Chapter 390: Privacy mode

“Welcome, Founder, to The Rose. You honor us with your presence. Would you like to be seated in the private or public level?”

The blue-tinged, system servant at the front of the restaurant smiled somewhere from the uncanny valley. ‘The Rose’ was stuffed full of flowers in no doubt tastefully imagined arrangements, making everything look and smell wonderful. Mason fought his natural urge to hate it all because it was made by RoboGod.

And Haley hadn't sent him here to go 'private', he supposed.

“Public is fine. Thank you. But…a booth. Somewhere a little ways off.”

“Of course, honored Founder. Right this way.”

Lexi wiggled her eyebrows at him, whispering ‘after you, my lord founder.’ Mason rolled his eyes as he pushed her ahead with a hand on her back. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her exposed skin, and did his best to think about the food only minutes away.

As they walked inside, many pairs of eyes began staring. There were maybe two dozen well dressed people he didn't recognize all sitting at dimly lit tables. Mason did his best to ignore the whispers—not to hear words like ‘Western Warlord’, and ‘He’s glowing. How many people has he killed?’.

He realized then the emperor and his minions must have already been inventing stories about Mason and his people. No doubt Mason was the villain of the piece, and his player killer aura and glowing eyes probably wouldn’t help. At least he hadn’t gone barefoot and sporting horns.

“They’re all looking at us,” Lexi whispered, obviously surprised, but not seeming as bothered as Mason.

“It’s your dress,” he said with a smile, very happy when the system servant took them to a dark corner of the already dim restaurant. It was almost entirely open, no real walls to speak of, with a few pillars holding everything up. Mason didn’t see any kind of kitchen, but then he supposed it didn’t need one.

They sat right next to each other in the booth, both grinning as they squished together. Mason wanted her close enough to touch, and a little tingle shot through him when she seemed pretty happy about it.

As he looked at the table there weren’t any obvious screens to order something like in the promenade. He was about to look for a waiter or maybe under the table when a blue servant shimmered into existence right next to them. It was holding a steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. And a misting-cold pitcher of beer.

Mason mostly just stared as it served him. Then another formed next to Lexi and started laying out plates. She covered her mouth with her hands and squealed with delight.

"Toad in the hole. And spotted dick!"

Mason was torn between making fun of whatever the hell Lexi just said, and glaring at his steak. He did his best not to lose his appetite.

Obviously the thing was reading their minds. It felt like he was being mocked. Like the all-knowing, all-powerful alien god was showing them how useless it was to resist, to think for a moment they had any chance at all. The rules were arbitrary and made by it. It knew everything about them. It knew what they wanted to eat before they did.

"This is amazing!" Lexi said as she started to dig into…some kind of sausage pie.

"Yeah," Mason said. "Amazing."

He truly tried to look and sound pleased, to keep the distaste off his face as he swallowed an otherwise delicious mouthful of the coldest, smoothest beer he could remember.

What's next? he thought. Will you fuck my date for me, too?

"What's wrong?" Lexi was watching him, looking between his eyes. Mason tried to...enhance his smile.

"Nothing. Just not what I expected. Let's eat."

Lexi pursed her lips. Then she reached over and put her fingers on the corners of his mouth, pulling it down into a frown.

"You did pretty good with the smile. But your eyes don't lie. You'll have to work on that."

Mason took a breath and Lexi's hand.

"It's not you. I just..." he shook his head. "I hate this place. All the nonsense. It's like they keep painting pretty pictures on my cell wall, playing happy music, and telling me to smile. But I can't leave."

Lexi kept looking into his eyes like she was digging for his soul.

"You're a sharp little thing, aren't you," he said, and she smiled.

"It reminds me of London, actually." Her smile faltered. "Which makes me think about my parents, and my brother and sister. My friends." She put her fork down and took a deep breath. "No one ever talks about it in Nassau, you know. About before. It's like an unwritten rule. Part of the new culture. Somehow…rude."

"I'm sorry," Mason said, wishing he could just get over it all for a night.

"Don't be. I want to talk about it. I want to feel...I don't know. Real every now and then, you know? Like this isn't normal. Because it's all no insane. And I miss my life from before."

