the escape.

“Yeah..” She sighed, turning her gaze down for a moment. “I guess I just had this expectation that it would all be over in a month and my life would be back to normal, you know? Not – Not that I don’t appreciate all I have now. I mean I love this job and this opportunity, but .. I really miss the hospital.. Feeling like I’m doing something I’m actually really good at.” She wasn’t exactly making things better with anything she said. It was the contact with the customers here in the restaurant that was similar to her patients at the hospital. Except that the customers weren’t all sick. And she was happy that Marco gave her the opportunity to work for him, without any real experience and with the knowledge that if she was to go back to work. she’d be gone. It only proved what kind of man he was. A good man. “Maybe we should get you a folding cot for Christmas for overnight stays then. Though I can’t imagine it’d be very comfortable.” She joked, a smile slowly lifting her lips again. 

“Touché,” they raised an eyebrow before letting a chuckle escape their lips. “Oh, I gotta stay humble somehow,” they told him jokingly, “the rides are amazing.” But the paparazzis? They we’re not fun at all. They have their moments, sure. That’s usually when Mara decides to make it fun, but other times it can be annoying. “I’m gonna have to do a scene here for my show soon. I’d like to come here for a fun reason before it becomes work related.”

“Okay, well, that makes a lot of sense...” Marco answered with a nod of his head. He’d probably so something similar, things could get ruined so easily by work, he’d been there himself. “I don’t blame you for a second. I love it down here and if something was about to ruin it, I’d definitely try and make the most of it while I still could.”

Kessa smiled as Marco came up to her, she moved the clipboard to the curve of her elbow. “Always a pleasure to see you, Marco.” When he asked about pieces that would be good for the restaurant Kessa stood there for a moment. “Umm— maybe?” Kessa motioned for him to follow her and she walked around the gallery. Stopping in front of a painting that was from a local contemporary artist, she looked at the list on her clipboard. “There’s been some interest in this one, but nobody has bought it yet. What do you think? Worth the buy or should we keep looking?”

Marco’s response to her words was a curt nod. Honestly, there was no one else he’d go to in town other than Kessa. Sure, there were probably plenty of places that he could head to find artwork, but she always seemed to find the best and that was what he was looking for. “You too...” he answered her finally, offering a soft smile. When she mentioned maybe having something for him, he followed after her, taking everything in as they walked through. “Possibly,” he answered, taking a look. “Might come back to it. What else have you got?”

“Because it’s colder then it was yesterday which is very uncomfortable?” Ciro mused with a shrug. “If I don’t have a reason then I really don’t have an excuse every time I look at my bank account. With a reason there’s a lot less guilt. Obviously. I have nothing planned for today but no, I’m away for the evening.” He said with a short laugh. “How about you? No major fires to put today?” 

“It’s not. I don’t get it.” Marco shrugged his shoulders, although found himself laughing at his sibling’s plight in that particular moment —- winter in California definitely wasn’t cold. “Alright, fair enough, I can go with that,” he responded then, chuckling very softly. “You are? That’s something, at least. But I will have, I’m at the restaurant tonight... as usual.”

“Most of the time I end up living vicariously through my twelve year old, so no can do.” Low chuckle left his lips when he could share the sentiment of spending more time at work than anywhere else. “Tell me about it. You cooking up anything good? Immy and I might have to stop by sometime.”

“That’s a fair point.” Sometimes Marco couldn’t help but forget about Zane’s daughter, but then, when you didn’t have children yourself and your life was consumed with work, it wasn’t hard. “Doing my best,” he responded with a light chuckle. “I mean, I may be a little biased, but I think it’s the best menu we’ve come up with yet.”

Marco wandered very casually through the gallery, eyeing up some of the newer pieces on the walls. When he eventually spotted Kessa heading over in his direction, he offered her a bright smile. “I’m looking for a couple of new pieces for the restaurant... any thoughts?” he questioned her easily. 

“Please tell me your life is more exciting than mine is right now?” Marco offered a smile to the other man, and then very casually shrugged his shoulders. “I seem to be spending every waking moment at work right now. The joy of figuring out festive menus.”

It was the last place that Marco expected to bump into one of the restaurants regulars, but then, stranger things had happened in the past. So, passing by Mara on the pier, he flashed them a smile. “Didn’t think you hung out in places like these,” he teased lightly.

Marco made his way towards the bar to grab himself a refill when he spotted a familiar figure sitting there, a small smile curling up into his mouth in response. After catching the bartenders attention, he glanced back to her, very casually coming out with a, “We have got to stop meeting like this...”

With a quick nod, Eddie chuckled. “Well no, but I’m good with any suggestions at all, and you’re probably ahead of most people anyways. What is it that you do to be handling vegetables daily, are you a chef?”

