Thanks For The Steaks

In the restaurant, the nerd shut his eyes because if he had to look at her—at him. He’d falter. His hands balled into fists not because he anticipated violence, but because he needed something to hold onto like a lap bar on a roller-coaster. He took a deep breath and his confession rushed out of him. “Mikaela Nickole Doughboy I’ve loved you ever since I first heard your voice.” The nerd spoke passionately and true, swapping his S’s for -th’s in a pronounced lisp. “And, and...” He was losing steam, losing momentum. “I-I—” He opened his eyes, looked at Mikaela and their beauty arrested his tongue. He grew silent for what would have been forever, had movement not have attracted his gaze over to Mikaela’s...guest (he would never call him their date). And the sight of the man filled the nerd with enough rage to carry on. “—Don’t think you should hang around people like him!” The nerd then pointed to the object of his emotional turmoil, the man in the booth seat opposite to Mikaela who was slouched at such an angle that his Dock Martin boots were on the table and crossed. He wore blue jeans and biker gloves, a black leather jacket with a white T-shirt underneath. His hair was cut in the style of a pompadour, and he was in the process of combing it, a smoldering cigarette hung out of his curled mouth. The nerd didn’t say the man’s name and he didn’t have to. Jack Allison was the type of cat who let his bad-boy reputation precede him. Jack arched an eyebrow at the Nerd’s accusatory finger but said nothing. Mikaela looked up at the nerd with an expression that could easily have been mistaken as embarrassment. “What are you doing here?” they asked. In the face of such beauty, somehow, the nerd found his voice. “I, well—when you asked for money to go get steaks tonight I thought...And now you’re here with him, and I...” “Sorry daddy-o,” said Jack who had taken his boots off the table. He was sitting upright as he addressed the nerd, while crushing out his cigarette in the center ashtray. The action caused the nerd to