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Okay, so here's the next chapter...I haven't edited this stuff for a while so once again I'm not sure how much of it's going to change....

We later arrived at a regular Italian restaurant, and I was almost surprised. I had expected something much fancier, but I was by no means complaining. On the drive here Melanie’s driving was much more calm and controlled than it had been the last time I’d been driven around by her. The only dangerous part had been her race out of the parking lot back at the school.

As I stepped out of the car and began walking towards the restaurant I finally realized that Gabe wasn’t with us. I’d been so worried about Melanie suddenly starting to drive crazily that I hadn’t been thinking about anything else. I had first assumed that since Melanie and Gabe were friends that he would of course be going with us…but now he wasn’t here….

“Why isn’t Gabe here?” I asked stopping and waiting for her to catch up.

She stared at me as if I’d just grown two heads, “Why would he be here?”

I blinked slowly, biting my lip, “Um, shouldn’t he be?”

She continued to stare at me strangely. “Once again, why should he be? I wanted to talk to you, not Gabe.”

“Oh…okay,” I said slowly, continuing my walk towards the restaurant. Melanie followed behind me, laughing quietly.

We entered the restaurant to a flurry of activity inside. Waiters carried trays burdened with plates of pasta covered in different sauces and baskets of stacked breadsticks whizzed by looking dangerously close to losing it all. Masses of people waited to be given a table stood around or sat near the entrance chatting and laughing rambunctiously. The hostess frantically answered the phone, listened to patrons and scribbled down notes in her log book. All the sudden activity after the calm outside startled me. I hadn’t even noticed the overcrowded parking lot as we walked in.

I looked out the window behind me and I confirmed that it was a very popular restaurant. It was odd, from looking at the outside of this place I never would have guessed that it was so busy inside. “How are we going to get a table here and still be back before class starts?” I asked Melanie skeptically.

Melanie suddenly burst out laughing, “You really are a load of laughs today aren’t you?” She grinned and walked up to the hostess turning to me briefly, “Watch and be amazed,” with that she softly tapped the hostess’ desk.

The hostess looked up frazzled, an air of insanity creeping into her eyes. “Can I-,” she stopped suddenly, squinting slightly at Melanie’s face. She looked down and began pawing the desk in front of her for something, a few seconds later she picked up a pair of glasses and slid them onto her face. Her eyes refocused and she looked at Melanie again, her mouth broke into a wide grin. “Melanie? How nice to see you here! It’s been quite a while since you’ve come to eat with us! A table for one?” she asked eagerly grabbing a menu out of a nearby basket.

I couldn’t see Melanie’s face, but I could tell by the way the hostess slowed her movements that something was up. “Am I missing the punch line?” the hostess asked slowly.

Melanie suddenly turned smiling, motioning me over to the desk. “I’m here with a friend today; she’s going to eat too of course.” It was a normal line, but the way she said it sent shivers down my spine. She said it so carefully, as if it was obvious that she had a friend, and she seemed extremely sure that I was going to eat.

The hostess’ face flushed bright red, and she muttered a rushed apology before grabbing another menu for me. I didn’t hear her say anything else as she immediately lead Melanie and I to a table.

This completely confused me, I hadn’t heard them saying anything about a reservation, and if we didn’t have one of those why were we being seated so quickly while there were so many people waiting for a table? Then I realized something, if the hostess knew Melanie already, which she seemed to, it must mean she had made reservations…but then why didn’t the hostess know about me? My head was beginning to throb, this was too much for me to try and figure out on my own.

The hostess led us to a small two person booth near the doors to the kitchen. “Is this fine?” she asked politely. When Melanie nodded the hostess placed the menus cautiously on the table. “Shall I let him know you’re here?”

Melanie and I sat down before Melanie nodded, “Yes please.” After the hostess had left Melanie disappeared into her menu for a split second before reappearing again. “I know that I’m having, you?”

I stared at her blankly, my head spinning with all my unanswered questions. “I have a feeling that I just missed a lot.”

She smiled fleetingly at me, her eyes shining briefly before her expression smoothed itself, “I have a feeling you did too, but I think that’s okay.”

“Hello Melanie, so nice to see you again, what can I get for you, the usual…and your friend here?” A waiter appeared at the edge of the booth, poised professionally ready to be off at a moment’s notice with our orders.

