"No Spider In The Restaurant"

[SamothRyvertu 0]

"Welcome to Ambrosia!"

 

The Argelian's deep voice echoed throughout the restaurant. "Come, make yourselves at home."

 

Ambrosia was more than hopping that evening; there were practically no empty tables. Samoth made his way around, meeting and greeting his guests as they entered and dined.

 

Karin picked at the salad in front of her, not bothering to eat it but simply move it around the plate. She felt her chair jolted once again by someone moving behind her and jumped at the movement.

 

Samoth raised a hand to his mouth, nearly bumping the table behind him as he started back. "Lovely lady, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me!"

 

"It's fine, I was done anyway." She pushed the plate away from her and gave him a weak smile.

 

He glanced at the raucous redcollars entering before looking back at the petite woman again. "Was something wrong with your salad? If you did not care for it, it's on the house."

 

She was tempted to say yes, just to skip out of the bill. "No, it's not that. I was supposed to meet someone but I don't think there's any sense in waiting longer."

 

The Argelian's face contorting into a tight scowl, he yanked out the chair across from her. "Someone skipped out on the likes of you? There's no honor anymore!" His voice lowering, the scowl took on a darker tone. "We have a way to deal with those kinds where I come from."

 

An alarmed _expression came over Karin's face. "No! No, it's not like that. He probably just caught up in lab work again." She muttered something unintelligible under her breath.

 

"Sounds like quite a ruffian who'd get too 'caught up in lab work' to have dinner with you. Why do you feel he's deserving of you?"

 

"Well, he's not exactly a ruffian. Do you think it's a bad idea to get involved with someone you work with?"

 

"Depends how close the two of you are, really. You've been through the same things... work in the same department... you can understand each other better. They sympathize where someone might be upset when something that goes wrong in the department affects you in your off time."

 

"Sympathize?" She scoffed at the suggestion. "No one in that lab sympathizes with people, just damn spiders."

 

"Spiders? Test subjects? Alien lifeforms being studied? Doesn't seem conducive to a working environment."

 

"Oh, she's hardly a test subject. She's pampered and spoiled and even let to run about!" Karin took a sip of her water, set the glass down and moved closer to Samoth. "I can't work like that anymore," she confided uneasily.

 

"Who could? Spiders are made to be flattened. Anyone who'd care for one is insane. Does it belong to your 'friend' who didn't come tonight? Is that where he is?" His voice grew indignant with the thought of a man picking a spider over a woman.

 

"No, it's not his--but he doesn't seem to care!" Finally, someone who agreed with her. "It belongs to another other crewman. Laarell." She spat out the name as if it were food gone bad.

 

"Perhaps you should tell him that his relationships should come before spiders."

 

"He thinks I'm being silly. None of them take me seriously."

 

"Ahh, so you're afraid of it." He nodded, knowingly.

 

"I'm not ... afraid of it,"she protested. "It's distracting. How can I do my work, knowing that any minute it might start crawling up my arm?"

 

He smiled again, reassuringly. "If it's any consolation, spiders don't bite people unless provoked."

 

She leaned in closer, lowering her voice. "This one does. I've heard that several people have been sent to the infirmary already. I can't think about anything else."

 

"It bit someone and wasn't vented out the airlock?!"

 

"I suggested it and they told me I was overreacting."

 

Samoth thought for a moment before replying. "Well, maybe you can't kill your colleague's pet, but just accept its presence and move on. It's not as if it follows you everywhere."

 

"You don't know that. I think it might, actually." She was half-tempted to check under her chair at that very moment but settled for shifting her feet instead.

 

He grinned. "Well, rest assured that you'll find no malevolent arachnids in my restaurant." A waitress caught his eye as she beckoned him over, a worried _expression on her pale face.

 

Ryvertu gave Karin a pat on the shoulder as he rose from his seat. "Apparently something has gone amiss in the back. I trust you understand, matters of duty and all."

 

"It's fine. And I think you've helped a bit." She returned the smile a little shyly. "Mind if I come in tomorrow for dinner?"

 

Nodding, he reached to kiss her hand. "My dear, you are always welcome at Ambrosia." Turning with a curt salute, he stalked off to the kitchen to find a smoking mess of the roasting tarq...

Edited April 2, 2006 by SamothRyvertu