Under A Paper Moon

A couple of weeks later

Alex’s POV

“Yo Jack., where you at man” I yell from the kitchen, Ava and Genevieve have gone shopping together so Jack and I are at home alone, and he’s been silent for the last hour and a half…which if you know Jack is pretty much impossible so I am a little bit worried.
“Yes Alexander?” Jack asks walking into the kitchen with a huge grin on his face.
“Oh, hey, just wondering what had captured your attention so completely that you’ve managed to remain silent for more than an hour” I say.
“Ha, ha” he responds poking his tongue out at me “did you have a reason for wanting to know my whereabouts or were you just missing me?” he asks.
“Oh I miss you every minute that you’re not around me Jack, you know that. But yeah I did actually have a reason for wanting to know where you are that goe’s beyond just missing your dazzling presence” I say.
“And what would that be?” he asks.
“I was thinking…”
“Did it hurt?” he asks.
“Very funny” I respond rolling my eyes at him.
“I thought so” he says with a smile “anyhoo continue”
“What would you say to calling the girls and asking them if they want to go out for dinner? You know like a double date kinda thing” I ask.
“I think that’s a great idea! I was actually thinking we should do that sometime myself. I mean they both get along really well, so we wouldn’t have to worry about them secretly plotting to kill each other or anything.” he says.
“Where do you want to take them?” I ask.
“Dude, I dunno, some place that sells food” he responds.
“No shit, really Jack? I could never have figured that one out for myself” I say sarcastically.
“It was your idea, I figured you’d actually have a place in mind” he says.
“Well I don’t, I know what Ava and I like to eat, and I know what you like, but what does Gen like? I don’t want to pick a place and find out that she doesn’t like the food there or something” I say.
“She loves Italian food, we went to Rocco’s the other week, she’s friendly with the owner and one of the waiters there so she goes quite a bit. Maybe we could order some food from there and bring it back here, set the table all nice with candles and shit and surprise them when they get back from their shopping trip, Gen said she’s gonna come back here to drop Ava off anyway so we wouldn’t even have to tell them we have something planned.” He says.
“Good idea! I just hope they don’t get dinner while they’re out or the plan will be kinda ruined” I say.
“Well maybe we could call them, or send them a message and ask them not to eat anything before they come back from the mall?” he suggests.
“Yeah, I guess we could do that. But they might get suspicious and think that we’re planning something and then the surprise would be kinda ruined” I say.
“Ok...so could we like maybe we could call all the restaurants and café’s in and around the mall and ask them not to serve the girls?” he says with a grin.
“Hey that might actually work” I say.
“Uhh, I was joking” he says.
“Yeah, I know but it could actually work. And it wouldn’t alert them to the fact that we have something planned” I say.
“What so you want us to call every single restaurant, café or take-out place in the general vicinity of the mall and ask them to refuse to server our girlfriends?” he says.
“Yeah pretty much” I say.
“Alright but if this ends badly and the girls want to kill us when they find out why no one would serve them then you have to tell them that it was your idea” he says.
“But it wasn’t my idea, it was your” I reply.
“Well…yeah technically, but I was joking. You’re the one who came up with the idea of using my idea so its actually really your idea and not mine since you chose to actually carry it out.” he says.
“I’m sure they won’t be mad, not if we get them their favourite Italian dishes, make the place look real nice, maybe light some candles, play some romantic type music, crack open a couple of bottles of wine and offer to do the dishes while they pick out a movie for the four of us to watch” I say.
“They might be a little mad to begin with” he points out.
“Sure, but then once they see that we have a pretty good reason for not wanting them to eat before they come home I think they’ll see the funny side to it all. At least I hope they will” I say.
“Yeah, me to” he agrees.
“Of course we could be worrying for no reason, I mean there’s as much chance that they won’t want to get something to eat before they leave as there is that they will” I say.
“If that’s the case, do we want to tell them what we did to ensure that they didn’t?” he asks.
“I dunno, maybe. But then again maybe not cause we might want to use the same tactic at a later date” I say.
“But if they comment about a whole bunch of places refusing to serve them we confess that we had a part in it right?” he asks.
“Yeah, we don’t want them to think they’re being snubbed or something” I say.
“No we definitely don’t want that” he says “not that I can actually imagine anyone wanting to snub Genevieve, or Ava, they’re both awesome.”
“Some of the more obsessive fan girls might” I point out.
“Well yeah but that would be more out of jealousy at them for being with us, rather than just snubbing them out of dislike” he says.
“I think those kinds of fans would dislike them based purely on the fact that we’re dating them, because that means they can’t fulfil their fantasies of marrying us.” I say.
“I hate fans like that” he says.
“Yeah me too, fortunately though there aren’t very many of them” I say.

