Dinner Date

Dinner Date is a story written by Robin Grimmgall in ca. July 2019. It pertains to the series Outcasted and Cretaceous Love. Its current status is unfinished.

## Plot

Roger Grimdark goes on his first date with Beckham Shepherd.

## Story

The theropod had finally arrived at a brown American Four Square house. It was about 7:35 PM by this time—the sun had already set as it was Autumn, and all that could be seen was the shimmering moon, and the shining stars, in the lovely dark blue sky. He tried to stay as quiet as possible in order to not wake any of the neighbors, tiptoeing over to his awaited destination. He only came for one person and that was the dog of his dreams. When he finally arrived at his beloved's door, he rang the bell. Water could be heard from inside the house.

"Just a second!" Beckham had called out. That was accompanied by sounds of scrubbing.

The velociraptor wondered whether the hound was taking a shower or simply brushing his teeth. All he knew was that he was glad that he was at least cleaning himself before the date. Roger waited quietly and patiently for the canine to finish whatever it was he was doing. After a few seconds, Beckham had finally stepped out of his house. He was wearing nothing but his usual newsboy cap, long-sleeved orange sweater, black jeans, black military boots, and collar, looking exactly the same as usual, minus the jacket. The mutt had looked up and down at the dinosaur, examining his appearance.

"You look wonderful this evening," he commented.

"Thanks!" said Roger. "I wish I could say the same about you. The least you could do was wear a new hat or collar." He paused for a second while gathering his thoughts. "Or for the love of God, put something more formal on!"

The stud paused for a few seconds before bursting with laughter. The raptor wasn't so sure about what he found so funny about that statement, until... "You think I actually own formal clothes?" Beck asked, mid-laughter, holding his gut. "All I own are casual clothes!"

"Well, why don't we just go down to the nearest clothes store on our way to the airport?" Roger suggested. Suddenly a loud growling noise filled the room. It sounded very familiar, so familiar that the raptor knew exactly where it was coming from. He looked at the mongrel's stomach as he held it again.

"Yeah, I'd rather not," the tyke started. "See, I've been saving myself for dinner and I feel if I have to wait any longer than I should, I'm going to start seeing red."

The Saurischia simply tisked at him, "You know, it's always okay to have a little snack before dinner. You do know that, right?"

"Uh-huh, and haven't you heard that it's never good to spoil your appetite?"

"Touche, mon cher." the dinosaur acknowledged. "Now, let's get out of here already. We're both hungry!" The raptor folded out his arm, placing his fist on his hip, and soon the dog wrapped his arm around it, as they headed out of the house and out into town.

"Hmm, what a fancy restaurant," Beck commented. "Didn't know you could afford it."

"Why, yes!" Roger started. "Only the finest for the classiest mutt around." He stated that sentence semi-sarcastically. "Let's hope you don't scratch your butt or chase the waiter while you're in there."

"Yes, and let's hope you don't screech, claw at people, and try to eat anyone when things don't go your way."

"You flatter me," laughed the raptor as they finally headed inside.

The men were sat at the table, examining their menus quietly. There was a very diverse set of things on the menu, even things that would be considered odd for such a fancy-looking restaurant. Of course, that must've been the reason Roger had chosen it. For quite a while, the two boys were simply squinting at their menus, "hmm-ing" at themselves while thinking about what they were going to order. Finally, one of them decided to break the silence.

"What are you going to order?" the theropod questioned.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the dog sneered back.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked," Roger replied.

"Well, if you must know, I think I'm going to have..." he started, "The roast beef with a side of Yorkshire Pudding, Duchess Baked Potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and a spot of tea." He listed those items very fast.

"Keep in mind, Beckham, we're both splitting the check here." the raptor reminded. "You're going to be paying for your half of the order, so I'd choose wisely."

Beckham simply chupsed, a grimace on his face. "Oooh... right, you should've told me that earlier. I've only got pounds on me."

"Well, I thought you gained weight," the quick-witted dinosaur smirked.

"Har-dee-har-har." the mongrel spoke sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "You know exactly what I mean."

