2020-03-04 - Dinner Plans

Despite having recently transitioned to March it is still very much winter in Gray Harbor. There are still snow flurries outside, it is still so cold that the breath fogs, and there is snowy sludge everywhere in the streets typical of winter's end. The heat from the Pizza Kitchen's oven offers some respite from the cold and the various denizens of the town have flocked in for dinner.

One such group is Beth, Ciprian, and Ciprian's daughter Ashira who have just sat down. "I guess there was some controversy over the movie because apparently there is a map in it suggesting all of the waterway belongs to China. Who would have known your kid's movies would have geopolitics." She says as she picks up a menu to begin flipping through it.

"Huh, really?" Ciprian settles back in his seat, reaching for the menu and opening it up to give it an absent glance, but when you've lived in Gray Harbor most of your life, you probably don't need to look at very many menus unless the restaurant is particularly new. "Now I don't know how I feel about giving them my money."

Ashira, who looks to be about eight and is currently reaching for a wire cup filled with crayons, looks up, her gaze moving between Ciprian and Beth as she frowns a little bit in thought. "Is that wrong?" she asks, the crayons forgotten for now in favor of the question. "Why would they put it in the movie, then?"

Soon enough Ryan is coming into the Pizza Kitchen as well. Looking around some. Not seeing what he looked for he instead tries to find an empty table. A smile and a nod offered to the trio as well, but for now not bothering them. Sitting down at a table one or two away from them. Wearing a proper thick jacket to guard against the cold, but otherwise casually dressed. A bit of stubble showing and hair is messy.

The growly sound of a powerful car pulls up outside before shutting off. Erin climbs out of her Maserati and closes the door, locking it behind her. With instructions to meet someone here, she had hurriedly dressed in something not work related. It's a lovely dress though, a pale ice blue that contrasts with her darker looks. As she steps inside, the door closes behind her and she glances around, looking for someone in particular.. Spotting Ryan, her lips curve into a smile and she approaches his table, "It's good to see you." Sliding into a chair across from him. It's then she glances around and notices the trio and Ashira gets the brightest smile and a wave before she smiles and nods to the others in a friendly manner. She doesn't interrupt though, turning back to focus on Ryan. "Pizza sounds good, thanks for inviting me."

"Well, I hate to say it but you're giving your money to China regardless of if you like it or not." Beth says with some amusement as she puts down the menu. Ashira is given a considering look before she glances questioningly to Ciprian as if checking with him before she explains. "Well, I guess it depends on the person's perspective? And they put it in the movie because movies sometimes have..." She trails off as if searching for the right thing to say. "Sometimes movies have a direct message but then they also contain more subtle messages." But this is complex for an 8 year old to understand -- and for Beth to explain -- so she follows it up with, "Why don't you pick out what kind of pizza we're getting?" She returns Erin's smile and nod with one of her own. Ryan gets one as well since he's with Erin.

"Oh." Ashira takes a moment to digest that explanation, but after that brief pause, she nods, apparently accepting it. "Okay. I think I liked the direct message better." That announced, she nods and reaches for the menu to look when Beth suggests it -- but then she sees Erin, and Ryan as well. It's the former who gets a wide grin, though, and she stands up quickly, going over to give Erin a hug. "Hi!" she says when she lets go, and then Ryan does get a slightly more staid but still friendly, "Hi. Are you Erin's friend?"

"Yes, but at least I can pretend better when there's not some problem that's inspiring a bunch of articles." Ciprian sounds like he's joking, though, and he starts to say something more, but when Ashira gets up his eyebrows raise, and he turns toward where she's walking, spotting Erin and Ryan as well. "Oh, hi," he says with a smile of his own, lifting a hand to wave.

Ryan does smile and nod to those looking their way. But then focusing on Erin, "Thanks for joining me. And it is nice to see you as well." His jacket taken off as well, wearing a navy buttoned up shirt. Smiling at Ashira as she comes running over to hug Erin. Nodding. "I suppose I am. I'm Ryan. You seem to be her friend as well?" He asks. A wave offered to Ciprian as well. Turning back to Erin, "Any recommendations?" Asked about the food as well. Turning to see if Ashira has a suggestion on food as well. His irish accent isn't thick, but relatively clear still.

Aww! Erin hugs Ashira and gently tugs on a lock of her hair. Nothing to hurt her, just a playful tug. "Hey sport, it's good to see you!" An affectionate smile given her way. She presses her lips together to keep the smile from blossoming further as she addresses Ryan, leaving it to him to respond to the question. His response seems to suit her and she looks back to the girl, "You'll have to let me know how school is and everything. We have a lot of catching up to do, if papa will let you come hang out sometime?" A glance to Ciprian and Beth at the question, careful to include both in the question before smiling back at Ryan. "I'm at your mercy, order as you will and I'll enjoy it either way. If you get anchovies, I'll find a way to enjoy it anyway," she laughs softly.

