And you'll sing 'vita bella' ((Payton))

[jillian]

Jill lifted her head at the sound of her name. Nicole Hewins stood behind her, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders. She ran the day care centre with her mother, though Mrs. Hewins was older so Nicole did mostly everything. Nicole was pretty, besides her long blonde hair – she had green eyes and was very tall, but really thin as well. Jill and Nicole got along fine, but sometimes Jill thought Nicole figured she was weird because she always declined any invitation she was given. “Yeah?” She asked, as her hands continued to mold the clay she was fiddling with. Christina Little, the girl Jill was spending time with at the moment, looked up as well – her large brown eyes shining with interest. Nicole smiled at Christina and then took a seat besides Jill.

“It’s six. You can go home.” Jill tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and then looked at Christina who had gone back to her clay ball that was supposed to look like Mrs. Hewins. And then nodded, “I’ll take over here, Christina’s the last one to leave tonight so it shouldn’t be too much trouble. Then again, she never is any trouble – are you?” The last part was directed toward the five year old who shook her head with a shy smile. Jill laughed and pushed the chair out from the table, stood and kissed the top of Christina’s head before making her way into the bathroom and washing her hands. She came back out, grabbed her jean jacket and left the day care centre. It was a nice day out, well for London anyway. Her boots clicked on the cement as she passed the Londoners rushing to get to their destinations. She was in no hurry, she expected to arrive at an empty flat. Payton wasn’t supposed to be off for another hour.

Which was why she was so surprised to see the lights off and candles flickering. It smelled delicious in the flat, and Jill was immediately reminded how hungry she was. She put her keys in the ceramic dish that was placed on the stand beside the door and took off her jacket, hung it up – while looking around with intrigue. “Payton?” She called out through the flat. She knew that it was him who did all this, unless it was some burglar who thought it would be nice to have a romantic dinner with the people he was stealing from. Jill headed down the hallway to Payton’s room, she knocked but there wasn’t any answer. With a sigh, Jill headed back down the hall and toward the kitchen once more. This time it wasn’t empty. Payton stood beside the island. Jill smiled, “You got off work early?”

[payton]

At half past four, the normal cafe crowd had faded away, and Payton found his mind beginning to wander with out the customers as a distraction. He thought for a moment that he should make dinner for Jill and himself, which would not be easy considering Jill would likely get him about an hour before he did. The thoughts flowed through his head almost automatically. He hadn't realized when he moved in with Jill that her schedule would become such a part of his. Before his thoughts were always organized around his own work hours, but how it was was organized into two categories, when he was out of work and when he and Jill were out. As the minutes past, his mind became more and more carried away with an elaborate idea of a candle lit Italian dinner that he would surprise Jill with. He pulled himself back to the present when a customer asked if she would have a vanilla latte to go, and after making it he glanced around the shop again. Things hadn't exactly picked up, and the emptiness was giving him an idea. "Hey...Baron" he called out, "Were a bit slow tonight, ay?" he paused a moment, waiting for his bosses usual grunt of acknowledgment to come from the back. "Do you think I could take off a bit early today....I sort of want to surprise my flatmate with dinner." For a moment their was silence, and then an appearance of a small, rather round man, wearing a white apron and wiping his hands on a clean rag. He eyed Payton for a moment before just shaking his head. "She must be one pretty lass Payton, she's got your head going wonky." He paused for another moment before giving Payton a kind smile "Well, you better get going then, knowing you the meals not going to be an easy one and you need all the time you can get." Payton paused for only a moment, flashing his boss a wide smile before he reached for his coat "She's gorgeous and I've never though clearer in my life. I'll be in early tomorrow to make it up. You are the best." His final words were still coming as he opened the door to the street and in another moment he was out the door, and pushing his way down the London streets to the market. He was going to need a few things if this dinner was going to be a success.

