R. Mathewson - Perfection

"Okay, can you bring him two cheeseburger platters then?" she asked, knowing if she didn't there was a good chance that he'd steal her food and for the first time in weeks she was ravenousness and wasn't about to share her food.

"Sure, it will be about a half hour," the waitress said, taking their menus.

A half hour? She was starving. She was pregnant with Bradford twins for god sake's and she was very much afraid that for the next seven months she'd be in a state of constant hunger as she tried uselessly to satisfy the Bradford appetite.

She really wasn't sure how she was going to survive this pregnancy or more importantly survive another thirty minutes without food. That nausea pill had done wonders for her body and she wanted, no needed, food or she was pretty sure she would die.

"If I order an appetizer is there any chance I can get it quickly? I'm two and a half months pregnant with a Bradford," she said, not mentioning it was twins because the thought was actually starting to scare her and she hadn't told Trevor yet and didn't want him finding out this way. She just hoped the woman understood because she was close to crying. Judging by the slightly startled look on the woman's face she did.

The waitress shook her head. "No, you're right. You probably won't be able to survive the wait," she said, sending Trevor, who was still trying to get the woman to leave, a glare. "I'll bring you out a bowl of clam chowder followed by chicken fingers, they'll only take a few minutes to prepare. Will that work?"

Zoe nodded solemnly. "You are my hero."

"I'll put a rush on your food," the waitress said before walking away.

"Bless you," Zoe said, fighting the urge to kiss the woman. She was starving. She really couldn't remember ever being this hungry before. Was this how it felt to be a Bradford? she idly wondered as the woman who'd been flirting with Trevor stormed off in a huff.

"I'm really sorry about that," Trevor said, sighing as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking frustrated.

"It's fine," she said, shrugging it off.

There really wasn't anything he could do about it. As much as she would have liked one perfect night with him she wasn't too angry. It was probably for the best that they didn't have a perfect night together so that she didn't have something truly wonderful to reminisce over and have "what if?" thoughts about later.

"No, it's not. This is our first date," he said, reaching over and took her hand into his. She tried to pull her hand away, but he wasn't having that. Holding on to her hand tightly, but not enough to hurt, he shifted his chair closer to her.

"Maybe we should just focus on having a nice time out as friends instead of trying for the impossible," she said, trying to pull her hand away only to find herself tugged forward and her mouth covered.

He brushed his lips over hers several times before pulling back just far enough so that he could look into her eyes as he spoke. "This is a date, Zoe. Don't try to downplay what we've got going on just because you're afraid to see where this is headed," he said softly.

"I'm not afraid?" she said, immediately wishing she'd kept her big mouth shut. Seriously, when was she going to lose that irritating habit of not being able to lie? It would come in handy in moments like this or when she was trying to get out of jury duty.

"If it makes you feel better," he said, pausing to press a quick kiss against her lips that left her wanting more, "I'm just as scared as you are, but you need to remember one thing."

"What's that?" she whispered, feeling nervous by the intensity of his gaze, the way he was looking at her as if she made him happy....whole.

"I'm not going anywhere. We'll take this one day at a time, but we are going to give this a chance, Zoe."

"We are?" she asked breathlessly, feeling herself soften as she leaned forward to meet his lips. Maybe they could give this a try, she thought just as someone yelled his name. Sighing heavily, they both leaned back and Trevor gave the man, whom she'd like to point out looked stunned when he spotted her, a quick wave.

"Zoe,-" Trevor started only to be cut off by the waitress as she placed the largest bowl of clam chowder Zoe had ever seen in front of her with an equally large plate of chicken tenders.

"I took the liberty of doubling your order," she said, giving Trevor a pointed look.

"Thank you," he murmured, gesturing for Zoe to eat.

"Thank you. It looks really great," Zoe said just as the waitress started to walk away, barely able to take her eyes away from the food as her stomach growled viciously, startling the hell out of her.

Trevor simply chuckled as he handed her a large spoon. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. From what I heard, Haley out ate Jason while she was pregnant."

"Please tell me you're kidding me," she said, truly horrified at the prospect of eating as much as Jason and that was only for one baby. Really, how much would she need for twins?

"I'm afraid not," he said, gesturing once again for her to eat.

She eyed him for a moment, giving her food a chance to cool and trying to figure out a way to make sense of everything. One thing she couldn't wrap her mind around was the way he was taking everything. It was a little unnerving actually to have Trevor suddenly declare that he wanted a future with her. She knew it was because of the babies, but he didn't know that and one day he would and she didn't want to be the one to pay when that day came.

"Why aren't you freaking out about this?" she asked, too curious to put it off for another moment. She ate some of her soup and nearly moaned with pleasure. It was so good and apparently her stomach agreed because it didn't threaten to make her run the hundred yard dash across the restaurant to get to the bathroom.

"I sort of did freak out when I found out," he admitted sheepishly, gesturing for her to continue to eat when she stopped to frown at him.

"What happened?" she asked, wishing she'd been there when he found out. Actually, she wished he'd been there to hold her hand when the doctor came back to tell her the news or when they rolled in the sonogram and checked to see how far along she was.