“Yeah, I am, kind of comes with the territory, you know?” Marco shrugged his shoulders very casually. If anything, it came in handy when you had random occasions when you might need to advise someone and at least you knew you’d be getting quality ingredients for your cooking.

“I know everyone is upset about how cold it’s getting, but I think it’s pretty exciting.” Ciro mused, a smile on their expression as they looked at the trees. “But I love the changing seasons.” They paused for a moment. “Plus it suddenly becomes a lot more acceptable to buy multiple hot chocolates everyday.” 

“To be honest, I don’t even know why anyone’s complaining, it’s not as if it is actually all that cold,” was Marco’s response and he shook his head a little, a chuckle escaping him. “I don’t see why you need a reason for buying hot chocolate. Just do it anyway, who cares if it’s 40 degrees.” A small laugh. “Anyway, what are you doing for the rest of the day? You at the shop?”

open starter | lucky’s

“ i’m just saying, ” jamie began, hands up in mock surrender and a goofy smile plastered across his face. “ that people in horror movies must have watched horror movies, right? ” he took a big sip of his beer before turning back to the person he was talking to, voice almost painfully earnest. “ so why wouldn’t they run away immediately? who sticks around for ghosts and axe-wielding murderers? it makes no sense. ”

“You say that, but isn’t it part of the fun...?” Marco mused very gently, shaking his head. “It’s like in The Walking Dead, the whole thing exists in a reality where there aren’t any zombies in pop culture and so no one has any idea what they are or where they’re come from, which is why they’re never called zombies.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You know if they all ran away straight away there wouldn’t be a movie.”

Where: Ocean View Park

With: Open

Oliver sat in the grass at the park, watching as a group of kids kicked a soccer ball around. Another day, hell, it felt like a different life, he would have joined them, but today, he just said where he was sat, stretching out his problematic knee as best he could where he sat. He had walked as far as he could before it started becoming bothersome, and once it had, he sat in the grass, and kept talking to whoever was near enough to start up a conversation with. “All I’m saying,” he stated to his current companion, “is that they missed their opportunity when they decided not to do ghost tours around town.”

Marco had a free afternoon, so he’d headed for a walk, taken some time out to relax in the park and stretch out on the grass. The last thing he’d expected was for someone to suddenly start talking to him, but then, at the same time, he didn’t really mind —- he had no aversion to getting to know new people around town. “Can’t say it’s something I’ve ever really thought about...” was his response, looking to the person sat beside him.

Taking a few steps inside of the cafe Chloe could already feel her mouth water some as the scent of the food hit her. Making her way to the hostess stand she waited towards the entrance at Ricci’s she let her eyes glance over at the bar. “Wasn’t expecting this place to be so popular.” She admitted to whom she assumed was another prospect next to her. “Have you eaten here before?” 

“What made you think that..?” Marco’s question was casual. He’d just been passing through the restaurant on his way to the back, tonight being a night he’d managed to afford himself a couple of hours off. His gaze drifted towards the hostess a moment, who was doing her absolute best not to smirk at the exchange going on. “I’ve eaten here a couple of times, yeah.”

“It –” A sigh.” “No.. not really.” Running a hand through her hair, she tried to find the right words. She’d been desperate for a job, to get some income while the trial was going on, but she wasn’t going to lie getting a job, and while some had decided not to take her on because they were looking for dedicated people, Marco hadn’t. She’d told him about the trial, about the specifics, hell she would’ve even emailed him the articles about it in the news paper if he wanted her to, but she figured that if they suddenly needed her at court, it would be useful for her employers to know about it, instead of being all ‘what’ about it if she up and left like that. It didn’t mean she didn’t do her best at her job. She had a smile on every day, doted on the regulars and did her best to earn her tips and work on the reputation of the restaurant. In fact, she even liked doing this work. It had felt like a necessity at first, but she loved going to work every day. “The first day of the trial was supposed to be in three weeks, but they postponed it because of some witness trouble.” She explained, lowering her hand and giving him her best smile. “It just means there’ll be a few extra weeks until it starts, depending on how fast they solve it and blah blah blah. But it’s fine. C’est la vie, right? I thought you’d gone home already?”

“I don’t know. People do stupid shit all the time.” She explained with a shrug not really knowing why people do the shit they do. If it wasn’t for the fact she thought his back would throw out Phobe would have jumped on his back. Deciding to take his hand in her own she grinned at him. “Roller coasters are fucking amazing.” She agreed leaning up to press a quick kiss to his jawline. “Good. I like our plans so far.”

“You’re not wrong there.” His brows rose as he spoke, a laugh escaping him. Marco’d certainly seen his fair share of stupid shit over the years. When Phobe reached for his hand, he glanced her way fleetingly, a small smirk dancing about his features. “They are, I just don’t get anywhere near enough time to head to amusement parks to actually go and enjoy them.” When she lent into him, he chuckled softly. “Suppose we’d better add cotton candy and donuts to these plans.”