Payton looked up to check the clock as he heard the hour chime. He knew what hour it was, but somehow looking at the clock face make it easier to calculate how much time he had left. Jill would be leaving work soon, and with her walk home, it gave him about fifteen minutes to put the finishing touches on everything. Thankfully the food was ready and waiting, He had already separate it onto plates, which he put back into the oven on a tray to keep warm. The table was set, and handles had been spread everywhere about the house, and Lily of the Valley and Rosebuds decorated the table. He made his way around the room, lighting all the candles before he headed back into his room, changing into a pair of clean trousers and a dress shirt, as he had been cooking in his work attire. He had just finished changing when he heard Jill's voice call his name. Jill proceed through the flat, but he had already made his way back to the kitchen to pull out their plates, and he was just placing them on the table when she appeared again. "Mio donna bella!" He said to her, giving her a wide smile as he stepped forward, reaching out to take her jacket. "Work was slow and I though of a better way to use my time." Still smiling he leaned forward, placing a kiss on her cheek before he hung up her jacket, returning to pull out her chair. "I hope you're hungry, because dinner is served."

[jillian]

Jill smiled as he kissed her cheek and declared that he hoped she was hungry because dinner was served. At the mention of dinner her stomach rumbled and she smiled again, taking her seat that Payton had pulled out for her. Jill tilted her head to the side and nodded; “Starved, actually,” she ran her fingers through her hair – which she had gotten cut a day ago. It barely brushed her shoulders now. Jill liked it although she had worn it up for the past two days, “I had barely any time to eat today, things were so hectic. One of the little boys at the centre decided it would be fun to flush all the wooden blocks down the toilet. Needless to say they got stuck, and I had to stay and wait for the plumber while everyone else enjoyed corndogs.” Jill’s smile grew. Yes, it had been hectic, but she wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

She leaned back in her seat, and watched Payton with a calm smile on her face. One that seemed to appear more and more whenever she watched or listened to Payton speak. She recalled something he had said about work being slow, “Oh? So Baron let you off early then?” Jill raised her eyebrows and leaned forward again, apparently completely unable to sit still at that moment, “He must really love having you work there. Nicole wouldn’t let me leave if my life depended upon it… unless she had plans that is. Her mother is a bit more lenient though. Remind me to have Nicole and her flatemate over for dinner sometime, they’re nice people – you’d like them.” It was so weird. Everything seemed to be out of a movie. Before, with Joann, she would never invite anyone over. It just never seemed to cross her mind, ever. Now, she couldn’t wait to ask Nicole to come over. There was just something about Payton that made her more comfortable around everyone else, especially when she was with him. Jill continued to watch him as she wondered if he realized he had such a huge impact on her personality.

[payton]

He grinned widely when Jill said that she was starving, and as she sat into her chair he helped push it in for her, pausing for a moment before he headed across the table to his own chair. He wasn't as starving as she was, but it didn't mean he hadn't worked up an appetite. He had been cooking cakes all afternoon, and that never allowed for much tasting. He loved cookie days, he could eat his weight in the broken pieces on those days. He looked over his plate before picking up his fork. It was a new recipe he was trying, and Italian dish he had always thought sounded wonderful, but wasn't exactly what you would make for the entire family.

He smiled when he heard Jill mention Baron and he glanced up at her. "He couldn't run the place with out me. You should see the letters he sends me when I'm at Hogwarts. He things its just some boarding school, so I make him send them to my parents first, not sure he could handle the whole owl messenger with out suspecting something. He complains all school year about my replacements--but at least I know I have work over the Christmas Holiday. He would work me for every hour I'm willing to be there." He paused for a moment to laugh. Baron was like a third father to him,just after the long time family friend who owned the book store under their flat. Somehow having worked for Baron as long as he had, the man had him rather well figured out. "Though he questioned my motives for leaving early. He declared that you had to be very pretty, and I'm not thinking clearly."

He grinned again before taking the first bight of his meal, enjoying the flavor as he critiqued everything about the flavor before he looked back up at Jill thinking about her comment on having Nicole, a girl she worked with and her flatmate over for dinner. He siled at the idea, Jill had never mentioned meeting up with anyone she was friends with or connected with in anyway before. "Sounds lovely. Just make it a day I have off and I will cook up anything you want. I'll even clean the flat for it...make up for the fact you're going to have to when Sethia comes. I know I wont be able to get off work early that day, I'm flying solo in the cafe all afternoon until closing."

