Date

I ended up taking her to a pretty expensive restaurant. Usually, one would need to reserve days in advance, but our high status allowed us to grab a seat without any problem, totally skipping the massive line waiting outside.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Louise asked sheepishly as we were being led to our table.

Although the restaurant looked elitist from the outsider’s point of view, that was nothing compared to the interior, especially when trying to please upper members of society, such as ourselves.

We were taken through a hallway with multiple doors, and shown a door. Entering the room, we took our seats across from each other at the large table awaiting us. Appetizers had already been prepared for us, some of the finest oysters as well as a bunch of plates containing various types of both hams and cheese were laid out finely on the table, accompanied by sliced bread. Finally, multiple drinks were available to choose from, whether that was just plain water, or wine, or even soft drinks, which I definitely planned to have.

A waitress knocked on the door, waiting for our approval before entering. She handed each of us a menu, with a cover made out of a silvery material I didn’t recognize, but was clearly part of the whole wealthy ensemble put forth by the establishment.

The waitress bowed politely and informed us that she’d be waiting outside until we were ready to order. We thanked her as she left.

“This…this is way too over the top!” Louise commented. “Not only do we get a private room, but our own waitress? Seriously?”

“Listen, this might sound impressive, but it’s not cheap at all, I tell you.” I joked.

“Oh, it’s fine, I have no intention to allow you to pay everything for yourself.”

“Wait, no, I’m the one who asked you out, so naturally shouldn’t I be the one to pay?” I pointed out.

“Not necessarily, I was the one who accepted, and if I hadn’t we wouldn’t be here. So a fifty fifty split would be more than fair enough, wouldn’t you agree?”

I acknowledged her point and was forced to admit defeat, there was clearly no winning against Louise, after all.

We then spent the next few minutes in silence, each scanning their own menus. Occasionally, I would grab a bit of cheese and spread it over some bread, and eat it. Louise, meanwhile, hadn’t bothered touching anything, instead opting to remain focused on the menu she was reading.

“Alright, I think I know what I’m gonna order.” I eventually said, once I was ready. “How about you?”

“Hmm….give me a couple of minutes.”

I ended up having a bit more cheese in order to not just sit there like an idiot. I then promptly switched to ham, and then eventually even had a bit of oyster, although it wasn’t quite my taste, as I wasn’t used to wealthy meals at all. Eventually, Louise finally closed the menu and gave me a thumbs off, so I called out for the waitress, and she promptly responded.

“How long do you think our meals are gonna take?” Louise asked after we had told our waitress our orders.

“Patience, young grasshopper, patience.” I responded.

“I’m not a grasshopper!”

“It’s a meme, dumbass, you don’t have to take things so figuratively, geez.”

Guess that quote wasn’t really something people used on Obrillis, huh? Well, it’s not as if it was something heard daily back on Earth, either. I don’t know why I had just randomly blurted it out from out of nowhere, trying to be funny.

“Anyways,” Louise changed the subject without reacting. “Since we’ve probably got a bit of time to spare, how about you tell me a bit about yourself?”

“Uh, you’ve known me for years, what is there for me to say?”

“No, not you, idiot. YOU, like the real you. The person that was summoned here.”

“Oh….” I hesitated.

“You don’t wanna talk about it?”

“No, it’s fine, I guess I could maybe tell you about it.” I relented. “But first, you gotta answer me this without dodging the question: Why’d you agree to come here with me after I did you know what? Shouldn’t you be like, royally pissed off?”

“If you keep asking me that, I really am going to get “royally pissed off”, you know.” She did the hand motion thing in the air with two fingers. “I…It’s complicated, okay? Even though you did do that, and even though you’re not him…you still really do look like him, you even act the same way, no wonder you got picked as the vessel.”

Fool, can’t you see she’s lying through her teeth? What kind of bullshit is that? Don’t tell me you’re going to fall for such an obvious lie! Seriously, she brushed off her own brother's death like it was nothing! She barely reacted! That’s not normal, regardless of whether she has feelings for me or not!

No, I know, but I’m going to play along for now. I think I have an inkling of an idea, but it might be pretty far-fetched, so I’ll wait and see how things play out.

“So basically, you like the first "Arthur", but I’m the only one available, huh?”

“N-No, it’s not like that!” Louise’s face flushed slightly, and she finally had a bite for the first time tonight. However, she went straight for the oysters, as expected. After all, unlike me, she was born and bred in this lifestyle.

“Alright, I guess I’ll hold my end of the bargain and tell you about myself.” I sighed, but decided to honor the deal since she had at least slightly opened up. “There isn’t really that much to tell, I didn’t really have many friends, I was kind of a shut-in, but that wasn’t really that bad. But then, some time before I ended up here…s-something happened…something bad…”

I suddenly started shivering.

Stop thinking of that, you can’t think of it! That wasn’t you, Arthur! That was Jack! I’m Arthur, I’m Arthur Barnaby!

“Are you alright?” Louise interrupted my train of thought. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up something like that, you don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”

“Thank you…”

Louise then reached her hand out and grabbed mine, which had gone from resting on the table to shivering and clutching a spoon tightly. Her hand was pretty warm in contrast to mine, and her touch was incredibly soft, it was something I could easily get used to.

Damnit, I got too careless. I shouldn’t have started thinking about back then…

We spent the rest of the meal reminiscing about things we did in this world. Louise was probably trying to distract me from that other world, from that other person. I thought that was very kind of her.