"Look, just go down to the nearest ATM and try to exchange currency there," Roger began. "I'll wait here and try not to order anything while you're out."

Beckham simply nodded before pulling out his chair and hopping off of it. He headed out of the restaurant, on his way to the ATM machine. Roger simply sneered at him, tisking to himself. He always thought that the way that hound walked looked ridiculous. It was worse than a duck or a penguin waddling. He especially hated how his hands almost reached his knees. It was simply unnatural as if God built him to simply look funny. Everything about him seemed like a little inside joke. Just as he was lost in his thoughts, he heard a man clear his throat. After phasing out for a bit, he looked away from the door and up at the waiter.

"May I take your order, sir?" the overworked and underpaid bloke begged in a monotone voice.

"Um..." The theropod was lost in his thoughts once again, wondering whether he should order some appetizers for now or if to wait for the mutt to return just like he promised. After thinking for a bit, he decided to finally answer. "Yes, I would like to order some mozzarella sticks with a side of marinara sauce, and some buffalo chicken wings, with bones that is." He giggled to himself, "See my date is currently away right now, exchanging currency, but he really loves bones for some reason I will never understand." Simply thinking about the dog enjoying bones was enough to make the dinosaur blush and giggle wildly. Despite his demeanor and overall attitude, he knew deep down inside, he might simply really love Beckham, as much as he wouldn't want to admit it.

"Uh-huh," the waiter noted, writing down the order on a mini flipbook. "And what would you like to drink?"

"One large Coca-Cola, and a large cup of Hawaiian Punch, please."

"Okay, I'll be back with your order momentarily." The fellow took the menus and simply walked away.

Roger simply tapped his hands on the table, making various mouth noises as he waited for the food. Even worse, the pooch still hadn't returned yet. Eventually, he got out his smartphone and started playing on some apps to pass the time. He first decided to watch some educational videos. Thankfully, he had the volume on mute and the captions on so other patrons wouldn't hear it and he could still read it. After about 7 minutes, he decided to play some puzzle and word games, his absolute favorites to play. Those took about 15 minutes of his time in total. He was still bored, wishing he had other people to talk to in order to pass the time. As much as he hated to do this, he decided to check some of his social media apps and websites in order to kill a few more minutes. As he was about to check on Pictogram, the waiter had finally returned with his order. He put the plate of mozzarella sticks, the miniature cup of marinara sauce, and a box of buffalo wings on the table in front of him.

"Here you are, sir," the monotonous waiter spoke. "I'll be back in a few minutes for your main course."

"Thank you, my good man." The Saurischia was relieved to finally see his meal.

The man walked away, leaving Roger to simply look down at his meal, wondering what to do. Quite a few minutes have passed and Beckham still hasn't returned yet. He wondered what was taking him so long anyway. He didn't think it would take this long to simply buy out money from an ATM. Perhaps there was a long wait in the line. Whatever the case, he was surely hungry. The velociraptor knew it would be wrong to do this, but he decided that one bite wouldn't hurt. He took one mozzarella stick, dipped it in the sauce, and took a bite out of it. It had quite a scrumptious taste, just delightful. A tinge of guilt filled him, but the flavor was too good to pass off. After finishing the stick, he decided to wolf down more and more, with ravenous hunger.

After finishing the entire plate, he suddenly heard the doors of the restaurant open and heard loud panting. Roger looked toward the door and saw a familiar sight. Suddenly, he felt a tinge of guilt and anxiety come on from eating all of that food. He knew he wouldn't be all too pleased if he found out about it. The dog had finally returned, walking up to the table, still breathless, pulling out the chair, and sitting in it. His tongue was sticking out, wagging in and out of his mouth. He looked down for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath, before looking into Roger's eyes.

"Welcome back, you mangy mutt!" the Paraves exclaimed, giddily.

"Thanks, you untapped fossil fuel!" Beckham responded, joy in his voice. "Sorry, I was late. There was a long wait at the ATM. Then, I decided to get something real quick before coming back here." He looked down at the table and saw an empty plate and a box full of some unknown, to him, food and narrowed his eyes. "I see you've definitely lived up to your promise of not ordering any food while I was gone."

