fandomtownies | Ching Tai, 8/4, Friday Evening

Cally arrived, smiling and fiddling with the hem of her tanktop.

"Hi," she said, waving at Tempe.

"Hey," Tempe said smiling. "You look beautiful."

"Um, not that you didn't before. I just mean..." she trailed off.

She closed her eyes briefly before opening them and began again. "Ready to eat?"

Cally's smiled widened, and she nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready. Been kinda looking forward to this."

Tempe grinned again, as she took Cally's arm. "Me too. I've been trying to read all afternoon, and I haven't been able to concentrate at all."

Cally led Tempe to a table and pulled out a chair for her.

"I like Chinese," she said. "It reminds me of the food from home, actually. Especially the noodles."

Tempe sat down. "Me too. It's kind of a comfort food for me. When I was in foster care, it was the only meal that brought us all together. Kind of like a truce before the next war was declared, I guess. Still, it was the one time no one yelled at each other."

This would be the first time Tempe had been able to refer to her short time in foster care without the inevitable feeling of crushing loneliness and abandonment kicking in.

"Where are you from?" Tempe asked, curious. She knew Cally wasn't from Earth, but that was about it.

Cally sat down. "I'm from Oasis," she said, playing with her napkin. "It's on Caprica, which is. . . oh, a huuuge ways away. Erm, it's another planet, actually, if you didn't know that."

"Cool," Tempe replied, a small grin lighting her features. "I wish I was from somewhere interesting. I'm just from Earth. Born and bred in Illinois. Never lived anywhere else until I came here."

She took a sip of water. "Is Cally short for something? Or is it just Cally?"

"It's, erm, my last name, actually," Cally said. "My first name is actually Veruca. Which I don't exactly like, so, yeah. Go by last name, since going by my middle would end up with folks calling me Rosemary." Cally put her napkin in her lap and looked at menu.

"Oh, I don't know. I think Rosemary's a pretty nice name. And Veruca, well, it's certainly...unique." Tempe placed her own napkin in her lap, then gazed at the menu as well.

"Of course, I have somewhat of a unique perspective on names. In my mind, just about anything is better than Temperance. Which is what Tempe is short for, if you wondered."

She placed the menu back down, having decided what she wanted.

"I guess it's unique too," Cally said. "I guess being named that makes it seem like you should act all temperant, which is something weird to live up to. I mean, that's the reason I don't go by Rosemary. It gives off this weird, religiousy matron vibe to me, for some reason.

Cally flagged down a waiter an put in an order for sesame chicken and some tea. "What're you having? she asked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of pleasantly-scented spice, but you're right. I hate trying to live up to my name, which is why I go by Tempe. It's still odd, but at least people aren't associating it with a way I should be acting."

"Lemonade and lemon chicken," Tempe told the waiter, before taking another sip of water.

Cally smiled. "It's a spice? I didn't know that, actually. I'll have to look int that." She fiddled with her napkin a bit. "So, getting to know each other. Erm. . . is there anything you'd like to ask me?"

"Actually, I think it might be a herb. Either way, it's used to season food," Tempe replied, grinning.

"Um, let's see. I know your name, where you're from, that you like to read. Any other hobbies?"

"I mess about with machines a lot," Cally said. "I kinda like getting grease on my face, and really getting my hands into things. It's something I picked up from my dad, actually. I'm kinda mechnically minded, I guess. Even though what I really want to do is, erm. . . dentistry."

Tempe's eyebrows raised involuntarily. She was impressed.

"That's awesome," she replied, unable to suppress the wide grin. "Did you know you can use teeth to identify a dead body?"

There was a point to this line of questioning, really. Tempe wasn't trying to be unnecessarily gruesome during dinner.

Cally nodded and smiled. "It's that whole no set of teeth is like another thing," she said. "It's kinda awesome. I know you said you were into that anthropology stuff, which I guess is how you know that and. . . stuff." She fidgeted a little, trying not to blush.

Tempe nodded. "Absolutely. I could also tell you a bunch about bone degradation and fragmentation that would make your eyes glaze over. But that's not exactly romantic dinner talk."

She blushed at her own enthusiasm before speaking again. "Anything you want to ask me?"

"Oh, ummm," Cally thought for a second. "You know, I guess the one question I have is, ummm. . .well, not a whole lot of girls are, you know, interested in other girls and all. It's not gonna be hard for you, is it?" Cally blushed a little. "I don't want to, I mean, I'm not sure if. . ."

