Blah Blah Blah (Ella)

[Ella Tate]

Not realising her error, Ella happily pulled Kiko along with her to the fast food restaurant. It was only when Kiko raised the question did Ella even get a hint that it might not be up Kiko's alley. While there were people who cared about their arteries, Ella really wasn't one of them.

She was a smoker after all. And she was one of those smokers whose logic was that: We will die anyway, why not do it with style?

"Well...I suppose." Ella shrugged at Kiko's salad query. "I suppose? Never ate them. I'm more of a "I eat meat" kinda gal." She chuckled. "You want something else? We could do Friday's. Their fried mushrooms make me happy."

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Kiko listened to Ella's explanation with impatience, but she lit up at the suggestion of Friday's.

"Yeah, let's do that instead." She agreed, turning on her heel and urging the other woman along with her. "When you've seen what the inside of crappy arteries look like you kinda get slightly health conscious and I don't trust the salads here to be fresh."

But Friday's would please them both; it had horrible artery-clogging buckets of grease and healthy selections and it wasn't fast food.

"I think I'll pass on the fried mushrooms but don't let that stop you from enjoying them for me."

[Ella Tate]

Ella's nose scrunched up and she made retching sounds as she was dragged alongside the other woman.

She honestly couldn't care less about where they ate so she happily followed the other woman, a smile on her face as Kiko spoke.

"Don't mind if I do." Ella grinned at her companion as she perused the menu. "Oh they have Ceaser's salad with gigantic croutons. Lovely." She turned to the pediatrician in question. "You decided yet? Because I have. You drink?"

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Kiko shut her menu and slid it to the edge of the table as Ella announced that she was ready to order. "Yup, I'm ready. That Grilled chicken cobb salad is calling my name." She agreed, glancing up to see if the other woman's prodding had anything to do with the waitress being there.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized this wasn't the case.

"Yeah, I do." She confessed, grabbing the drink and dessert spiral menu from between the condiments and flipping through it. "You wanna margarita or are you thinking more like wine?" She asked before passing the drink menu to her friend.

As she did so a stocky, pleasant-faced woman who was probably a good ten years older than either of the two friends approached, asking if they were ready.

"Uhh, I am!" She told the waitress, diving for her purse, "And I'm a stripes club member so, chips and salsa?" She began digging for her wallet in order to find the card in question. "Here!" She sighed in relief as she found it, plopping it onto the table, "I'm having the grilled chicken cobb salad. Ella?"

[Ella Tate]

Ella nodded at Kiko's order and pondered over her drink choice. "No preference. I just want alcohol in me." She grinned and looked through the menu passed to her. "Although I do want something sour."

She looked up just as the waitress came over. Ella gave her a smile and pointed out her order of Ceaser's salad with extra croutons, a rack of ribs, a tall glass of soda and a margarita. "We'll order our desserts later. Thank you. And yeah, chips and salsa for sure." She nodded and handed over the menus.

"Now...how are you and Rome? I haven't seen him in awhile."

[Tsukiko Aoki]

After their order was put in and the waitress left Kiko slipped her wallet back into her purse.

"Rome and I are fine." She replied, shrugging the question off dismissively; there really wasn't much to tell on that front, unfortunately. "He can be so absurd, but he cooks for me so I suppose I can't give him too hard a time. His family is really great, too, so I'm lucky."

She would count herself luckier if he would propose, but that seemed a distant fantasy at the moment.

"What about you and Chloe? Are you still together?"

[Ella Tate]

Ella noticed Kiko's deflection but didn't comment on it, as curious as she was. She, of all people, should understand the need to keep secrets.

She nodded with a smile as Kiko played the role of a perfect girlfriend to an acquaintance. She really should learn from Kiko. Her relationship with Chloe, though completely exhilarating, was far from perfect. If her affairs were any indication.
"Yeah. We are. We're going bird-watching next week." Her tone far from enthusiastic. "Should be fun."

After a few more minutes of idle chitchat, their drinks came and Ella thanked the waitress. "How's work? Kids...okay?"

[Tsukiko Aoki]

"Bird watching?" Kiko raised an eyebrow at Ella's less than enthusiastic assertion about her relationship. "So you'll get to see Chloe all excited, right?"

While she didn't share all of Rome's passions, it was certainly attractive to see him enthusing about them; she didn't even need to feign interest in his happiness, even if beating the newest boss on whatever video game wasn't the least bit interesting to her on her own.

"Work is good. The kids are as good as can be expected given their circumstances, you know? Just glad when I can send any of them home. The ones who only have to come for their appointments, I always hope that's a step towards them being healthy and not having to come back."

She shrugged again.

"So how's work at the school? I know some of your students are rascals."