A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

No doubt it was difficult not to focus on who would be coming that Tuesday. It gave her the chance not to focus on the mannequin, and with nothing new with the mannequin occurring, she slowly was accepting that everything that had happened before had been in her head. Sure, she wished that her mind hadn't tricked her like that, but to know that it only was a trick was relieving. Anita looked quite happy about her friend not mentioning the inanimate object as well, but Anita was getting a little annoyed at her friend giving her looks that essentially asked for her to spill the beans on her boyfriend. Unfortunately for (f/n), Anita didn't crack.

Admittedly, he was interested to find out who this boyfriend was too. While (f/n) was away and Anita was on her own in the kitchen with her phone, he saw her smile and giggle as she typed on the thing. No doubt the conversations were with her boyfriend. He knew that look of lost in love too well. Never did he see her enter a code, though. Regardless, he noticed that Anita hurriedly would put her phone away whenever (f/n) came into the kitchen as she was typing on it. (F/n) suspected something was up, but she never pressed her friend too much for information.

Based on Anita's expression, he had a feeling that Anita wasn't only hiding her phone to keep her conversations with her boyfriend a secret. No, there was something else going on, something that worried the chef. With the boyfriend coming in the near future, he knew that he'd get to the bottom of it soon, and he hoped that he'd be able to use it to create friction between the two friends. He always did enjoy exposing people and breaking them.

When Tuesday arrived, (f/n) couldn't help but wear a grin several times when she went into the kitchen and made eye contact with her friend. Anita already had informed Scarlett that her boyfriend was coming into town and that (f/n) would be teasing her throughout the day. Scarlett simply found it amusing but promised Anita that she wouldn't add to the teasing. Naturally, Anita appreciated that, but she also had a feeling that Scarlett didn't want to upset her boss, which Anita found amusing since she wouldn't fire her sous chef over such a thing as playful teasing. Of course, she wouldn't tell Scarlett that.

Once service was over, things were cleaned and Scarlett wished Anita to have a good night, the sous chef left since the waiting staff left a little bit before Scarlett. (F/n) entered the kitchen shortly after and leaned against the doorway, not really paying any attention to the mannequin off in the corner. "So, you going to get ready?" A smirk was on (f/n)'s lips, and her arms were crossed over her chest.

Rolling her eyes, Anita nodded. "Yeah." Her eyes narrowed a bit. "Don't think of going off to the bar without me and trying to meet him ahead of time." She held out her right index finger accusingly. "He won't be there early."

"I won't. I won't even recognize him unless you introduce him, remember?" (f/n) pointed out, chuckling a bit.

"Right." Anita didn't seem convinced. "I wouldn't put it past you to ask around and see who he was."

"By the time I did that, you'd already be there, and I would've just made a wasted effort." (F/n) shrugged her shoulders and gave her friend an amused smile.

"Not if there are only a couple of people there." Well, that was a good point, but (f/n) didn't admit that. "Anyway, just be patient. You're almost done with waiting." Anita gave her friend one last warning glance before she left the kitchen and headed upstairs. Thankfully, she had managed to maintain her slightly irritated and warning expression when (f/n) had mentioned that she wouldn't be able to tell who he was. Soon, though, she wouldn't be able to hide his identity too much longer, and she wanted to be the one to tell (f/n), not someone else or for her to find out on her own. At least in the bar setting, Anita hoped that (f/n) wouldn't make a scene.

While (f/n) hadn't noted the worry in her friend's eyes, he had. He wished that he could follow them. After all, he did know how to keep himself hidden, and if he ever was able to leave the house, he'd need that skill more than ever. Otherwise, he would turn a lot of heads. At least, he would be able to witness or hear to some degree what would happen when both of them got home.

There was a bounce in (f/n)'s step, though, and she left the kitchen shortly after Anita. (F/n) headed upstairs and into her room to change into a comfortable, yet decent outfit for going out. She put on a powder blue blouse, with a bow in the front, white jeans, silver flip-flops and silver hoop earrings. Her (h/c) (h/l) was left down, and she grabbed her powder blue clutch. Ready to go, she headed downstairs and waited for her friend on the stairs. As she did so, she worked on some of their finances on her phone as well as checked their social media pages to garner how well they were doing.

