It Is A Mystery...

[Basil Benson]

Basil watched her go, making sure that she got well away from their train before turning to Colette.

"Est-ce que tu vas bien?" He asked, placing his hands on her shoulders hoping to comfort her.

With his shaking hands though, it was more like he was agitating the jello-mold.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette nodded softly and gave the invisible man a hug.

"I am fine, Basil.As are you. Come, let us get a drink into you to steady your nerves. You have had so much excitement already, ze night has only just begun."

[Basil Benson]

Basil couldn't really think of what to say. Standing up to someone who was clearly taking advantage of him for once in his life felt so... strange.

Normally he'd have just let it go. He would have let the girl take his possessions and run off with them, shrugging it off and replacing the pilfered object.

Why now? Why had he done the opposite thing he would normally do?

Basil took her up in his arm too, and pressed up against him, Colette could feel his heart about to burst out of his chest, but it didn't seem to be 'lovey dovey butterflies'. More like panic.

"I... Oh God what the bloody hell was I thinking?! Why did I give that girl money? I'm a bloody git, that's what I am.

She's just going to do something foolish with it I'm sure."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette coo'd softly and gently stroked the back of Basil's head with her gloved hand in an effort to sooth the boy.

"Zere zere Basil, everyzing is alright. Perhaps all of ze adventures you have been on have begun to rub off on you a bit? Or perhaps your sentimental side got ze better of you. Whatever ze reason, everyzing turned out fine.

"Ze consequences of what she does wiz ze money falls upon her shoulders, not yours. One cannot suffer for deeds done in good faiz, only be uplifted by zem. You are very compassionate Basil, zat is an honorable and attractive trait in a young man, one zat many ozers are lacking."

[Basil Benson]

"I wouldn't go that far." Basil replied, sounding embarrassed. Something about her seemed to make him feel oddly calm, and Basil didn't have an answer for why that was either.

So far this had been a very emotionally confusing first date.

"I was just trying to do what anyone would... but now I think I shouldn't have. Bubbe always said not to give money to beggers, I doubt sneak-theives are somehow different. "

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Hush, put zose zoughts aside for tonight." Colette whispered, trying to coax him into relaxing. "Zat is a good lesson yes, but it is also a lesson from anozer time. Zings are different now. Do not have doubts about somezing you did out of ze goodness of your heart."

[Basil Benson]

Did he do that out of the goodness of his heart? How was one to tell when they did things for the sake of doing good?
Colette's gentle, soothing tone was causing his heart-rate to slow down, but not his ability to debate.

"You think far too much of me. Maybe I just wanted my things back and for her to go away." Colette could feel his head roll to the side, probably looking at her skeptically.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Snatching ze prize from her could have accomplished zat as well. But you took ze opportunity to do zings a different way.

"Now stop being difficult. Is zat somezing your bubble said to you as well?"

[Basil Benson]

"No, because bubbles can't have sentient conversations." He teased.

"My grandmother might say that though, yes." He relented, not wanting to take the teasing too far due to the situation.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Well zen stop being a cheeky bugger as you English say, and be happy. Lest I accuse you of zrowing money at any pretty face you see."

[Basil Benson]

"You might be right about that bit love." He replies, slipping his device back in his coat pocket and offering her an earbud again.

"You'd better keep yours around if you want in on the action." He adds flirtatiously as Colette feels a finger run gently under her chin, along her jawline.

----------

The further ride went uneventful, and the two shuffled off at the Earl's Court station. Basil kept an eye out for Colette like a mother duck, making sure she herself minded the gap and was navigating the tube station well.

"Hope you're hungry. I need to make sure you're not drinking on an empty stomach.

Me too actually. " He laughed.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette could have been snarky and mention that she didn't actually have a stomach, but tonight Basil was treating her like any other girl and she was enjoying that too much to risk ruining the moment.

"Oh yes. Nozing can spoil an evening of getting tipsy like getting drunk."

[Basil Benson]

"Getting drunk is fine and good as well, it's getting completely pissed that one has to avoid. Thus why getting tipsy should be the goal but getting drunk the accident, not the pissed part." He laughed in observation.