"You can tell me." Mason smiled. "I'm not like the others, I guess. I'd like to hear."

This time Lexi gave him a genuine, brilliant smile. She told him about her rich parents. Her father's work for the government. Her mother's love of music and playing the organ for the queen at some event.

"It was the proudest moment of her life," she said, laughing. "I think if she'd had to give that moment or one of her children, she'd have struggled."

Mason just smiled and listened. Lexi told her about her 'black sheep' older brother, who really wasn't a black sheep so much as not what her parents expected.

"All he ever wanted was to ski and hang out with his friends. So he left law school and became a ski instructor and moved to Canada. Married a girl. Made some babies. Eventually my parents came around. He was always very kind to me."

"I was the golden child," Lexi said, then successfully fought off a sob. "Mostly I just did what I was told. I loved my parents very much. And my younger sister needed me. We did everything together. She was my best friend."

Mason held her hand, trying to be there with her and for her, and not with the growing hatred that blamed the robot in the sky for Lexi's pain.

'I'll make it right,' he wanted to say, but knew he couldn't.

"I'm doing all the talking," Lexi said, wiping a bit at her eyes. There weren't any damn napkins on the table so Mason just reached out and used his thumbs. Lexi sniffled a bit but recovered quickly. "I must look a fright."

"No," he said, still touching her. "And I don't talk much. It works out."

"You're not so bad at this," she said, grinning a little. Mason smiled too and felt like he was being pulled towards her, but held back because she was vulnerable and he wasn't sure it was right. But then again it was the fucking apocalypse and to hell with it.

He leaned forward and kissed her, and she was practically vibrating in his arms as she kissed him back. It got deeper and soon involved a lot of tongue, and Lexi moaned as Mason pulled her closer. But he reminded himself they were in public and probably being stared at, even in the gloom, so he pulled back before he was in too deep.

"We should probably at least pretend we're here to eat a little," he said, still touching Lexi's arms.

"Mmhmm," she said, opening her eyes with a sigh. "Yes. Food. All my favorites. Might not get again."

Mason grinned, and they both took several bites of the annoyingly delicious food.

"I'm trying to people watch," Lexi said. "I've been a dreadful spy but it's not over yet."

"And what do you see?" Mason said, keeping his face and tone deadpan. "Your country is relying on you."

"I see creepers. Oblivious older people. A fellow spy. A drunk couple about to shag."

"We're not drunk." The words were out before Mason really thought about it, and he was a bit shocked at his own boldness. Lexi blushed and kept looking out at the room.

"We're very confident," she said.

"I was...just trying to be funny," Mason said, a little embarrassed. He was about to explain that some days he didn't even recognize himself, that the pre-apocalypse Mason wouldn't have even dreamed of saying something like that. To anyone. Nevermind a girl like Lexi. Even if he had already slept with her in some kind of non-official...thing.

"I mean, you probably should be," Lexi said, ending her spy work as she pushed tighter against him and met his eyes with a grin. Then he was kissing her again, his hands moving up her sides to her face as he went hard as a rock.

"I definitely should have asked for the private area," he said as Lexi's hand started moving up his thigh.

[Privacy mode engaged], beeped a quiet voice next to the table.

Some kind of purple shield sprung up all around their booth, the tint darkening until Mason really couldn't see a thing outside. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Lexi, who reached out and knocked on the shield. Then she got up onto her knees on the seat, and spread her legs as she put one on either side of Mason's lap.

"And what would you have done if we were in the private booth?" she asked, lips an inch away from his. He slid his hands down her exposed back, cupping her ass as he started playing with and slightly pulling up the fabric of her dress.

"It might not block sound," Lexi said breathlessly, her chest rising and falling as Mason exposed her enough to feel her small, thin panties. He teased her with his fingers, trailing without ever quite touching as he kissed her deeply again. When he finally pulled back he thought about telling her to be quiet, but changed his mind.

"I don't care," he said, then slipped off the straps of Haley's red dress. It reminded him his wife had helped set this moment up. That she enjoyed it. That she couldn’t wait for Mason to bring the girl back to their bed.

He was hard even before watching Lexi’s small, round breasts drop out, and push towards him as she arched her back.