A Blind Date

[Torri]

The delivery guy dropped off their food and Torri and Drayson divvied up the boxes between themselves. Soon, the counter was a veritable buffet of choices. Torri opted to use her own utensils, but only to dig out bites from their boxed homes. She was ravenous, and ate like it. There were hints in the scooping and plucking of mouthfuls that the polite little flower at the restaurant was only a façade, but she was a born and bred Brit whether she claimed to be or not. Her mother's voice was always in the back of her mind, and while she ate quickly, another habit adopted rather than inherited by her lifestyle, she managed to do so with some sense of decorum.

They each had a beer. The brew was a Berlin brand, as she said before, and while she knew it didn't live up to Drayson's proper pub standards, she did enjoy analyzing the look on his face when he had his first sip. She secretly hoped he'd be fond of the flavor. If only to make her feel less silly for buying it.

She had to assume he'd be ready to leave after the meal. There was nothing she could offer as entertainment other than random television viewing. They could keep talking about parts of the world they would prefer being in than Moscow. A slightly depressing topic, but at least it was something they had in common. That and libraries. She did enjoy seeing stack upon stack of old print books.