A New Beginning (Josh and Esmerelda)

Josh had reserved a table for him and Esmerelda for seven o'clock, and he showed up fifteen minutes early. He wanted to leave plenty of time in case something had gone wrong. Walking in to Rizukia Pub, he asked the lady about the Night reservation for two. Everything seemed to be in order and she showed him to the table. The restaurant was really nice, just like what he'd heard about it. When the waitress came around he asked for two waters.

Now all he had to was wait for a couple minutes, and then Esmerelda would be here shortly. Each minute felt like it was taking ages naturally, he could feel his nervousness returning. This was the first date he'd been on in what seemed like forever. He was wearing his black suit, with a white shirt and a red tie. Before he'd left Josh asked Naomi if he looked alright. She'd encouraged him that he looked great and shooed him out the door. Hopefully he wouldn't mess this up, Esmerelda was a special person.

Esmerelda had recieved the notice about the dinner and she was more than excited to be going, she was glad to be seeing Josh again but now that she knew it was a date she felt the need to make herself look extra special and of course, like normal, had several disasters along the way.

The hair potion was made for curly hair not straight and had made her her go completely mad because it got angry at being put on the wrong type of hair, and then her make up spell had gone drastically wrong and she had to do it by hand, but eventually, after a lot of hard work, she was ready.

Wearing a simple black evening dress and heels, her hair down and poker straight, Esmerelda walked swiftly into the Risukia pub and spotted Josh almost instantly, waltzing over to him she smiled softly;

"Sorry if I'm late, I had so many wardrobe disasters you wouldn't believe, it could only happen to me." she sighed lightly "How have you been anyway?"

Josh smiled widely when he saw Esmerelda walking into the pub. She was wearing a simple black dress and heels, looking absolutely amazing. Her hair was stick straight, it normally was but this was even straighter than usual. His face flushed a little bit as he thought about how beautiful she looked. Looking at the table for a second to compose himself, he looked up at her to meet her eyes.

"Not a problem, you aren't that late really. I got here a bit early to make sure our reserved table was still here. If you had wardrobe disasters I wouldn't have known, you look...well, wonderful." he told her with a gentle smile. "Well other than terribly nervous and fussing over my own appearance a bit I've been fantastic. My father is making an effort to stop drinking and patch things up with Naomi and I. We have a long way to go, but at least we made a start." he explained to her

Then he stood up and pulled out her chair for her, it was the gentlemanly thing to do. "Have a seat, and you can order anything you like on me. Later they're supposed to have dancing I believe, if you are interested." Josh took his own seat and thought for a minute. "Would you like a bottle of wine to share?" he asked. "Or an appetizer or something?"

Esmerelda smiled happily, she was glad to get away from it all with Josh but she wondered whether they would be disturbed during their meal, magical paperazzi sure did like following her around these days, she didn't even think she would be able to go two minutes without bumping into one when she released her new collection.

"Thanks Josh, I do try." she grinned happily, glad that he appreciated her appearence, when she heard about Josh's father and that he had a problem with drink, Esmerelda frowned a little bit, he had never told her that "I'm glad that things are getting better between you and your dad, hopefully you'll pull together as a family because of it."

Giggling a little when Josh pulled out a chair for her she exclaimed with a rougish wink;

"What a gentleman! I do believe I will have the most expensive things on the menu, and two of them at that." Esmerelda teased before making a disgusted face "I don't like wine very much, but I'll take you up on an appetiser."

Josh smiled widely at her, she seemed to be happy. Then she seemed to remember something, and a look of annoyance crossed her face. He didn't think he'd done anything, but something was bothering her just a little bit. Perhaps she thought it was awkward, having second thoughts about agreeing to this. He knew it was pessimistic thinking that, but he was still shocked she'd chosen to be here with him. To him Esmerelda seemed amazing, so he worried why an amazing person would be with someone so average.