Thankfully, most reviews were positive. There were a few negative ones, but the complaints were small and quite particular that they didn't really affect their overall reviews. One of the complaints was that their glass of water had too much ice in it and that it was too cold. No one else complained about the ice, though, so she didn't think it of worth to go out of their way to focus on how many ice cubes they put in each glass of water.

Hearing the sound of heels clicking behind her, (f/n) got up and looked back to see that her friend had dressed in a black crop top, red pleated skirt, red hoop earrings and black heels. "Well, does it look okay?" Anita asked as she met her friend at the bottom of the steps. "Is it too simple?"

"I don't think so." (F/n) smiled gently, no ounce of teasing present. "You look beautiful, Anita."

A small smile touched Anita's lips before she grinned and grabbed her friend's left hand. "Well, let's get going. I'm sure that you're tired of waiting."

Chuckling, (f/n) answered, "You got that right. Let's go see this mystery man of yours."

Both friends soon left the house, and Anita managed to hide her concern behind her excitement of seeing him again. At least, she could go off to his hotel room if she needed to take a break from (f/n). Hopefully, things wouldn't get too heated, though.

Heels and flip-flops clicked and hit the pavement in rhythm, and both of them soon were at The Iron Clipper. Anita paused outside of the door and texted her boyfriend about whether he was inside already or if they should wait outside for him. (F/n) tried to sneak a peek at the name on the phone, but Anita managed to hide it from her. A text came back, and Anita smiled over to her, managing to hide her nerves once more. "He's inside. Ready?"

"Anita, I think that you know the answer to that," (f/n) joked, and Anita laughed a little in response.

Here goes nothing Anita thought to herself. She opened the door and stepped in first. (F/n) closed the door behind them and looked over the several people present. Anita began to walk over to a certain table, but she stopped shortly after when she didn't hear steps behind her.

(F/n) saw the man at the table and thought that maybe Anita had been pulling a joke on her the whole time. Anita was going to go to a different table, right? Not his? But then, why would he be here? She looked over to Anita and hoped that her friend had something to say that would indicate she didn't mean him, but Anita didn't. Instead, she became very nervous and awkward.

Before (f/n) could utter a word, Anita grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the table until they both were right in front of it. He looked up and smiled to them both despite the look of shock on (f/n)'s face. "(F/n), this is Kaleb." (F/n) knew his name, and she knew that Anita simply was reintroducing him to try and get rid of some of the tension.

Standing up, he held out his hand for her to shake, but she didn't. Instead, she just looked incredibly stunned. Hesitantly, he withdrew his hand and glanced over to Anita, who gave him an apologetic glance. "I might've told her about you back during school and shown her a picture."

Understanding, he nodded before he looked back over to (f/n). "(F/n), what happened back then ..."

"What happened back then was that you were utterly disrespectful of Anita," (f/n) interjected. He winced a bit, but she cut him off before he could speak again. "I know all about how you had been a complete jerk to her on several accounts, and I'm wondering how you managed to weasel your way back into her life." (F/n) looked over to Anita in the process and gave her a highly questioning look of what had gotten into her friend.

"(F/n), he didn't weasel his way back in," she said as calmly as she could, hoping that the situation wouldn't escalate and that (f/n) wouldn't raise her voice. "Kaleb contacted me, and we talked about everything that had happened." Anita only looked more nervous. "I decided to give him another chance, and we decided to date officially this time to see if it would work." (F/n) glanced over to Kaleb who looked to be agreeing with Anita's words. "He's been a gentleman the whole time."

Sighing roughly, (f/n) combed her right fingers through her hair. "I ..." She couldn't relax the glare she had on her face when she saw Kaleb, and she focused back on Anita. "Can I talk to you alone outside? I need to process this without him being here." Anita glanced over to Kaleb, who indicated that it was fine, and she soon nodded to (f/n).