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“I will never,” Mac Rendell said vehemently, “understand how you lot can eat that without wanting to throw up.”
The three born-and-bred Canadians with whom Mac was sharing a table grinned at him over their plates of poutine. “Seriously,” he went on insistently, pretending to gag as Dylan made a show of eating another fry, “can’t you feel your arteries clogging? I bet every time you take a bite, you shorten your lifespan by a good twelve hours.”
“You’re just jealous because they don’t have this where you grew up,” Evan told him. “And now that it’s finally in front of you, you can’t bring yourself to eat it because you know you’ll never be satisfied with regular food again.”
“Yeah, right.”
Across the table from Mac, Toby nodded in agreement. “It’s true,” she said over an enormous mouthful. “God, it’s been way too long since I last ate here. I gotta get out of the office more.”
“Well,” Mac began innocently, “they’re still showing the newest James Bond film in theatres, if you were looking for somewhere to go, say, Friday night…”
Toby rolled her eyes and changed the subject. “How’s your ankle, Dylan?”
“It’ll be fine,” Dylan replied, glancing briefly at the injured ligament propped up on a chair beside her before she went back to her food. “Not the first time I’ve sprained something.”
“Are you sure you don’t want a doctor to take a look at it?” Evan asked. He put a hand on her shoulder, open concern on his features. “It swelled up pretty bad this afternoon.”
Dylan shook her head, her expression exasperated even as she turned her head to kiss his hand. “Love, it’s fine,” she reassured him. “I told you. Several times.” She sucked a bit of gravy off her thumb and grinned over at Mac. “Besides, I think all this delicious grease is helping to knit the ligament back together.”
“That’s disgusting!” Mac exclaimed.
“Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it.”
Mac shook his head. “I’d rather eat dino dung than that stuff,” he told her.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Actually,” Evan said, “Ange doesn’t eat poutine either. Crazy as it seems, Mac, you’re not alone in this particular delusion of yours. Though that may just be because she’s such a fiend for Chinese food.”
“So is that why she was so quick to decline when I invited her to come with us tonight?” Dylan asked.
Evan smiled. “Actually, it’s because she’s on a date with Ken Leeds.”
“Aww,” Toby gushed. “That’s adorable!”
Mac furrowed his brow. “Hang on. Didn’t she used to hate the guy?”
“Well, we all did,” Evan pointed out, though he was mostly speaking for himself. “But he’s turned out all right. Even I’ll admit he’s an asset to the team.” He caught Dylan smiling at him and rolled his eyes. “Okay, so you were right. He wasn’t such a bad guy. There, I’ve admitted it.” He was rewarded by her fingers linking with his under the table, and he slowly moved his thumb back and forth over the back of her hand.
“Lieutenant Leeds on a date.” Mac whistled. “There’s hope for us all.”
“I think it’s sweet,” Toby insisted. “He’s so devoted to her; it’s cute. He’s clearly been crazy for her from day one. It’s about time she woke up and smelled the coffee.” Mac stared at her with an incredulous expression; she glanced at him and shrugged. “What?”
“Nothing.” Suddenly stony-faced, Mac knocked back the last of his Coke. “We should get going. You lot had enough calories for one lifetime? Here’s a hint: the answer’s yes.”
“Didn’t know you were such a health freak, Mac, what with the amount of Cheezies you eat,” Evan countered. “But, yeah, I’m done.” He mopped up the last of his gravy with his final fry and popped it into his mouth, then dug his wallet out of his pocket.
“I’m done too,” Dylan said, swatting Evan’s hand away when he offered her a handful of notes. “What are you doing? Even the meagre salary I get from you is enough to afford a plate of poutine.”
“Yeah, but it’s also my fault you got injured in the field today.”
Dylan’s expression softened. “That again? Evan, relax. It was just a miscommunication, that’s all. Nobody was badly hurt. It could have been worse.”
“That’s the point –”
“No, it’s the opposite of the point.” Dylan squeezed his hand. “The point is that we’re all fine, the anomaly’s closed, and it’s not gonna happen again.” She smiled gently at him. “Trust me, if I really blamed you, I’d be making you take me out for something way fancier than poutine.”
Evan leaned forward to kiss her on the lips. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.” Dylan glanced over at Toby and Mac and blushed a bit. “Okay, okay, we’re leaving.” She placed her share of the bill on the table. “We’ll see you two tomorrow.”
“Bright and early,” Evan reminded them as he did the same.
“Night,” Toby chirped.
“Night,” Mac echoed. He watched Evan fussing over Dylan, helping her out of the restaurant and back to his car, then turned to look at Toby. “Ready to go?”
Toby glanced up at him. “Almost.” She nudged the last of her poutine with her fork, chewing at the side of her lip, then nodded as if she’d made a decision. “Yeah, I’m done.” She stabbed a pair of fries and held the fork up to Mac’s lips. “Finish it for me?”
Too stunned to argue, Mac opened his mouth and allowed Toby to feed him.
“So,” she said merrily, “is it better or worse than dino dung?”
“I promised I’d never eat that stuff,” was all Mac managed to say.
“Yeah, well, people change.” Toby kicked her chair back and stood up, smirking down at Mac as he reached over to grab a handful of gravy-soaked fries off her plate. “So, what was that you were saying about Friday night?”