"Yeah, sorry," the Tetanurae chupsed. "I couldn't help myself. I was hungry. But you can't say I never thought of you because I got you these!" He pushed the box of wings toward the canine. "I specifically asked for bones, because I knew you like them a lot for whatever reason. I will never understand you dogs."

The wolf's descendant licked his chops, rubbing his hands together as he took sight of the food in front of him. "I see you know the best way to a man's heart, after all."

"The only reason I'd ever want to get to your heart is to stab it to death," the Dromeosauridae snarked. The yellow-furred hound and the red-haired raptor both shared a hearty laugh at the comment for a good minute before, "Seriously, I absolutely despise you." He made the comment in the most serious, harsh voice he could.

"Well, right back at you then, eh?"

He simply took a bite out of his food, looking down at the table. They both shared a moment of awkward silence, simply eating their food. They were not sure what to say to each other after that awkward comment. They simply spent the next few minutes simply finishing their food off. After that was done, they were both tapping their hands on the table and whistling, still not sure what to say to each other or looking into each other's eyes. Beckham didn't truly feel any contempt for what Roger said—he was used to him making comments like that, and he had a feeling it simply wasn't true. He just wasn't so sure what to bring up, and Roger was in the same boat in not knowing what to say. Suddenly, though, the quick-witted velociraptor came up with a topic starter—a pretty basic one, anyway.

"So, how are things over at your job?" The dreamy-eyed Tyrannoraptora tilted his head in his hand, spinning his other hand's index finger on the table, still not looking into the dog's eyes.

"Oh, the same as usual," he began, "Ramon the Goat and his friends are up to their hijinks, my boss is making me work like crazy, the animals are being their messy and mischievous selves, and most importantly, Simone the Shark is eating a lot of the other fish. As always, I'm just here suffering. How about you? How are things with you?"

"The country's going mad, my parents are fighting, and my friend is giving me mixed feelings, so I'm also suffering as well," Roger responded. "Luckily, my love of drawing has made a return, and my friend's going on vacation soon so I'll be suffering from missing him, and yet feeling a bit more peaceful at the same time. Speaking of, how is your relationship with Shelby going? Especially considering you agreed to this date with me. Does he know about this?"

"I will never tell him about us, and you know it," he barked, "It would break his poor little heart if he knew, even if you and I are just friends. I love the man but I can't help but want a little change from the routine is all. Our relationship is going well, otherwise, with its ups and downs as is normal. We recently snuck out to a nearby carnival and after playing some games, we kissed on the Ferris wheel. It was wonderful, I felt all tingly inside."

"That's good to hear," the velociraptor chirped. "I'm rooting for you guys! Your relationship is absolutely adorable."

"Are you sure you're not just jealous of what we have?" Beckham raised an eyebrow, a smirk across his face.

"I don't know why your dumb brain thinks that I have a thing for you." He crossed his arms, looking away from the pooch and huffed. "I don't like you and I never will, you big-nosed, beer-bellied, buck-tooth, egotistical little devil-horned mutt!"

"Ah, how I love it when you call me those things." The mutt had a dreamy, starry-eyed smile, moving in closer to the dinosaur, in order to nuzzle him with his cheek.

"Hmph!" Roger huffed, his arms still crossed and snout raised in the air. "Weren't you just talking about how much you love your boyfriend Shelby Woolsenburg?"

"Oh, right..." The recollection of his true lover made him stop and feel ashamed of his actions, he had a disappointed frown on his face. Suddenly a thought came to his mind and he perked up. "So, where's the damn waiter wanting to know our main course, anyway?"

"Relax, Beckham," the Theropoda urged, a kind smile and loving voice, petting the mutt on the head. "They'll be here soon, you just need to have some patience is all. If they don't get here in 5 minutes, I'll file a complaint, okay?"

"Actually, with your fiery temper, I think it'd be best if I did it."

"Aww, you never let me have fun," the raptor giggled.

"It's because your brand of 'fun' usually lands us in trouble," the stud pointed out, a playful grin. They both shared a few chuckles before the waiter finally walked up to their table, returning their menus to them. Sweet relief! "Finally! I was wondering when you'd come back!"