"The effect is brilliant, really. Is something bothering you? You seemed kind of distracted there for a second, looked like you were annoyed." he said, looking down at the table. Hopefully there was nothing wrong, Josh wanted this to go well. "Sorry, I know I haven't talked to you much about him. It's just, well he abused my sister and myself after my mom's death. Naomi was the person he blamed for the accident, even though it was nobody's fault. I've never told anybody this...but sometimes I still have nightmares about it. Mainly they involve him hurting Naomi, the sound of her screams..." Josh said quietly, shaking his head to try and shake out the bad thoughts. How or why he had just opened up like that he didn't know, but he felt a tad better having told her. "Sorry, that isn't the happiest thing to be thinking about right now." he admitted sheepishly.

Esmerelda's wink made him blush a bit, he was just doing the proper thing to do in his opinion. that she appreciated made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside though, so he winked right back.

"Well naturally." Josh answered in a teasing tone of voice. "Oh goodness, I may have to keep some of the treasure from my next curse breaking adventure." he joked. Already the mood was lightening up, for some reason he couldn't stop smiling. "If you want something else to drink you are welcome to pick something. To be honest I'm not much of a wine drinker either." Scanning the menu, Josh wondered what she would choose. Nothing seemed to jump out at him, though it all sounded tasty. "So what appetiser do you think?"

Esmerelda sighed a little bit and flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she thought about what it was who had made her annoyed, they truly were one of the big problems in her life and she wanted to be able to make some sort of invisibility cloak so that she could run away and hide sometimes.

"I was just hoping that we wouldn't be disturbed this meal, with my new collection coming out soon, there were lots of paperazzi trying to get quotes and statements from me." she stated "Its nothing that you did silly." Esmerelda reassured him.

Raising her eyebrow Esmerelda didn't really know what to say in response to that, it was uhm...not really first date matieral to be saying. Also, it made her feel more than a little bit awkward, should she say something comforting?

"Uhm...well I dont really know what to say Josh..." she admitted truthfully "Although it was a little bit...uhm intense for the meanwhile." Esmerelda stated with a small cough, ordering a bottle of wine for them, she might need it.

Looking through the menu she smiled lightly, she was a bit of a fish person, she really did love it but she didn't have it often, so she might as well take advantage of someone else cooking it for her;

"I think for a starter I might have the crab cakes, I...I have a bit of a thing for fish." she grinned "What about you?"

Josh nodded at what she said, he wasn't too surprised that the paparazzi were hounding her. That would be annoying to him too if they continued to date. Probably would be one of very few things he wouldn't like about spending time with Esmerelda. She was funny, smart, kind, not to mention beautiful. He knew he was lucky to have attracted the attention of such a great girl, he was glad he went to the amphitheatre that day.

"That must be extremely annoying. Probably about the only thing I won't enjoy about spending time with you." Josh told her with a wink. Hopefully that would get a laugh out of her. "Just relax and enjoy yourself if you can. Don't let them ruin the night." he told her with a small smile. "I'm really happy to be here with you, they can't ruin it unless we let them."

After he said it, he realized it was kind of a serious thing to say on the first date. It was just so easy to talk to her, and he had needed to vent. Now he was blushing, feeling terrible about it. She was clearly uncomfortable now. This was one of the only times he'd ever felt awkward around her.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to find his voice again. "I am really sorry. Once i had said it I knew it was too serious to tell you about so soon." he said quietly. All he wanted to do now was go and hide, but that wasn't right way to go about it. "I feel terrible about making this so awkward. I always ruin things." Josh said with a frown.

Looking at his menu, he tried to figure out what he wanted for an appetizer as well as the entree. He decided to get the house salad and some shrimp. Shrimp was one of his favorites, he'd always loved it. For the entree he was thinking a nine ounce rib-eye steak, with the baked potato.

"Fish is always good, I am a seafood fan myself. Think I am going to have the shrimp and a house salad. The shrimp we can share if you want. Already found an entree as well, going with the nine ounce rib-eye steak with a baked potato. Hungry just thinking about it." he admitted with a laugh.