide her.

"I can make it to the table okay on my own, thank you hon, you can go back to the front," she said with no regard for etiquette, and walked the rest of the wait to Cait's table unharassed.

"Hi," she said, dropping with a grunt into her chair and slinging off her knit purse to hang over the headrest. "Remind me not to break any of the glasses in this place, rent's still due."

[a_chaitlin]

"Hello, Zippy!" Cait's alto range didn't lend itself to chirping, but sunny good cheer was much in evidence. "Any glasses you break at this meal will be entirely on my dime, m'dear, so don't worry yourself.

"A few points of order while you peruse the menu," she continued, resting her chin on one hand. "The food is excellent, and they're quite willing to adjust dishes to satisfy dietary needs and preferences. Yes, I am spoiling you, so do not choose your order based on expense. It would quite ruin the effect. Do, however, feel free to chew me out for spending money on you."

Smiling serenely in the face of Zippy's eloquent look, Cait opened her own menu. "I thought I might get a selection of tapas to start. Does anything appeal to you in particular?"

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy absorbed this, looked pissy, composed herself, then settled back to looking pissy again at Cait's maddening cheer.

With a little "hmf" she snapped open her menu to glare at the appetizers. "The mushroom vol-au-vents, then, if we are being so generous. Oy gevalt, Cait, what'd you do, decide to marry the publisher guy after all? Cha-freakin'-ching. We could just as well have gone to Horace's deli as spent so much of your money. Or you could buy me books if you're intent on blowing a small fortune."

There. That was out of her system. Zippy let out a little sigh and turned to a more sedate study of the rest of the menu, a little sigh escaping her that had nothing to do with the prices and more to do with the week she was having.

[a_chaitlin]

The corners of Cait's eyes crinkled cheekily at Zippy's venting, but she did tone down the joviality a few notches for the sake of her friend's mood. "Sorry, no wedding in the offing. I got a very nice advance on my current work in progress, though. So I decided to spoil both of us."

The server returned with the iced tea and pulled out paper and pencil to take down the order for their starters. "Mushroom vol-au-vents, potatoes with alioli, red peppers and anchovies and the olive and feta salad, please. I think we'll need a few more minutes with the menu, and what would you like to drink, a chara?"

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy didn't answer right away, busy sampling her mushrooms. Mmmm. Just as good as the potatoes, albeit in a different way. She sighed in satisfaction and dished some of the salad onto one of the little saucers the server had brought. So it wasn't meant to be dish for salad, so what?

She leaned back in her chair and took a long drink of iced tea; she'd sweetened the hell out of it and that was just fine. Mmm.

"Yes. They're a good combination. I need to figure out how to get away with doing it for a living and I'll be set," she said with a smile for Cait.

[a_chaitlin]

"Wouldn't that be lovely?" Cait sighed at the image Zippy had conjured. "I've often thought I should have gone into restaurant reviewing instead of editing, except they have to eat at the bad places as well as the good." Spearing a piece of kalamata and a chunk of feta from her plate of salad, she waved them in the air as she spoke, then popped them in her mouth.

Her eyes promptly closed again. "Mmmph," she muttered, then chewed and swallowed. "What I wouldn't give to figure out the seasonings they use in their Greek dishes. They never have quite the same intensity when I try them at home."

She also followed up with a mouthful of tea that was at least as sweet as Zippy's. "And how is living treating you?" she asked, her voice light but her eyes intent.

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy nodded in sad acknowledgment of the point about having to try bad restaurants as well as good ones, and busied herself with another mushroom.

This was good, this was all right-- then Cait had to go and talk about something not related to the food, damn her. The older woman-- or at least the one who looked older-- heaved a sigh and raised her hands to rub at her temples.

"Tsuris and headaches, what else is new? Like you want to hear me kvetch for the entire lunch." She speared a forkful of salad with unaccustomed savagery, and chewed in silence.