"Could be worse." Beth says with the quirk of her lips. "You could be giving your money to Russians." But now it's not just them so the discussion about politics is put to an end. She watches as Ashira goes to greet Erin and Ryan, but doesn't comment. Instead she picks up the menu again. "Can we have chicken and vegetables or is that a no-no?" She wonders aloud before saying, "Cause the chicken supreme sounds pretty good."

"Yes," Ashira confirms with a nod to Ryan, then looks back to Erin. "Okay!" she says, but then she seems to take the cue that Erin is asking permission, and she looks over at Ciprian with a hopeful expression. "That's fine, right?" she says, which as we all know is the best way to ask for permission from one's parent.

Ciprian, however, laughs, and says, "Of course. We'll make a plan soon. But come back over here and don't bother Erin and her friend while they're eating." He gives the couple a bit of an apologetic look, before he turns back to Beth. "I think that's fine," he confirms, and his daughter, who has wandered back to her seat now and grabbed a red crayon, says, "Yeah, I like chicken. Make sure it has olives, though. Beth, do you like olives? Some people don't." She says this as though it's the craziest thing in the world. Those people who don't like olives, what the heck, am I right?

"Ashira is never, ever a bother," Erin offers her reassurances, but doesn't try and keep her against her father's wishes. Instead, she gives her another brief hug, "I look forward to it." A quick wink before giving her attention back to Ryan. "Or we could get something to go. Why don't we do that?"

"Olives are the-" Beth stops herself abruptly, probably because she was about to say 'Olives are the shit' and instead amends her statement. "Best vegetable topping ever. So-" She gives Ashira a over-acted thoughtful face complete with chin stroke. "Do we want olives on chicken fajita or do we want olives and chicken? Because while I agree with you it must contain olives I feel like your pizza experience is going to be very different depending on that." She adds, "And we should probably have some less delicious vegetables, too. Because legally your dad has to make sure you aren't malnourished or something like that." She smiles just a touch after she says this. Erin and Ryan's departure gets a wave from her.

Ashira grins when Beth confirms that olives are amazing, and she gives an enthusiastic wave to Erin and Ryan when they decide to take it to go instead. "Bye, Erin! I'll see you soon! Bye, Ryan!" She turns back to Beth then, becoming a little bit more serious as she considers the question, though she can't help a giggle that escapes her at the end. "It would be bad if he did anything illegal because he's a lawyer," she opines, looking at her father with a nod. She then continues, "Chicken fajita is okay. I like the peppers." That decided, she starts to draw a red arc on her placemat, which might be the beginning of a rainbow.

"Bye, Erin, I'll talk to you soon." Ciprian waves at the departing pair, before he turns back to the table with a laugh of his own. "Yes, that would be bad," he agrees, a little bit dryly, but with amusement. "Okay. Chicken fajita pizza. With olives. Sounds good."

Beth laughs as well at Ashira's observation before she looks at Ciprian with a quirk of her lips. "Or maybe your dad could very easily be a criminal mastermind because no one would suspect a mild mannered prosecutor of being the greatest criminal mild of their generation." Her eyes cut to Ashira and her grin widens, "Watch him. Make sure he feeds you your vegetables or next thing you know..." She shakes her head before she laughs and stands up. "Okay I'll go put in the order. Spite for you and-" She lays a hand on his shoulder briefly, "Iced tea. No sugar?"

Ashira's eyes widen at Beth's words, as though she has never thought about that before, but now that it has been suggested, it definitely seems like a possibility. She eyes her father warily, all drawings of rainbows forgotten in favor of making sure that he isn't suddenly going to pull off the heist of the century.

Ciprian has to laugh again at this, and he just shakes his head, looking up to Beth. "Thanks," he says. "Now I'm going to wake up and find her standing over me watching me sleep." He nods, though, at the drink order, and he reaches up to touch her hand briefly on his shoulder, squeezing it once before he releases it. "Thank you," he says, a little less jokingly and more seriously.

"I can think of worse things." Beth says in a I'm-joking-but-we-all-know-things-be-creepy-sometimes way. Her smile becomes less mischievous when he squeezes her hand and she gazes down at him fondly for a moment before she lets go of his shoulder to start towards the counter to put in their order. She returns a minute later with the drinks on a tray and puts the tray down on the table before she passes them out.

"Can you, though?" Ciprian, however, does not really argue, and instead turns back to his daughter, giving her an equally wary stare. "Draw your rainbow," he says, and she makes a face at him, but then she grins, and by the time Beth comes back she is doing just that. She has gotten through the rainbow, and now is adding some clouds around it, as well as little bird-like creatures. "Thanks," Ciprian says with a smile for Beth, receiving his drink and taking a sip from it. "How was your day?" he asks her as he sets it down. Since they didn't really get to talk much about it in the movie. "Calm and relaxing?" It's sort of a joke, but there's a subtext there that she surely understands, considering her many recent days were neither calm nor were they relaxing.

