Catching Up (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Mar 22, 2018 @ 2:14pm by Commander Caleb Ryan & Civilian Opal Oliver (Deceased) Dr
Edited on on Thu Mar 22, 2018 @ 2:16pm

1,490 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: Promenade/Gino's
Timeline: MD 2 2000

Opal was early, but she couldn't contain her enthusiasm over the idea of seeing Caleb again. She was a little nervous of how he might be feeling, since she knew about the situation with his daughter. Well, she thought she knew about it, in as far as she had witness the attack on Amia and the change like Jekyll and Hyde in Zandy. She had no idea, of course, what else was going on, but then how could she. She had no idea that what she knew was so little of the whole picture, but as people do, she couldn't imagine the rest, so it didn't occur to her.

Sitting in a table to the far left of the main restaurant area, she wondered if she would be visible to him when he got here. She wanted to speak to the waitress, so she called her over. She was a pretty blonde woman, and asked her if she knew Commander Ryan. The waitress seemed puzzled by the question at first, as if she didn't know how to answer that, but Opal went on to say she was waiting for him, and if he came in, could she please point her out to him? The strangely Cheshire Cat like grin that the woman adopted gave Opal an oddly uncomfortable feeling, as if she'd missed some joke somewhere here, but she ordered a bottle of nice wine and had it opened. Sipping the first glass, she muttered approval of the quality of the wine and tried not to notice the woman's odd expressions and sideways looks.

Caleb paused to look in a storefront and check his hair again, smoothing down the nice, expensive tunic suit he wore. It had been a long time since he had been on an actual, formal date like this. Then he hurried on into Gino’s, giving the big, beefy proprietor a smile.

“Back ta yer roots, Ah see,” Caleb said, inhaling the scent of fresh garlic, basil, oregano.

“What can I say, Caleb,” Gino said with a smile. “Italian is in my blood.”

Caleb chuckled. “Nothin’ like yer momma’s cookin’. Ah’m meetin’ someone.”

“Go on in,” Gino said.

Caleb walked into the holo-restaurant and looked around. This week, Gino’s was a classic Italian restaurant, pasta, paninis, anything from the Old Country. Outside of the windows, the canals of Venice were lit by lanterns on gondolas poling through the waters, singing out their Italian love songs under a bright full moon.

“Caleb,” a voice said from behind.

He turned to see one of the waitresses, Charlene, and flashed her a handsome smile. She was dressed in a simple, elegant, little black dress with pearls and held a few real, actual menus.

“Evenin’, Charlene,” Caleb said, giving a tip of his nonexistent hat. “Ain’t you lookin’ mighty pretty tonight.”

Charlene blushed and looked down demurely before meeting his eyes boldly again. “I believe your party is waiting over there.” She indicated with a nod of her head the back terrace. “This way.”

“Thank ya, Charlene,” Caleb said, following the attractive young waitress as she walked, a bit of an enticing sway in her hips.

“Miss,” Charlene greeted Opal. “I believe you were awaiting Mr. Ryan?” She indicated the tall, lanky, handsome older man. “Can I get you anything to drink, Caleb?” she asked as she handed him a menu.

“Whatever wine Miss Oliver ordered is just fine, thanks, Charlene.”

“Of course. I will give you a few minutes and be back to take your orders.” She bent over the table to pour Caleb a glass of wine, flashing some nice cleavage, and then turned and sashayed away.

“Sorry if Ah’m late,” Caleb apologized with a smile. “Ya look lovely this evenin’, Opal.”

"Thank you, Caleb, and you look very handsome!" she returned the compliment, blushing a little with pleasure that he had said it. "I did order wine. You were right. I do hope you'll like it. I chose what looked like a good year. Well, I *think* I did. I asked that girl... Charlene, did you call her? I hope she steered me true, although she wouldn't stop grinning at me from the first moment I said who I wanted her to look out for on my behalf. I began to worry if my hair was sticking up or my nose was smudged or something," she explained. It had been a bit awkward, to be honest, but she felt if he knew Charlene well, it wouldn't do to complain about her odd behaviour until she knew how well exactly.

“Charlene won’t steer ya wrong,” Caleb reassured Opal. He sipped his wine. “It’s just fine.” He gave her a smile and reached over, giving her hand a squeeze. “How ya been, Opal?” he asked, picking up the menu. “Sorry it’s been so long gettin’ around ta seein’ ya after,” he actually blushed slightly, “our picnic. Ah left some messages, but Ah didn’t want ya ta think Ah was the kinda guy that didn’t call after…” God, was he babbling? He was so out of practice at this!

"I'm sorry, too. It was as much my fault as anything. It all got so busy, but I think about you all the time." Oops! She wished she hadn't said that with quite such enthusiasm. It really didn't do to be too keen, but she was an honest person, and she couldn't play an act with anyone, especially with Caleb. He already meant too much to her to mess him around.

"I heard about your awful experience with that Tribunal business." She looked for a safer subject, but the sympathetic look in her eyes was almost as much of a giveaway. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

Caleb shrugged. “It was bound ta happen,” he said. “Ah took a little boy away from his family, an’ broke the Temporal Prime Directive. It could’ve gone worse. Ah have a feelin’ some chickens will come home ta roost, though.”

Caleb looked up as Charlene returned to the table, giving him an expectant smile. “Are you ready to order?” she asked.

Opal was jolted out of gazing with deep sympathy at Caleb and had to hurriedly look back the menu that had been still and ignored in her fingers up to now.

She picked the first thing to come to her eye. "Oh, yes, please, can I have a bistecca fiorentina with the salad side,” she read out, doing her best to pronounce it properly, but with no idea what would be arriving on her plate.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Ya speak Italian?” he asked.

He looked up at Charlene. “I’ll have the chicken marsala,” he said. “Caesar salad.”

“Wonderful choices,” Charlene said, taking the menus and leaving them to their conversation.

"No, I don't speak Italian. Well, not so's you could say so. I just read it out and tried to make it sound the way I thought it ought to," Opal admitted in answer to Caleb's question.

"Do you speak lots of languages, Caleb? I tried to learn some Bajoran at the Academy and a few Vulcan phrases, but I didn't excel at it," she went on, looking up at him with large eyes, still rounded from the sympathy and admiration she felt. She decided she shouldn't press him any further about his ordeal though, so the languages side shoot seemed to divert the conversation with a bit of a credible flow.

Caleb shrugged. “A smattering here an’ there. Enough ta get by in a few places. Mostly work related. Klingon, Romulan, that sort a thing.” He picked up his wine and took a sip, looking back at Opal admiringly. He flashed that handsome smile of his. “Have Ah told ya how lovely ya look this evenin’, Opal?” he asked.

Opal melted visibly. "Aww, you're so sweet to me, Caleb. Thank you. Have I ever told you how handsome you always look? Because I should have done." She smiled up at him, and then looked thoughtful.

Caleb chuckled. He sipped his wine, studying the attractive doctor. “Penny fer yer thoughts?” he asked.

"Oh, sorry!" She started. "I was just thinking..." Damn it! How was she going to tell him what she was thinking? That he was gorgeous, that she really, really liked him, that she hadn't stopped thinking about their time together and how it was the most perfect afternoon she could remember since...well, ever? Her mind raced for something else to say she had been thinking about, but already the telling hesitation was betraying her and she began to feel the heat in her cheeks returning.

TBC

Cdr. Caleb Ryan
Executive Officer

Gino Romano
Proprietor of Gino’s
NPC Caleb Ryan

Charlene
Waitress
NPC Caleb Ryan

Dr Opal Oliver
Civilian Consultant General Surgeon
NPC Amia

 

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