Basil would end up leading her to a restaurant that seemed to be the sort of trendy chic place one might expect a nouveau riche brat like Basil to pick, but it was chosen by Basil because it was exactly the sort of place in the city his mother wouldn't be, and for it's relative proximity to their final destination.

The decor made up of mostly glass and stainless steel, it had that severe look about it that didn't exactly scream comfortable and homey. More like a dentistry office from some science fiction film. And naturally, such a bleeding cool place would require reservations, the hostess of said establishment as well as all the patrons could be seen through the massive windows that made up it's exterior walls, and she could therefore see who to judge harshly as they passed.

The name of the establishment itself was as much of a cliche as the restaurant. Titled 'The Cutting Edge', the sign was shaped like chef's knife. Basil reached out to open the glass door for Colette to enter.

"After you."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette's pink visage was reflected in the windows of the restaurant as she stared inside, so much like many other onlookers gawking at the rich and trendy who were able to reserve tables within. She had hardly any experience with restaurants, other than fast food places maybe, most of what she knew of them she'd absorbed through movies and magazines. The place looked so sleek and modern and... kind of cold? There was no warmth or organic feeling to the place, despite the single rose placed on every table. She was somewhat nervous, as she was at every new experience that differed from her normally sheltered life.

"Merci zank you" she said to Basil as he let her inside, offering her gloved hand to him once more.

[Basil Benson]

Speaking of Judge Judy McBetterthan, she was staring at the gelatinous woman as they arrived, but her bitch-face proved to not be of the resting variety as they came up to her.

"Good Evening!" Basil greeted.

"Hello. Do you have a reservation?" She asked, her voice that sort of saccharine sweet that could only be fake, and had to be when matched with her expression of disdain. The two paired were practically manic.

"Yes. Under the name Robert Rosenhof."

The woman's eyes browsed over a tablet, her fingers clicking a few things before she commented. " I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't see that name in here."

"Are you sure? Maybe it's spelled wrong? R O S E N H O F. Only one F."

She vaguely pretended to look again before responding. " No, it's not here. I'm sorry sir."

"I called and confirmed the reservation two hours ago." Basil replied, trying not to sound irritated, but feeling it just a tad. " Is it perhaps on the wrong day?"

"I don't see any reservations under that name for any day sir. "

"This is ridiculous. Why would you tell me it was there just two hours ago and now it's gone? What are you playing at?" Basil asked.

"I couldn't say sir. I don't remember speaking to a Mr.Rosenhof regarding this reservation. If I had I surely would have told him it wasn't here."

"I-" Basil realized he wasn't going to get anywhere with this woman, and so he requested instead. " Do you have someone else I can talk to about this? A manager perhaps?"

"Give me a moment sir." She responded as she stared at Colette dead in the face, frowning, and then turning away to speak to what seemed to be another staff member, leaving them alone for a moment.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette felt small. She still wasn't used to be stared at, though on campus it was usually out of curiosity than any sort of malice or disdain. But at that moment she felt as though the woman's eyes were staring through her gooey head so hard they were tunneling through to the other side. She clung to Basil's arm, not daring to speak until the woman turned to the other staff and even then she spoke in a whisper.

"Basil, why did you make ze reservation wiz my name? Are you not ze one who can get into places like zis?"

[Basil Benson]

"Yes, but the moment I start using my name for reservations then young people might start talking to old and then the game is up and I'm locked in the Sanitarium again.

Or worse.

Just go with it, eh? It can't be so bad being my pretend wife.

I mean, I took your name so you must have me on a pretty short leash which is nice for you I imagine." He joked in his self-deprecating manner, though there was a tinge of some other kind of joke hiding just under the surface there that wasn't entirely polite for mixed company.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette's cheeks flushed a brighter shade of red than her usual pinkish hue, the girl hugging herself tighter to Basil's arm and hiding her face in his shoulder.

"You are terrible." She said with a suppressed laugh.

[Basil Benson]

"Mmm, yes, probably. But you've kept sticking around despite that. Which really says more about you than I." Basil leant in to 'boop' her nose, sans the sound effect he usually made. However, beyond that the lovey dovey moment was cut off when a sharply dressed man who couldn't have been a decade older than the two of them arrived.

"Yes? How may I help you?" He asked, though the complete lack of enthusiasm in his voice indicated her wasn't that interested in helping either of them. From a bit of distance, the hostess continued glaring at Colette.