Beth sits back down next to Ciprian and pops her paper straw into her drink so she can also have a sip. "Lovely." She says with a touch of a smile. "I didn't have an appointment till noon so I slept in till nine." She does look more rested than she has lately. The dark circles are gone and vitality has returned to her complexion. It was getting to the point where she wasn't able to hide the dark circles from lack of sleep regardless of how much makeup she wore. "How was your day?"

"Oh, well, must be nice," Ciprian comments, again dryly, but it's with clear fondness as well, and especially because she's looking a lot better than she had been. "I'm glad you're getting a chance to rest a little bit." He says it a bit more quietly, glancing at Ashira, though she seems intent on her drawing and isn't paying too much attention as the adults talk about their days. "Mine was fine. A little bit boring, but it happens. I have a deposition to take tomorrow so I'm just preparing for that right now."

"It really was." Beth gloats a bit with a grin at his dryness. "What's it like to have a deposition?" She wonders with a curious little tilt of her head. "Like...you've seen what I do every day by now. Or you've seen a lot of it. Not the more messy parts." He hasn't asked and she hasn't offered. Clearly he is uncomfortable with being around dead bodies and she doesn't want to make him more uncomfortable when her goal is, in fact, the opposite. "Walk me through it. I am getting a deposition. How do we start?"

Ashira is, apparently, paying enough attention to the conversation that when Beth asks the question about what a deposition is, she makes a little face and pipes up, "It's really boring. It's just asking questions about stuff."

Ciprian laughs, looking at his daughter with a mixture of fondness and exasperation, but he has to admit, "Kind of. Thanks, though." He looks back up to Beth, still with a little smile on his face as he continues, "It's pretty much just asking questions. You do it during discovery, so that you know exactly what the witness is going to say in court. Law procedurals make it seem like there are all these surprises, but there really aren't. It's a big deal when a witness says something in court they haven't said in their deposition. But basically, I come with a list of questions to ask them, and they answer them. If anything else comes up during it, I'll ask clarifying questions. It usually takes hours."

Beth laughs when Ashira says it's boring. "Well, it depends on what the topic is about, I'm sure."

"Do you get the depositions done by the defense?" She asks Ciprian before she follows up with, "Does the defense even do depositions?" She picks up her tea to have a sip, "So the whole Johnnie Cochran if the glove does not fit you must acquit and other courtroom surprises generally don't happen like that? What happens if a witnesses' story changes in court? Can you do the whole objection thing? Do you even actually get to say objection?"

"Oh, yes. Everything has to be handed over during discovery. If one side or the other doesn't hand something over, it could end up a mistrial, and that's never fun." Ciprian glances to Ashira then, as thought expecting her to say that it's not fun anyway, but she is back to drawing her picture. Satisfied, he looks back to Beth. "The defense deposes the state's witnesses. Or they can if they want. And no, surprises don't usually happen. If a witness' story changes, it's likely to land them in contempt of court, if not with a perjury charge. I really do get to object to things, which is the fun part." He smiles a little more widely, "Well, fun for me. Comparatively, anyway."

"But what is there to object to if you're hearing the same story as told previously in the deposition?" Beth asks just as one of the employees comes out with plates, the metal stand for a pizza, and the shaker of parmesan and crushed red pepper. The pizza follows next. Beth serves Ashira and Ciprian a piece before plunking some pizza onto her own plate and reaching for the red pepper. "What's the most interesting thing that's ever happened during a trial?"

"There are plenty of ways lawyers can ask questions in court that isn't considered acceptable, even if you already know the answer," Ciprian replies. "They can be badgering the witness, which is basically being too mean when you're asking your questions. Or, not really mean, but loud and yelling, you know? You can't do that in court. And then the other side has a chance to object to the ways that the opposing council asks questions, and that's basically for the jury to hear and take into account."

The last question, though, gives him pause, and he says, "Hm. The craziest thing I've ever seen during a trial. Well, once a person came to court high, and took off all his clothes on the witness stand because he said he was hot. That was exciting."

"Okay. I got you." Beth says to acknowledge that she is picking up what he's putting down. She picks up her piece of pizza to have a bite and nods approvingly. "Ohhh Ash the olives were a good choice." When he says that she laughs outright. "Jesus. You know I am constantly embroiled in little family dramas at my job but I feel like you must get that to some extent, too." She has another bite of the pizza before she puts it down. Once she has finished chewing she says, "You're basically seeing people at their worst if they've committed a crime. Or were the victim of a crime. They have to be hot messes."

Ashira has finished coloring -- at least, as much as she's going to finish, since the pizza is here. She sets aside the crayon and picks up her pizza, taking a bite into it with a nod of satisfaction and a pizza-ish smile. "Good," she says once she's swallowed, so at least she has decent table manners! But she's relatively quiet while they eat, probably because she's hungry.

Ciprian laughs, nodding once as he replies, "Yes. I get some of it." His laugh fades, though, when she continues. "Yes. It's tough sometimes. Sometimes you just have to laugh or you might cry." He reaches for a piece of pizza then, before continuing, "But that's when you go out to a movie and dinner with some of your favorite people, and it all seems less bad." His smile widens, "So thank you for that. And enjoy."