Ava’s POV

“So what do you think the guys are doing right now?” Gen asks, she and I are spending the day together at the mall shopping for some outfits to take on tour with us.
“I dunno, watching sport, drinking beer, eating junk food, maybe all three” I say rolling my eyes. “Alex never watches sport without junk food, doesn’t matter if he’s just had dinner, or if we’re going out to a fancy restaurant he always has some form of junk food when he’s watching any form of sport from Football, to the Olympics”
“So sport, food, and beer huh?” she asks.
“Most likely, or something to do with any combination of those things” I say.
“And missing us of course” she says.
“Oh no doubt about it, they’re missing us every second” I say. “So anyway how’s it going with you and Jack? Are you two getting along alright? Still enjoying each others company?” I ask.
“Yeah, its going good, we’re getting along fine as far as I can tell.” she says. “I really like him, he’s sweet, caring, friendly, down to earth, a good listener everything you could ask for in a boyfriend. And of course there’s the added bonus of him being gorgeous” she says.
“So did you have a thing for him before you met him?” I ask.
“Not really, I mean I found him attractive, but I didn’t have a crush on him or anything like that. I was a fan of the band for their music the fact that they’re all pretty easy on the eye didn’t have anything to do with it” she says.
“What first attracted you to him?” I ask.
“I don’t know, a combination of things I guess. He was so nice to me after I passed out in the supermarket aisle, both he and Alex were, they insisted on driving me home and helping me with my groceries and staying till they were sure I was ok” she says.
“I think that might have had something to do with Jack thinking you were the most gorgeous girl he’d ever seen” I say with a smirk.
“Psh yeah right” she scoffs.
“I’m serious! You should have heard him when they got home! You’re all he could talk about, he kept on gushing about how he’d met this ‘amazing’ girl at the supermarket and how he hoped that Matt would approve you for the make-up artist gig cause he wanted to get to know you better ‘cause he thought you and him could be really good friends” I say.
“That’s kinda what I thought about him, that we’d be good friends if we got the chance to get to know each other. I never for even a moment entertained the idea of anything more happening between us.” she says.
“Why not?” I ask.
“Because I figured being a famous musician he had a girlfriend, and that if he didn’t he wouldn’t want to be dating some boring make-up artist they found in a supermarket aisle” she says.
“So are you glad you were wrong?” I ask with a grin.
“I’ve never been happier about being wrong in my life” she responds poking her tongue out at me.

Two hours later

Genevieve’s POV

“I can’t believe none of those places would serve us! I mean seriously, we must have gone to like eight different restaurants and they all refused to serve us, they couldn’t ALL have been fully booked” I say pulling the car door shut with a bang and starting the engine to commence the drive back to Ava’s house.
“Ugh I know! And they wouldn’t even let us get take-out! I mean come on, what kind of restaurant turns away paying customers?” Ava says.
“One that clearly doesn’t understand how the hospitality industry works, half those places were frigging empty and they still refused to serve us” I say.
“If it was just one place I’d say it was because the bitch behind the counter recognised me as Alex’s fiancé and refused to serve us out of jealousy or something, but eight? I highly doubt there are that many haters in such a small area” she says.
“Do you want to go to Rocco’s? get some pizza or something?” I ask.
“Nah, lets just go home, I’ll order Alex to make us some pizza’s or something” she says.
“Hmm I like that idea” I say.
“What because you get to see Jack?” she teases.
“Well..that’s part of it yeah, but I also like the idea because Alex is pretty good with that pizza oven of his and any excuse to eat his pizza is fine with me” I say “and also I just think seeing you order him to cook us some dinner would be highly amusing” I add poking my tongue out at her.
“It’s really not as exciting as you’d think” she says.
“I think I’ll be the judge of that” I respond winking at her.
“Go right ahead, but I’m telling you know it really isn’t very exciting, Alex loves cooking pizzas, hell he might have even made some already today, he usually does so once ever y week or two. And sometimes he makes extra and freezes them so he can have them for breakfast or lunch or whatever” she says.
“He eats pizza for breakfast?” I ask.
“Yeah, he does, usually after he’s had a few too many drinks the previous night and wakes up with a hangover, if he can’t be bothered cooking bacon and eggs he’ll just grab a pizza out of the freezer and warm it in the oven while he takes a shower” she says.
“Huh, well I guess that makes sense” I say “do you ever eat pizza for breakfast when you have a hangover?” I ask.
“No, if I have a hangover I either don’t eat or I have fresh fruit with yoghurt on top sprinkled with cinnamon sugar” she says.
“Are you serious?” I ask. “I thought I was the only one that liked that stuff! Everyone else I’ve ever met tells me I’m crazy and that I should eat something all oily and fatty if I have a hangover, but I’ve always preferred fruit” I say.
“Ugh the guys tell me that too, Alex always comes and breathes his pizza breath all over me and asks me if I want some. My answer is always no, and has been since we were in senior year but he doesn’t seem to be able to get it into his head that I don’t want pizza for breakfast” she says.
“He probably hopes that one day you’ll change your mind and actually want some pizza for breakfast” I say.
“Probably, but its never gonna happen so if he’s waiting for that day then he’s gonna be waiting a very, very long time” she says.
“Well here we are” I say pulling up to the kurb outside the house and cutting the engine. “Thanks for asking me to come shopping with you, I would have had no idea what clothes to get for tour without you”
“No problem girl! It was fun, we’ll definitely have to go on more shopping trips together in the future.” she says.
“Oh for sure, shopping with a friend is so much more fun than going on your own” I agree.
“It’s a whole lot better than shopping with your fiancé as well, I mean Alex comes with me and he’s perfectly fine but I know he doesn’t really enjoy it and is just coming because he loves me. Which is great but I always feel kinda guilty dragging him around the shops all day you know?” she says.
“Well that won’t be a problem anymore ‘cause you can just get me to come with you, and Alex can stay home with Jack and do guy stuff” I say.
“I know Alex will whole-heartedly embrace that suggestion” she says.