Almost three months along.

She'd been shocked when they told her and hyperventilating when they mentioned twins. After they left the room she lay in the semi-dark room and tried to wrap her mind around everything. By the time they came to give her something for the pain and announced that they were releasing her she was both nervous and excited about the future, but she'd also been a little frightened that Trevor wouldn't take it well and apparently he hadn't.

"It was a bit of a shock," he admitted. "When you didn't have your, um," he cleared his throat, looking adorably embarrassed, "your um....," he trailed off, looking at a loss for words.

"Friend?" she suggested, biting back a smile at the relieved look on his face. When her period didn't show up the first time she hadn't been all that nervous since her periods had become extremely irregular with her diet and they were using protection. It was also one of the things that scared her enough to get off the insane diet she was on because she was afraid of the damage it was causing her body, but now she knew she wasn't giving her babies enough food and she felt like crying.

"Yes, I thought you were on birth control," he admitted, shaking his head ruefully. "I really was an idiot to assume anything. I should have asked, but I was so damn excited to be with you that I have to admit that I really didn't use my head a lot," he said softly, reaching out to take her free hand. "I'm sorry that I messed this up, Zoe, but you need to know that I will never-"

"About time you dropped by," Hank, she thought his name was, said as he slapped a hand on the back of Trevor's shoulder, cutting off whatever pointless promise Trevor was about to make. Even though she loved him, he didn't love her and she couldn't allow him to settle for her when she knew he would never be happy.

"I'm in the middle of something here," Trevor bit out, gesturing to Zoe.

Hank? sent her a questioning look, but quickly shrugged it off, probably not giving her a second thought as he turned his attention back to Trevor. "I was asked by that group of lovely women," he said, gesturing to a group of three women, who took that as their cue to send Trevor little flirtatious smiles and waves, "to see if you would like to join us for a drink."

"I just told you that I'm in the middle of something here," he said, jaw clenching as he once again gestured her way.

"It's fine," she said, knowing there really was no point in prolonging the evening. Any delusions she'd once had about having any type of relationship had been effectively squashed. She'd rather just sit here alone and enjoy this tasty meal before she went home to her semi-empty apartment. After nearly five months of dieting she was going to indulge tonight. Hell, she might even get dessert.

With ice cream.

Yes, she realized she was spiraling into binge eating and was probably on the verge of a major depression, but thankfully this time she had two Bradfords to help her out with the excess calories and hopefully by the time they were born she'd be over Trevor.

Okay, that wasn't very likely to happen, but at least by then she wouldn't be able to afford food for herself since she had two Bradfords to feed. It would be fine, because she'd be so busy trying to take care of her babies to think about Trevor.

She'd be fine.

Really.

Now if she could only believe that everything would be okay.

How in the hell had he fucked up so badly? he wondered as he signaled for the bartender.

It was that damn arrangement.

Of all the fucked up things he'd done in his life that was one he wished he could go back and change that night. He'd probably already been half in love with the stubborn woman when he'd come up with that asinine idea. What in the hell was wrong with him suggesting something like that?

If his mother was still alive she'd bitch slap him into tomorrow for pulling that shit. She'd raised him to respect women even if he didn't particular care for them and his uncles backed up that little lesson with the unspoken promise of an ass whooping if he ever forgot. Before Zoe there was no question that he'd been an asshole, still was, but he'd never treated any of the women in his life the way he treated her, like she was nothing but a convenience to him.

The fucked up part about the whole thing was that the only woman he'd ever truly cared about and loved was the one he treated like she didn't exist while he paraded women around who he couldn't have given a flying fuck about because of the way they looked.

He let out a humorless snort of laughter at that.

Most of the women he'd dated in the past had annoyed the shit out of him and could never manage to keep his attention, but his frumpy little tenant had him practically drooling after her twenty-four-seven. He was so fucking in love with her that he felt sick and empty when she wasn't around and so unbelievably happy when he saw her that he couldn't believe his own stupidity.

This was all his fault. If he could go back and change things he would. Instead of offering sex like he was doing her a favor he should have done what any normal man would do for the woman he couldn't stop thinking about and asked her out, begged if he had to. He loved spending time with her and could easily think of a thousand things he'd like to do with her, but he'd been stupid and selfish.

If only he could go back and change things......

Well, he wouldn't change the pregnancy. It had only been a day since he found out about it, but already he was excited about the future. It didn't matter if his baby had reading problems like him, he'd be there for his kid and support him and of course teach him how to beat the shit out of anyone who made fun of him. Of course Jason's kids would probably be insanely smart and hopefully would be there for Trevor's kid the way Jason had been there for him.

He hoped his child didn't have an obsession with food, but judging by the way Zoe was devouring her burger he figured that wish was useless. Wait a minute........

Hadn't Zoe ordered baked ziti for herself? He sighed heavily as he gestured for the busy bartender once again. Well, it looked like he was going to go hungry for the next six or seven months, which was fine with him. As long Zoe and his baby were happy then he'd learn to deal.