"Ah yes. I made reservations here about four days ago, and confirmed them a few hours ago and now your staff is telling me they're not there. "

"That's correct Mr.Rosenhof. I'm afraid no such reservation exists in our system. I'd be happy to reschedule for another night."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"I do not understand how zis could have happened. When you checked ze reservation, did you somehow cancel it by mistake?"

Colette was trying not to become upset, but they'd already had one incident that evening, she did not want to go through another.

"Zere is not a single vacant table in ze establishment?"

[Basil Benson]

"No, I'm sorry. All of the other tables are reserved tonight. Another time perhaps.

In the interim, there are plenty of eateries in Earl's Court though admittedly none as nice as this.

Perhaps you could try the Burger King down the block? I hear they're accustomed to giving others their way." He joked, a sly smirk painting across his lips as his eyes fell on Colette, which turned into a bit of a cringe after he focused on her for too long, then back to a fake smile.

If Basil was good with 'British Polite', then this man had a mastery of it. He'd managed to tell them they really weren't welcome here without actually using those words at all.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette's eyes began to well up with tears, the clear liquid contrasting the pinkness of her features. She sniffled softly before sucking it up, literally, the tears being pulled back within her eyes as she adopted a very serious expression once more.

"Very well zen. It would appear zat Mademoiselle Jessica Benson's recommendation of zis establishment was sorely misplaced. Zat is, if ze conduct of zeir staff zis evening is any indication of ze standard zat is held for ze rest of zis... 'caff'. How can one trust zeir chefs to properly cook an egg when zeir front end staff and manager cannot even properly take a reservation?

"Come along Basil dear, let us depart for someplace zat isn't so... American in zeir decor. We can text Madame Benson over dinner so zat her friends need not suffer such annoyance in ze future."

[Basil Benson]

Frowning again before nodding them off, the manager said nothing further to the pair. The threats didn't seem to matter much to him, as while he was familiar with all the names she dropped, considering they took so long to drop them and the reservation was under another name, he shrugged it off. Most of London's elite would know the name of Jessica Benson and therefore, anyone pretending to be them would use it as their first example of someone powerful and influential that they might be able to frighten and intimidate with.

No one moved to stop them from leaving either. On the contrary, the hostess moved back to her normal work station and the manager went back to his usual work as well.

Basil stared at them for a moment, but decided to follow Colette's advice and leave. He made sure to open the door for them as they left.

However, as they had the first thing out of his mouth was-

"Are you alright?" He had seen her eyes leaking.

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette was rubbing her upper arms, staring vacantly at the street.

"Mozer was right, I never should have left." She spoke softly, the tears forming again.

[Basil Benson]

Colette was allowed to cry for a moment, but once he felt she'd been given enough time to let her feelings out, Basil reached out to her and cradled her face in his hands. She could feel his thumbs wiping her cheeks, though he did not force her to look at him.

"It's true that if you hadn't left, we wouldn't be here now... but do you think you would have wanted to stay in your parents flat forever?

Forgive me if this is presumptuous, but that doesn't seem like you."

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette sniffled, trying not to burst into a full on crying fit.

"No, I would not have wanted zat, but it is no different zan being here. In eizer place I cannot venture outside lest I offend ozers wiz my visage."

[Basil Benson]

Basil being Basil, he didn't argue with her. At least, not directly.

"When I was a boy my Zayde used to say to me 'Basil - Yeder eyzl hot lib tsu hern vi er aleyn hirzhet.'

Do you know what this means?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette simply shook her head.

[Basil Benson]

"Every ass likes to hear himself bray." He translated.

"Everyone thinks their opinions are valid and justified whether they are or are not, and quite a few people have this overwhelming need to share them.

Their boisterous behaviors doesn't make said opinions any less a crock of horse-shit." He didn't sound angry, at least, not with her. But this was the second time in a night some ass hole had upset her, and he felt the need to say something. Getting away silent didn't seem an open option right now.

"Not everyone is going to like you Colette, that's true of everyone in existence. But that doesn't mean you should have to stay hidden away because they've got a bug up their bums about you either. You may be an unusual person, but you're still a person.

