fandomtownies | Caritas; Wednesday [06/04].

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Caritas; Wednesday [06/04].

When Summer came in, there was a happy birthday banner hanging over the stage and Tino greeted her with a blast of a noisemaker and put a pink sparkly birthday hat on her head. She promptoly removed it and gave him a withering look.

"Please don't tell me that it's allegedly your birthday again," she said. "You have, like, five of those a year at this point."

Luckily for her, Tino didn't tell her it was his birthday. It was his brother's birthday. Tomorrow.

Honestly, Summer would have preferred he claimed it was his birthday again instead.

"I don't believe you even have a brother," Summer declared.

But apparently he did! He just worked at a different bar in Canada, so Summer clearly wouldn't know him.

Featured Cocktail
Smash of the Titans

Featured Jello
Kumquat 75
Orange Creamsicle
Orange Maple Pecan
Cheese Fries

Caritas is open!

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"Whose birthday?" Stark asked, frowning.

He was ignoring the existence of cheese fries in jello. Yikes.

"Hi, Summer."

Those cheese fries were a masterpiece, how dare you disparage her art!

"Hi, Stark," Summer gave the sort of tired smile that went along with just working with who she worked with and sighed, shaking her head, before she started setting out a few jello shots for him, yes, magnificent jello fries in their adorable cardboard container included. "And probably no one's. Tino says its his brother's birthday tomorrow but I don't think he actually has a brother."

"He might," Stark said slowly. But was that something anyone really wanted to think too hard on? The possibility of more people like Tino?

"You have a birthday soon though," he said, looking down at the cheese fry 'art.' "I meant to ask. If you.... if you might want to do something? For that?"

"I...haven't really thought about it much yet," Summer admitted, somewhat awkwardly as she focused her attention on preparing Stark's drink, too. This wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't completely false, either, and she sort of chewed on her lower lip a little. "I should probably throw a big party or something for it, it's been a while since I've done one of those and, like, 25 is a milestone year, for sure."

"I thought it might be, a milestone, but I wasn't sure."

Birthdays still weren't an area of expertise for Stark or anything like that.

"I didn't...I didn't mean like last year." Of course not. How could he? Last year and this year were maybe worlds apart.

"But, you're you. My best friend. So I thought I should ask if you wanted to do something. A party would be good, you're right, you haven't in a long time. But I just I just wanted to ask. To see what you might like. Or... if there was anything I could do?"

He'd hoped this would have been easier to discuss but he was stumbling again and looking down at the so-called art rather than looking up.

Maybe he could start by not being such a critic over what was obviously a work of pure brilliance!

The bite on her lip turned into a sort of chew as she tried to figure out the balance between what was probably best for them right now and the desire to just put the poor guy out of his misery. But at least now there were a few garnished going into a glass and a nice boozy drink in front of one of them that should help!

"I mean," she offered, "you could throw the party if you wanted to, but I know that's not really in your wheelhouse."

Hey, Stark was studying it closely and not saying anything critical at all! He was just talking it in but not in an ingesting sense.

"I don't think," he said with a tiny grimace, "that a party i did would be a very good birthday. Or gift. Or party."

He took a breath, picked up his cocktail and took a long sip. Another deep breath and he set the glass down and looked up at her.

"May I try again? Summer. What would you like to do for your birthday in addition to your party?"

And Summer looked back at him with a worried frown creasing her forehead before the expression shifted into something more apologetic and she sighed and rolled her eyes away. "I don't know, Stark," she admitted. "I think just the party's good, you know? Just....solid, neutral ground, you know? You don't have to do anything special for it, it's...honestly probably better if we don't, you know?"

"I wasn't sure," Stark admitted. There was s flicker of something on his face that disappeared quickly. "You're my friend and I wanted to offer, at least. It would feel wrong not to. But..."

A frown, another long sip of his drink, "I don't have to come to your party, either, if that's easier. I don't want to make things difficult for you.:

Summer looked like she was about to say something, but then that last part came out of Stark and whatever that previous thing was got entirely derailed with a small, frustrated sound and she threw up her hands a little.

"Stark," she said, "where in any of that did you get the idea that you couldn't come to my party? I even suggested you could possibly throw one!"

Stark winced in a very 'yeah i screwed that one up' sort of way.

"I'm sorry. I know better."

But there was the worrying too much to contend with.

"That was unfair of me. I just don't want to do make things more difficult for you. I'm just not always sure how to do that. Or... not do it."

"You do know better," Summer agreed, and at least he acknowledged it, but it had her sighing a little again, folding her arms in front of her as she leaned them on the bar.

"And here's the real kicker," she added. "You say you don't want to make it more difficult for me, but that's exactly what you are doing. Like, okay, so...let's you came in here and were aal 'hi, Summer, your birthday's coming up, let me take you to dinner for it,' I would, like,be, hell yeah,fuck yeah, let's go. But you don't do that. You come in and you make an offer, but I still have to do all the work in figuring out what it is, right? And, maybe, that's a running them worth examining a little closer, that maybe it wasn't all just my aversion to commitment at play here, but also a certain exhaustion at doing a lot of the heavy lifting."

Sorry, Stark. She'd had a few sessions with her therapist since the break-up, and had professional introspection now.

"Don't get me wrong!" she added hastily. "The biggest part of it is definitely that I do not want a serious relationship right now, but there may be other underlying factors that were likely contributing to it that I wasn't entitely aware of."

Dr. Wong was very good at her job.

Just be glad that Summer was graciously leaving out the comparisons and parallel that had been made about her parents' relationship. Although she didn't want to relive any of that stuff either!

"I'm sorry," Stark said again. "I'm trying to be better."

He was not going to mention that the last time he'd tried planning something she'd turned into a squirrel and then broken things off and that had certainly caused at least a little backsliding. So maybe it evened out, the not mentioning of things.

"May I try one more time? Not the same thing. A different question."

Oh, sure, because that would totally discredit what Dr. Wong said, trying to slack off some of the responsibility by blaming circumstances!

So this mutual not mentioning of things was definitely a good thing.

"Sure," said Summer. "Go for it. What'cha got for me?"

"Summer, would you like cupcakes for your birthday? Strawberry?"

Summer just sort of looked at Stark for a moment before she shrugged.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe you'll have to just make some to find out."

Stark nodded and gave her a hesitant smile. That was the response he'd expected.

"Maybe I will. There will be chocolate, too."

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