Under A Paper Moon

Alex’s POV.

“What do you think she’s gone to show her?” Jack asks glancing at me.
“How should I know?” I ask.
“Cause she’s your fiancé, you should know these things.” he says.
“You think that just because I’m engaged to her I know the inner workings of the female mind? Dude that is a feat that no man can ever achieve as long as he lives!” I respond.
“They’re probably looking at your collection of Postman Pat dvds” Matt comments with a smirk.
“Those are for when I baby-sit my nephew, he loves Postman Pat” Jack protests.
“Yeah, he does, but you love it just as much if not more than him, and you love to sit and watch it with him when he comes over, and after he goes back home” Rian comments.
“Whatever, it’s a great show ok! And you can’t really talk Dawson you watch The Smurfs and the Power Rangers every morning” he says.
“Yeah but I’m not the one that knows and sings along to all the songs in the Lion King and insists that we watch it at least once a month” Rian responds.
“The Lion King is a classic! And the songs are awesome! EVERYONE loves The Lion King! Its one of the best animated movies ever made!” Jack says.
“Yeah, sure it’s a great movie, but not everyone can like recite the entire script and all the songs by heart, and list off the people who played each character on cue” Rian says.
“I don’t know the whole script, just the songs, and knowing who voiced the characters is really no different from knowing who plays which character in a live action movie…you can name all the actors in every single one of the Star Wars movies, the originals AND the prequels so you really can’t make fun of me for knowing the actors who voiced the Lion King., that’s one movie, Star Wars is six, so you’re the bigger film geek here Dawson not me.” Jack says.
“And you two are bickering like an old married couple! Seriously, what’s Gene gonna think if she walks in here and hears you two bickering like this?” I ask.
“Nothing, she’s not one of those stupid fan girls who has fantasies of us being in relationships with each other.” Jack says.
“Anyway moving on, where are you taking her on your date?” Matt asks glancing across the table at Jack.
“We’re gonna go to Rocco’s Capriccio, it’s one of her favourite restaurants.” he replies.
“She knows about Rocco’s?” I ask.
“Well I’d assume so because it would be pretty hard for it to be one of her favourite restaurants if she doesn’t know it exists wouldn’t it?” he responds.
“You know what I mean, Rocco’s isn’t exactly one of the most well known restaurants in Baltimore. Although it’s got to be one of if not the best Italian restaurants around, the fact that she knows about it just makes her fit in even better with us” I say.
“Because her knowing about Rocco’s existence is the most important thing in the world” he says sarcastically. “and the fact that she’s actually a nice person who isn’t gonna sell us out to the press”
“Yep, she knows about Rocco’s, she definitely hired” Matt says.
“She already was hired” Jack comments.
“Yes, but now we know that we’ve hired the right person, because we all know that Rocco’s is the best place to go in Baltimore for Italian food, but because it’s not one of the most popular social hangouts a lot of our other make-up artists haven’t wanted to go there because their main reason for working with us was to get their fifteen minutes of fame by getting snapped hanging out with us” Rian says.
“And Ava gets along well with her” I say.
“That’s one of the main reasons you wanted to hire her isn’t it?” Matt asks.
“Well yeah, that and she’s a good make-up artist and doesn’t have a problem with living on a tour bus with us for a couple of months, taking short showers and washing her clothes in Laundromats when we can find them” I say “and she doesn’t mind pitching in with cooking and washing dishes and the other chores that need to be done to keep the bus in liveable condition”
“Wait what? A make-up artist that’s not afraid to get her hands dirty and pitch in with household chores like washing up and cooking?” Rian asks.
“Yeah I know, crazy isn’t it?” I reply shooting a look at Jack.
“Well that’s because Gene is the best make-up artist in the whole entire world and none of the others even come close to being as awesome as she is” he says.
“Ava’s hired her to do her make-up for our wedding, we went into MAC cosmetics the other day and Genevieve happened to be the one who the appointment was booked with.” I say.
“Wait so that’s why she came to Starbucks?” Jack asks.
“Yeah, we were gonna meet them at Dillards, but one of her co-workers is a huge fan girl and would like try to jump our bones if we’d walked in, so we decided to meet at Starbucks instead so we could avoid that” I say.
“Gene did her Ava’s hair and make-up?” Matt asks.
“Yeah, she did.” I say.
“Damn she really is good, Ava looked amazing” Rian says “I mean not that she doesn’t always look great of course but well…Gen did a really good job, she looked like she was about to walk out onto the red carpet at the MTV VMA’s or the Academy Awards.” he adds hastily shooting a glance at me. “and I mean that in that in a totally non-romantic way”
“Relax man, I know what you mean. I know you’re not hitting on my fiancé, you don’t have to justify yourself. And I agree she looked beautiful with her hair and make up done like that.” I say smiling at the memory.
“Dude get a napkin, you’re drooling all over the table” Matt says throwing a napkin at me.
“Fuck!” I say picking up the napking and wiping my face. “hey what the hell! I am no drooling!” I say causing them all to burst out laughing.
“Oh man you shoulda seen the look on your face Gaskarth it was fucking priceless!” Rian says.
“I hate you guys” I say flipping them off.
“Yeah, that’s why you’re trying real hard not to laugh right now.” Zack says.
“Shut-up” I retort trying to keep a straight face but failing miserably and breaking into a grin. “Ok so that was pretty good, you had me worried for a second that I’d like drooled all down my shirt and was gonna look like a right tosser when Ava comes back in here.” I admit.