Melanie glanced over at me, the corners of her lips upturned. Her expression seemed to say, ‘Oh boy, they’ve been warned.’ She then looked up at the waiter, “Yes, my usual please, and if it’s not too much trouble…”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m sure he would be pleased to make it for you personally, no trouble at all,” the waiter assured her easily. “What would you like?” The waiter asked, turning to me.

“Um…” I scrambled to pick up the menu and search for something I wanted to eat. My eyes scanned the menu; lasagna was the first thing that came to my mind, so I looked at that section of the menu first.

’Melanie’s special homemade recipe lasagna’

The name caught my eyes right away I almost laughed it was so perfect for the occasion. I didn’t look any further; I decided that since I was already in a hurry I might as well try it. “I’ll have this,” I ordered indicating the lasagna to the waiter.

His eyebrows rose slightly and he shot me a confused look, but asked, “And what to drink?”

“Um, water please…” I said watching as he hurried into the kitchens doors.

“What did you order?” Melanie asked curiously.

I laughed pointing it out to her on the menu. Her eyes trailed up to me slowly from the text, but she didn’t laugh or smile as I expected her to, “Why’d you choose that one…?” she inquired quietly.

I shrugged and flipped through the rest of the menu to see what I could have gotten if I’d had more time. “I don’t know, it just stuck out at me. Why, what’d you order?” I looked up, what was her ‘usual’?

“Nothing that extravagant really, lemonade and chicken fettuccine alfredo.”

“Mmmm,” I realized suddenly that fettuccine alfredo sounded even better than lasagna had.

“Do you want to change your order?” she asked raising an eyebrow slightly.

“No, that’s okay, too much trouble…” I shook my head.

“Really it’s no big deal, I can get the waiter back here for you,” she pressed.

“Its fine, I want to try the lasagna.”

“If you say so,” she rolled her eyes but took my menu and stacked in on top of hers. “So now, what I wanted to talk to you about….”

I perked up, at least now I was going to get at least one of my questions answered. Not that it was much, but something was better than nothing.

“So as I’m sure you’ve seen, the gambling club doesn’t like you too much. Well I figure Gabe might’ve tried to explain this but…” she smiled slightly here and rolled her eyes, “…let’s face it, he doesn’t really know himself. So I figured I should tell you.

“The first thing that you have to understand is that our club, or organization if you will, is a secret, members-only thing. So, the fact that you – a non-member – know about it is a very bad thing for all of us. You’re not bound by anything to keep it a secret…but I assure you that there would be dire consequences to you afterwards if you let anything slip…” she smiled icily, her eyes glinting maliciously. Shivers convulsed down my spine, but I didn’t reply.

“I’m glad you understand, that means I can continue. I’m not sure what Gabe plans for you, but I trust him to know what he’s doing so I won’t ask. I just need you to understand that the only way anyone is ever going to let you two,” she paused briefly, her face going blank, “go out is when you are officially recognized as a member of the club.”

My face bloomed with red, “Who…who ever said anything about that?” my eyes widened with confusion and innocence.

“Oh please,” I could hear the sarcasm hinted in her voice, “I can read you like a book, you like him, I know, get over it. But the point is,” she continued before I could interrupt, “if you have any plans in that direction, you need to talk to me first.”

“Here you are,” the waiter was back with our food already; if had only been about ten minutes since he took our orders, sure I expected the drinks much sooner than that, but our food already? He carefully set our plates and drinks in front of us, and then left.

I inhaled slowly, smelling all of the herbs in the sauce. The lasagna looked delectable, the marinara sauce covered the layers perfectly, the cheese melted impeccably with beautiful golden brown noodles. Momentarily distracted from my conversation with Melanie I grabbed my fork and dug in. The first bite was even better than I could have imagined, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had something that tasted this genuinely good. The marinara sauce was easily complemented by the cheese and the noodle was perfectly soft and crispy.

I peered up from my food to see Melanie watching me with a smug expression on her face, “What?” I questioned, slightly miffed.

“I’m glad you like it,” her face brightened.

“Why?” I replied, barely able to restrain the sharp tone in my voice.

“Because that means I picked a good restaurant for us to come to….”

