“I want to be with you,” Lacey told her. “But I hadn’t thought of that, either.”
“Lace, let’s go,” Cameron replied. “We can get a room. I just need to get my stuff from the house. If you don’t want to come in, that’s okay.”
“A hotel? Cam…”
“We can drive to your place. Traffic should have died down enough by now. I’ll drive.”
“What kind of date is that?”
“One with you, and that’s all I care about,” Cameron replied.
“Ma’am, would you like to move tables?” a man asked after approaching their table.
“Actually, I think we’re going to go. I didn’t realize it would be so busy in here tonight,” Cameron said. “Lacey, is that okay?”
“I can have your usual brought out to your car, if you’d like,” he said.
“Can I get two of them? And some extra chips and salsa, please.”
“Of course. I’ll have them wrap it up. My apologies for the table. I didn’t know you were coming in tonight, or I would have put you somewhere more private.”
“It’s okay,” Cameron replied and pulled out her wallet. “Thank you,” she added, handing him some cash.
Lacey had planned on paying tonight. Then again, she’d planned on a lot of things, and none of them were working out quite how she’d hoped.
“Give me a few minutes,” the man said and walked off.
“You really do come here a lot,” Lacey noted.
“He’s the manager, and I come here about once a month. I got you what I normally get, but if you don’t like it, we can stop somewhere else.”
“Cam, can we just call it?”
“Call what?” Cameron asked as two women walked up behind her, which meant that Cameron couldn’t see them yet, but Lacey could.
“Tonight,” Lacey said.
“Our date?”
“Ourdinner,” Lacey corrected and nodded because the women were close enough to hear them now.
“Excuse me? Can we maybe get a picture with you?”
“I’m so sorry. My friend and I were just leaving,” Cameron said as she stood. “But you have a good night, okay?”
Lacey took the hint, stood up, and they walked through the restaurant and back outside, where she took a deep breath of the cool night air.
“And no, we can’t just call it,” Cameron stated then.
“What?”
“We’re going to your place, Lacey. I’ll stay there, and I’ll make you breakfast tomorrow. We’ll talk about this on the way to your apartment: the plan for the breakup announcement and what we want.”
Cameron handed the valet the ticket, and he ran off to get the car for them.
“Cam, it’s okay. I’m tired.”
“Lacey, will you be with me tomorrow?”