She was very thankful that the waiter showed up in order to bring their food at this time. It was saving her from trying to come up with what she meant.

Tempe blushed, but was determined to answer before she dug into her food.

"I've never been a relationship with another female before," Tempe began. "Actually, my experience with relationships in general is kind of sparse."

"What I do know is that I like you, I'm attracted to you in every sense of the word, and I don't really care much what the rest of the world has to say about it."

With that, she took a sip of her lemonade. And promptly started coughing as the liquid went down the wrong way.

"Eeep, careful," Cally said, looking worried. "Don't go choking on me. Though I guess I know mouth-to-mouth if it comes to that."

She was so not above making innuendo in a serious situation.

Tempe giggled. And then coughed some more. And then giggled again, before the cough overtook her once more. In amongst trying to gasp for breath, she spoke, albeit a little raspily. "Ack! Don't make me laugh!"

After the coughing died down, Tempe reached for her glass of water, which had thankfully been refilled by the waiter as he'd passed by a few minutes ago, and took a few large sips.

Finally, she looked back up at Cally, blushing. "Um. Sorry about that. Lemonade went down the wrong way."

"S'okay," Cally said. "Just don't die on me. But, okay, so. . ." She paused for a second "So, technically I've only dated one person, ever. And I've kissed a couple girls before, but. . . You're definitely special." She twirled a finger in her bangs, nervously.

Tempe nodded as she watched Cally's nervous fidgeting. "Same here. And you're actually the first girl I've kissed."

"So this will be new for both of us," Tempe concluded. "I guess we'll have to...learn as we go?"

She ate a piece of her lemon chicken, chewing thoughtfully.

Cally quickly chewed a bit of her chicken.

"Erm, I'm not totally inexperienced in this sort of thing, not exactly," she said. She started blushing something fierce. "But it'll be. . .yeah, it'll be good to learn as we go."

A matching blush covered Tempe's face as she went back to devouring her chicken. "Well, I'm inexperienced, for the most part. So, at the very least I'll have to learn as we go."

Then, to push back some of the awkwardness, Tempe changed the subject. "So, what do you think of the weather we've been having?"

Tempe facepalmed internally. Way to pick an original topic, Tempe...

"It's been really hot," Cally said. "It never really got this hot in Oasis. But it's given me an excuse to hide in my room with the AC half the time, so I can't really complain." She went back to eating her food as well. "How about you? Do you like it this hot?"

"Hate it, actually. I mean, it's okay inside with the AC, but outside...yuck," Tempe replied, as she continued to eat.

"I can't wait until it's winter again. I love the cold."

"It's a lot easier to bundle up than to get cool," Cally agreed. "Plus, huddling together for warmth. Fun and practical."

Tempe's eyes lit up. She was so not thinking of turning the air conditioning as high as it could possibly go in order to bring about such huddling.

"Yeah," she replied, eating the last bite of her chicken before putting down her fork. "Need to conserve body heat and all that."

"Mmm. They make a wicked lemon chicken here."

"I'll have to try it, next time," Cally said. "I always get the sesame chicken, out of habit."

She licked the side of her mouth for a moment, cleaning out a bit of stray sauce. "This was really nice."

Tempe grinned. "Yeah, it really was."

"So what do you think? Should we do this again?" she continued. Whether she was referring to going to Ching Tai, dating in general, or continuing their relationship, was anybody's guess.

"Absolutely," Cally said. "Definitely. Totally." She was grinning.

Tempe's grin widened. She stood up and extended a hand to Cally, after they'd ~~handwavily~~ paid their bill. "Ready to go?"

Cally took Tempe's hand and stood. "Yeah," Cally said. "But where are we going?" She took a step closer to the other girl.

Tempe blushed. "I was going to walk you back to your room. Give you a goodnight kiss, cuddle for awhile. You know, typical end-of-date things." Though not necessarily end-of-first-date-things...

"That sounds good to me," Cally said, smiling. She went to interlink her fingers with Tempe's. "Shall we be off, then?"

Tempe nodded, rubbing her thumb lightly over their linked fingers. "Absolutely."

She led Cally back to the dorms.

[OOC: And off to bed I go. Night!]

Ching Tai, 8/4, Friday Evening

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