[jillian]

Jill ran her fingers through her hair again and then reached for her fork. She listened to Payton talk about Baron and how he couldn’t run the place without Payton there. Seeing as Jill really didn’t make friends with anyone at the centre, much less was that much of an imperative component for the business, all she could do was smile. She put the first bite of her meal into her mouth, and chewing as he talked about how Baron complains about his replacements all year round. She had brought her drink to her lips and taken a quick sip when Payton then said Baron had questioned his motives for leaving early and declared that she had to be very pretty. She didn’t hear much after that, for she had choked slightly on her drink and then shook her head as she regained her composure; “Did he?” She asked, taking another sip of her drink.

She set her glass down and then took another bite of the meal that was before her. It was really good, and she made a mental note to compliment Payton on it after the meal. Then again, maybe her hunger was making her a little bit swayed. But she was fairly certain that the food was delicious regardless of how hungry she was. Payton was a good cook, and Jill found herself adding that to her list of ‘Payton Pros.’ At that moment, there were hardly any ‘Payton Cons.’ Actually, none. When he commented on them having Nicole and her flatmate over, Jill grinned. But her grin disappeared when he mentioned Sethia. Jill hadn’t completely forgotten about her visit, she had just conveniently blocked it from her mind. She brought her drink to her lips again and nearly finished her drink before even thinking about commenting on it. “Oh, okay,” she finally said as she set the glass down again, “that sounds good.”

[payton]

Sly grin crept across his face when Jill said 'did he?' in response to his statement of Baren's. Jill chocked a bit on her water, a sign she was caught off guard by the remark, but then Jill was easily caught off guard by things like that. "I told him you were gorgeous and I had never thought clearer in my life." His grin was still there as he watched her for a moment, finally looking back down at his place to take another bite of his dinner and decided he hadn't done too badly with it. He still had a lot to learn, which was why he was planning on going to Italy. When he looked up Jilli was sipping at her drink again, seeing to have more of that than her meal so far. He watched her for a moment, wondering if it was one of those things someone did to settle their nerves. He knew her pretty well by now, but then you got to know someone very quickly when you lived together, but there were still a lot of things he didn't know--just little things he still needed to figure out.

"Yeah..." he started thinking about what he had said about Sethia. "I hate to put all that on you, but I'm going to try and close up as fast as I can so I can be back before she gets here....since you two don't know each other." He paused for a moment, smiling over the table at Jilli who seemed tense and distant. She said that she was fine with Sethia visiting a while ago, but he wondered if now that the date was closing in on them she was having second thoughts. It wasn't that there was any reason to, he rationalized to himself. After all, he was just friends with both of them and he was perfectly capable of having multiple female friends, but he could understand the possibility for the whole thing being awkward. He let out a long breath, trying to refocus himself. He didn't want to worry about it, or think about it. He told Sethia they were starting over, and what happened would just happen. He decided a change of subject may be the best thing. "So are we going to start throwing dinner parties now? New friends over every week? Could be fun....start our only little restaurant right here in the kitchen."

[jillian]

Jill smiled slightly at what Payton told her was his reply to Baron’s comment. She felt her cheeks get hot, but it disappeared rather quickly and she took another bite of her meal. She wasn’t used to getting attention, or any compliments from anyone other than Joann. And her compliments weren’t really compliments… they were more self-esteem boosters from the criticism she was about to give. Jill had picked up on that rather quickly, but sometimes was still caught off guard by Joann’s remarks which were cleverly masked in helpful tones. Jill rolled her eyes slightly at the thought. No matter how much she loved Joann, there were still little things that bothered the girl about her. There weren’t many things about Payton that bothered her, actually – nothing. He was always just trying to be himself and make people feel better, whether he realized it or not. It was a breath of fresh air for Jill.

When he started talking about Sethia again, Jill smiled a small smile again and took another quick bite of her meal as he finished it up. Somewhere deep inside her she hoped that Payton would get there on time, so she wouldn’t face Sethia alone. But somewhere else inside her she hoped Payton wasn’t there so Jill could see how Sethia would react to her greeting her, to her being the only one here. Immediately after thinking that, Jill scolded herself mentally. Here was a girl she had never met before, and she was wishing she would scare her off. What was it about Payton that made her want to claw Sethia’s eyes out? Jill looked up at Payton as he changed the subject to dinner parties, and for once in the past 10 minutes – Jill’s smile was large and genuine. “One problem in your plan. I don’t have many friends, remember?” She asked, as she brought another bite of her food to her mouth.