I took another bite of my lasagna and averted my eyes. I wasn’t about to admit she was right, and I didn’t want to have to apologize for getting mad at her for nothing. As I chewed I let out my temper, sure I was mad about her sticking her nose in where I didn’t think it belonged, but that didn’t make it okay for me to be as rude as I was being.

This was such an odd experience for me, I barely knew Melanie, and yet here I was, eating with her in this restaurant like we were best friends. I couldn’t place my suspicions about Melanie and her actions, but for now at least I felt I could trust her.

Several minutes later after we had both finished most of our food the squeak of a chair moving across the floor caught my attention. A tall young man was moving a chair over to the edge of our table, he twisted the chair around so that the back of it was against the table and then he sat down.

He was quite handsome (although nothing compared to Gabe in my opinion) and very tall with unruly blonde hair that shone as it caught stray rays of afternoon sunlight that filtered through the windows. He had dark tan skin and well muscled arms showing through underneath his white chef’s suit, Bright hazel eyes sparkled with laughter bringing light to his face.

I was certain that I was staring so I flicked my eyes away from him and reached for my water. Sipping deliberately I listened to Melanie greet him.

“Greg! It’s about time you finally got here; I’ve been waiting this whole meal for you.”

“Sorry Mel, it was bust in the kitchen, I couldn’t get away, not even for you.”

“I know, I believe you, I saw the people waiting out there, I’m so lucky I don’t have to worry about that.”

“Yeah? You could’ve made it easier on us and helped out a little. Heck, it would’ve been way more fun for me if you’d gone back there to eat,” I heard his laughter in his voice.

“I couldn’t, I have company, I don’t think she’d be comfortable back in the kitchen, and I had to talk to her anyway.”

I felt their eyes on me, “Who’s this?” Greg inquired.

I turned my head to face him, deciding to introduce myself instead of letting Melanie do it for me, “I’m Kari, nice to meet you.”

His eyes squinted in amusement, “But I haven’t introduced myself to you yet, you’ve been listening.”

I didn’t know what to say so I took another bite of my lasagna instead. I saw Greg watching me as I did this so I met his gaze and swallowed. “Yes?” I questioned frowning.

“Just making sure I made it just right, I made your food.” He paused to smile, “I also wanted to see if you liked the recipe…I know the person who came up with it….”

I was cautious, “It’s very good, I’ve never had anything quite as good. Who came up with it?”

I could tell by his expression that he was humoring me, “Well she’s sitting right here….”

I have to admit, I was very slow on the uptake, somewhere in my mind I’m sure I knew that he was referring to Melanie, but my brain didn’t alert me. I was very disbelieving, “Melanie did? I thought that was just…” a small voice in my head told me to stop talking before I embarrassed myself even more, and I did the right thing and listened to that voice.

I glanced over at Melanie quickly enough to see her confident smirk, “Did you make Melanie’s food too?” I asked, changing the subject before they could really laugh at me. I remembered the waiter telling Melanie that a ‘he’ wouldn’t mind making her food.

“Me? No, that would be her dad…” he answered confused.

“Her dad?” I echoed just as befuddled.

“Yes, my dad, he owns the places after all,” Melanie answered staring at me with ’Well duh’ written across her face.

Several things clicked, the no reservations needed, the sudden embarrassment of the hostess, everything was blatantly obvious now.

“Well we’d better get out of here if we want to be back for class,” Melanie decided standing up from the table.

Greg’s face fell, “Already? But I just got off for break!”

“Sorry, your fault, I have to go and so does Kari, two to one.”

“Alright, I’ll tell your dad good-bye for you, and I’ll clear the table too,” he consented sadly.

“Thanks Greg knew I could count on you,” Melanie flashed him a smile and again I was taken aback by how beautiful her face was when she smiled. Greg though, seemed used to her smile and I found myself wondering how they knew each other.

“No problem,” he turned to me, “Nice meeting you Kari, maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”

I nodded hesitantly, “Sure…sometime.”

As Greg collected up our leftovers Melanie motioned for me to head out to the car ahead of her. I took the hint; I saw that she wanted to say something to him in private. I was curious, but I knew so much better than to try and eavesdrop when she had specifically instructed me to leave.