The bell beside the door jingled as Dakota walked in, followed shortly after by Sylvia who had been holding the door open for her. Dakota slid into the small booth and set her purse beside her as Sylvia walked up to the counter and waited for the cashier to return from the kitchen. A short, young woman walked out of the kitchen holding several styrofoam containers and nodded at Sylvia as she bagged the take-out for another customer. After stapling the bag shut and taping the receipt to the top of it, she walked over and pulled out a small notebook and pencil from her pocket.

“Hi, what can I get you?”

Sylvia spoke as she pulled her wallet out of her back pocket. “Two waters, one order of spring rolls, one large chicken fried rice, and one large chicken lo mein please.”

The woman typed the prices for the food into the register with a speed that can only be gained from experience. “Okay, that’ll be $19.87.” 

Sylvia handed her the twenty dollar bill from her wallet and put her wallet back in her pocket as she told the woman “Just keep the change.” 

She nodded and ripped the order out of the notebook. She said “Ten minutes” as she set two bottles of water on the counter and walked back into the kitchen. Sylvia grabbed the bottles and walked back to the booth where Dakota was, setting one in front of her and getting a smile as a thank you. Setting the other beside the napkin dispenser and sauce packets, she slid into the red and yellow chair and fidgeted her hands in her lap under the table. Dakota’s sat on top of each other on the table, calm as could be.

Dakota spoke not long after Sylvia had sat down. “Nervous, huh?”

Sylvia forced her hands to calm down and laid them on top of the table before she responded. “Is it that obvious?”

A sympathetic smile graced Dakota’s face as she responded. “To me, yeah but to anyone else probably not. I have only been dating you for three and a half years at this point. I know your tells pretty well.”

“This is just the first time I’ve been out in a button-up in months, you know? Not to mention that my hair’s like ninety percent shorter now. Plus, on top of all that, I’m sitting in a restaurant called Casual Chinese in a pair of ironed slacks and a damn pressed shirt. I have to stick out like a sore thumb and I just really don’t feel like being hate crimed tonight. You might end up crying and that would ruin your make-up. Which is very pretty, by the way.”

Dakota leaned forward as she grabbed Sylvia's hands with hers and squeezed. “Hon, no one is going to say anything I promise. But if some idiot does try something, I’ve got mace in my purse.” Sylvia nodded, her fear and nerves slowly disappearing. “Thank you for the compliment on my make-up by the way, but I should really be thanking you. If you hadn’t insisted on taking forever to polish your boots, I probably would have only done half of this.”

Sylvia shrugged. “What can I say, you can’t wear an outfit like this with unpolished boots. Besides, I didn’t take that long. It was like fifteen minutes at most. Now, the conditioning I gave my boots before I polished them was what took like half an hour.”

Dakota gave a small shake of her head as she smiled at Sylvia. “I swear, you take better care of those boots then you do yourself. It did somehow manage to make you look even more dapper though.”

A small grin spread across Sylvia's face as it slightly reddened from the compliment. “Hey, these are good American boots. Union made too. Cost me the better part of a week's pay. I condition and take care of them and they’ll take care of my feet and hopefully last for a while yet. I’ve had them for years now. I do need to go get them resoled soon though. My new extended rounds are wearing them down something fierce.”

Dakota leaned back and released Sylvia’s hands from hers, as she grabbed her bottle of water and opened it. “Are you just going to take them to that same guy that you had do it last time? Hanlin, I think?”

Sylvia nodded as Dakota took a drink. “Yeah, probably. He does good work and he’s reasonable. It’s not like I’m getting them resoled because he did bad work, they’re just half an inch thinner than they were when he put them on.”

Dakota recapped her bottle and set it down on the table as she spoke. “Oh, I know that. I just didn’t know if he was even still open. It’s been, what, two and half years since the last time you went?”

“Something like that, I think? Definitely got my money’s worth out of these soles. Sixty bucks is a lot cheaper than a new pair every other year.”

Dakota opened her mouth to speak when the bell beside the door jingled once again and a middle aged blonde woman walked in. Both Dakota and Sylvia looked toward the noise and the woman shot them both a polite smile as she walked up to the counter. She left just as quickly as she appeared, carrying the stapled bag Sylvia had watched the cashier prepare out the door with her. 

Just as Dakota went to try and speak again, the cashier called out “Spring rolls, chicken fried rice, and chicken lo mein up!” Sylvia laughed at Dakota throwing her hands up in annoyance as she got up to get the food, thanking the cashier as she picked it up and walked back to the booth. 

As she passed out the spring rolls and Dakota poured duck sauce into her lo mein, she spoke. “You wanna try talking again? Shouldn’t be anymore interruptions.”

Dakota sighed as she stirred the sauce into her food. “Honestly, I don’t even remember what I was going to say at this point. Two strikes and I’m out.”

“It’s three strikes, not two,” Sylvia replied as she slid back into the booth again.

“You get my point! Not my fault I don’t know the rules for a game no one likes.”

Sylvia stared at Dakota in disbelief. “I like baseball! Also, when you watched the Reds game with me, you said you did too!”

Dakota sighed as she tried to figure out how to explain her thoughts on the matter. “Honey, it’s like how you feel when I drag you to the farmer’s market or start talking about building computers. It’s not your thing, but you put up with it for me. Baseball is like that for me. So is you taking two hours in Ace every time you go in for some screws, but I’ve grown to find it endearing.”

Sylvia crossed her arms before she replied. “Well look, you try finding the exact size screw we need. It’s a long process!”

“I’m not saying it’s not, but I am saying that your trips could be shortened by not browsing the gardening and power tools aisles everytime we go.”

“Hey, my drill died and you’re the one who’s always saying that you need more fertilizer for the complex garden.”

“Sylvia, it was the middle of December!”

“That’s exactly when it’ll be the cheapest, when it’s not in demand!”

Dakota laughed at Sylvia’s antics and particular brand of logic. “Okay, look, let’s just eat and enjoy our date. We’re arguing over nothing.”

Sylvia picked up her fork and shot Dakota an apologetic look. “Sorry for that.”

Dakota laid her left hand on Sylvia's as she picked up her own fork with her right. “Look, neither of us has anything to be sorry for, okay? It’s just who we are and we’ve grown to work with it. It’s fine. Now, let's just eat before it gets cold.”

Sylvia nodded as Dakota pulled her hand back and gathered up some lo mein on her fork. “I, uh, hate to say this, but we do need to stop at Ace before we go home.”

Dakota’s fork stopped just shy of her mouth in utter shock. “For what exactly?”

Sylvia had the sense to look bashful as she spoke. “I need a new sanding disk to finish smoothing out that Wagner pan you bought at the flea market last week. My old one wore out on me.”

Dakota gave a half nod as she chewed, swallowing before she spoke. “Okay, we’ll stop at Ace after we eat. If I’m going to be on my feet for that long, especially in these damn high heels, I want some food in my stomach. You need to eat too.”

Sylvia gave Dakota a smile as she looked down at her food. “Hey, do you want half of this spring roll?”

“Sure. Just put it next to the other one in the container.” Sylvia tore the spring roll in half and set Dakota’s half in her container before diving into her rice.