And the only person completely guaranteed to make sure you're respected as a person is you. You know hiding doesn't solve that problem, eh?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette wiped her eyes and nose with the back of her glove, looking up at where Basil's face should be.

"Zat is zome good advice. Why did you never follow it yourself before tonight?"

[Basil Benson]

"Well... Our situations are different. " He replied, sounding a bit uncomfortable.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Perhaps, perhaps."

Oh she was doing that thing. That thing where she didn't agree or disagree and instead let him think about it.

"However it is good advice. Zank you Basil. But... what do we do now?"

[Basil Benson]

Basil's head tilted sideways like a confused puppy at her vagueness, evident by his hat now floating at an angle.

After her question, Basil brought out his phone.

"Let's find something else to eat...

Do you like Indian food?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Basil, I like every kind of food. We could get ze chicken and ze chips and I would be very content."

She seemed to have recovered from her sadness, at least somewhat.

[Basil Benson]

"Come. There's a place up the street." Basil would again take Colette by the arm if she preferred it, and they followed his phone to the location in question.

This place was decidedly not as nice as the original pick. The word 'Baloo's' was written on the window next to the image of some kind of a bear but it was an otherwise unimpressive and nondescript building. The wooden bead and almond shell curtains in the window obscured the outside view into the restaurant.

While a bell attached to the door jingled when they came in, as they entered there was a hand-made sign that said 'Seat yourselves', though the 'moody' lighting in this restaurant made it difficult to notice. The tables were small and the booth seating was cramped, though big enough for the slim Basil and his flexible lady friend.

Not at all impressed, Basil tried to hold in his sigh. "Where shall we sit?" Basil asked. He liked sitting by the window to people watch when he was given a choice like this but somehow after the fiasco this night had been thus far he thought perhaps Colette might just want to hide in the back.

A jaunty, ethnically appropriate tune was playing gently from a boom box sitting on what appeared to be a very small bar. No matter where they ended up, all of the tables in the restaurant would have place-mats meant for children from the pound-shop with a map of the world on them.

[Colette Rosenhof]

The place may have been less refined and classy than what Basil was used to, but for Colette it was amazing. After all, she had never really been in a restaurant like this before, and there were people everywhere and it was noisy and the smells, the smells!

"Oh, anywhere is fine Basil. I do not care, so long... as we are allowed to sit."

[Basil Benson]

Nobody seemed to be stopping them from sitting. There was a window bench seat so Basil claimed it as theirs.

None of the other patrons seemed overly phased by the gelatinous woman or the invisible man. Those who did look up looked away at a casual pace that didn't seem to suggest alarm or disgust.

Either these sorts of lower class establishments were getting used to seeing the unusual even in London, or it was so much lower class that no one gave much of a shit what the other people in the restaurant were up to, provided it wasn't anything shady. And being that the two were so fancily dressed they didn't particularly pass as up to no good. Bad guys dressed as fancy as they didn't hold up janky curry huts.

After a moment or two, a young woman who (much like the last one) was probably close in age to the two of them stepped out of the kitchen, bickering loudly with someone in the back. The word 'Maan' was in consistent use in the argument, but once she got outside of earshot of whoever was in the kitchen, she stopped, and instead turned to muttering under her breath until she made it to their table.

"Hello!" She greeted, a fairly convincing but nonetheless customer service smile plastered on her face. If they were bothering her, they couldn't tell it. She didn't flinch a smidge at the pair of abnormals as she handed them their menus.

"Drinks today? We have mango and sweet Lassi, teas, Ribena and Tango. Or just water if you prefer..." She reached into her half apron and took out a writing pad, pushing up her glasses at the end of her face to help her see.

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Oh, somezing sweet would be razer nice." Well there's a surprise, Colette wanting something sugary. She opened her menu before adjusting her hat, a lady had to be presentable. "So I believe I will try zis Lassi, please."

[Basil Benson]

Basil had removed his hat like a proper gentleman should and laid it in the booth next to him.

"Darjeeling please. and an order of Naan and chutney if you would." He stated, the woman seemed to know what he meant by that as she promptly left to go put in the order.

"Have you had this before?"

[Colette Rosenhof]

Colette shook her head. "I have no idea.Which is what makes it so exciting!"