Under A Paper Moon

Jack’s POV.

“That’ll be them now” Alex whispers upon hearing a key hit the lock in the front door.
“Either that or its one of the guys and we’re gonna waste the surprise on them” I comment.
“Dude, if that’s the case I’m gonna be fucking pissed” I say.
“Honey I’m home!” Ava’s voice announces from the passageway and Sebastian rockets out of the kitchen barking madly “Hi Sebby, where’s your daddy?”
“I think your dog likes her more than he likes you” I comment.
“He’s just being a good guard dog” he says.
“Guard dog? Nice try Alex the most threatening thing Seb would do is lick someone to death” I say.
“Shh, they’ll hear us”
“Alex? Jack? Are you guys here?” Ava calls
“Maybe they went out or something” Gen says.
“Yeah, maybe, but Alex didn’t mention anything to me this morning and he usually puts Seb outside if he’s leaving the house” Ava responds “they’re probably watching the game and didn’t hear us come in, it’s happened before, they get quite enthralled in Rangers games, I remember this one time I came home, walked into the lounge room and sat right next to Alex in a new dress for ten minutes before he even noticed I was there.”
“What finally alerted him to your presence” she asks.
“The final siren at the end of the game, he looked around to say something to Jack and noticed me sitting there beside him”
“Was he surprised?”
“Just a bit, I wasn’t supposed to be back for another two days, but I came home early from my trip and arranged with Jack to come over and surprise him, so Jack let me in since I wasn’t living here at that point and I came and sat next to Alex on the couch, so yeah I don’t think he was expecting to see me”
“I remember that day! You shoulda seen the look on your face when you saw her sitting next to you man, it was fucking priceless! I thought you were gonna explode or something” I say.
“Haha” he comment dryly “that was a pretty good surprise though”
“I hope this one is as well received” I respond.
“Yeah, me too” he agrees.
“You want something to eat? I think we have pizza in the freezer, we can just heat some in the microwave and eat that” Ava says.
“Sure sounds good, I’m not gonna pass up an opportunity to eat more of Alex’s pizza” she says.
“Your girlfriend likes me more than you” Alex teases.
“Psh whatever, she just likes your pizza.” I say. “Here they come, do we want to surprise them now or wait until they see the table?”
“Now” he responds flipping the light switch and standing up from where we are sitting behind the kitchen bench.
“Oh hi Alex” Ava says glancing at him with a grin on her face “we heard you guys whispering to each other all the way in the passage”
“I guess I should know better than thinking I can surprise you shouldn’t I?” he says walking round the bench and pulling her into a hug.
“Yeah, you should” she replies hugging him back.
“Did you have a good shopping trip?” he asks.
“Yeah, it was fun. Right up until the end when we wanted to get some dinner and no one would serve us” she says.
“What do you mean?” Alex asks.
“We went to whole bunch of restaurants around the mall, and they all told us that they were booked out and couldn’t serve us, they wouldn’t even let us order take-out can you believe that? Most of them weren’t even busy, they had like three tables or something” she asks.
“But the rest of the day was fun?” he asks.
“Yeah, it was great” she says giving him a questioning look.
“Well then isn’t it better to focus on that? Rather than on the one part of the day that annoyed you?” he asks.
“Ok Alexander, what did you do?” she asks.
“Me? I didn’t do anything, what makes you think I did anything?” he asks.
“You have that guilty look on your face, that one when you know you did something I might not approve of” she responds.
“I don’t have a look like that” he protests.
“Yeah you do, and you’re wearing it right now. So spill Alex, what have you done?” she asks.
“Before I tell you…there’s something I want to show you..or rather there’s something WE want to show you…both of you” he says.
“Do I want to see this thing you’re going to show me?” she asks turning to me.
“I think you’ll like it” I say not exchanging a look with Alex.
“Alright well let’s go see it then, but as soon as we have…I want an explanation out of you mister” she says looking at Alex.
“And you shall have it my dear” he replies in an exaggerated British accent “now come along, and I shall lead the way” he adds offering her his hand which she takes.
“This is for you too babe” I say wrapping my arm around Gen’s shoulders and following Alex and Ava.
“Here it is” Alex announces leading the way into the dining room and stepping back to allow the girls to take in the table, which is set with candles, and a bright red table cloth, black placemats and champagne glasses. “surprise” he announces.
“You guys did this?....for us?” she asks.
“Yeah, we figured you two would be hungry when you got home and we wanted to do something nice, so we ordered food from Rocco’s” he says.
“And to ensure that you didn’t eat before coming here, we may have had to call up the restaurants and request that they refuse to serve you.” I comment.
“So that’s why they all refused! I thought it was a bit odd that eight different restaurants would be totally booked out on a Wednesday night” Gen says.
“Yeah…sorry, it’s the only way we could come up with that wouldn’t alert you to the fact that we were up to something” I say.
“You really called up all the restaurants and café’s at the mall and asked them not to serve us?” Ava asks.
“Yep” Alex replies.
“How did you ensure that they didn’t refuse service to the wrong people?” she asks.
“We told them your names” he responds simply
“That explains why they were all asking for I.D” Gen comments “I thought that was a bit strange.
“Yeah, that was for us.” I say.
“So what food did you guys get?” she asks.
“Lasagna, Penne Carbonara, Spaghetti Bolognaise, and Fettucine Napoletana for the main, with garlic bread and salad for the main course, and Tiramisu with ice-cream and mixed berries for desert” I explain.
“And there is a choice of wine, or Jack Daniels and coke to drink.” Alex adds. “or coke, water or juice if you don’t want alcohol”
“Sweetie I live here too, and Gen’s been here a bunch of times we know about the drinks that are available” she says.