A Beautiful Name

"It's funny," Courtney said after swallowing a mouthful of rice and shrimp. Dimples formed at the corners of her cute smile. "You've been looking at me with big, puppy dog eyes for months, and now I'm here with you, you don't even know my last name.

Melvin smiled back at her. "Well, let me guess. I'm pretty good at these kind of things." He paused, observing the unconscious tilt of her head as she waited from him to continue. A red bang of hair floated into her eyes, and she deftly blew it away by blowing a burst of air from her mouth. Melvin could look at her for days, doing nothing else, and be content.

"Let's consider everyone here at the table. Ok, there's me, Melvin MacMuffin. The twins, Bridget and Brenda Briswell. Then there's Tasha Turner and Shelly Stone. Hmm, if we were to keep with this theme of alliteration, I'd say you're last name is something like... Cross or Covington or Corningstone or Cotten," he said.

"No, no, no, and double no," Courtney replied with a laugh. "It's Brown."

Melvin leaned back in his chair, considered it and said, "What a perfectly normal yet beautiful name. I'm impressed."

Courtney simply blushed and stabbed at her shrimp and rice with her fork. She'd tried the chopsticks and found she was hopeless with them. She hated being so clumsy, especially in front of Melvin, but he didn't seem to fare much better with the chopsticks either. Of course, he could have just been being nice and failing on purpose so she wouldn't feel bad. What a great guy.

Out of nowhere, Tina Swift returned from wherever she had disappeared and plopped back down into her chair with a sigh. She flashed a bright smile at Melvin and Courtney.

"You two are too cute for words," she said, searching the plate of food before her with hungry eyes and grabbing at her chopsticks.

"So cute, it makes me want to puke," Tasha Turner replied with a laugh. She held a long green vegetable between two chopsticks before popping it into her grinning mouth.

"Where have you been, Ms. Swift?" asked Shelly Stone, somewhat suspicious about her date vanishing for so long. Tina leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek. Richie Golding caught a sight of this from across the table and felt a strange stirring in his pants. He couldn't help it. He had just observed a girl kiss another girl, after all, even if it was just on the cheek.

"Nothin' for you to worry your sexy li'l head about," Tina said with her southern slur, her hand reaching under the table to caress Shelly's warm thigh. Richie had to force his eyes away and concentrate on his own date, Brenda the Ice Queen. The sacrifices one had to make to be a so-called gentleman.