Camila gladly slid her hand into the bend of his arm, moving closer to his side. She was a little self-conscious of the height difference between them, since she was used to guys that were only an inch, maybe three, taller than her, but Adrien was a lot taller. She also felt a thrill from it, though, especially when she could feel the muscles in the arm she was holding underneath the clothes. It was only their first date, and already she had to stop her thoughts from leaping ten steps ahead.
They didn’t walk far before stopping at the entrance of a restaurant. Camila couldn’t tell what kind of place it was just from the outside, since it was plain red brick, but when they were led inside, she realized the outside appearance was deceiving. The inside was a lot larger than she expected, with the tables fairly spaced throughout the room. The place was done up with bright colors, in white, silver and gold, and the tables were obviously set with this scheme in mind. There were white tablecloths with silverware and gold decorations in the middle of the table.
A host stood at a booth just inside the entrance, and once Adrien confirmed his reservation, they were led to a table.
“Have you ever been here before?” Adrien asked as he pulled her chair out for her like a gentleman, gently pushing it back in as she sat, then circled around to his seat. He watched her expectantly.
“I honestly had no idea this place even existed,” she said with a small laugh.
Adrien grinned. “I’m glad. This place has some really good food. I like to come here whenever I can. The chef is good at coming up with masterpieces.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
There were menus set on the table, and they each picked one up to look through. The names and description of the dishes all sounded pretty delicious. She could mostly tell by the description, because some of the names of the dishes weren’t in any language she could understand. But then she noticed the pricing next to the dishes and winced.
“This is…all really expensive, isn’t it?” she said doubtfully.
“It’s fine,” Adrien said almost dismissively. “I’ll handle it, so you don’t need to worry.”
No date had ever spent nearly so much on her before, but she was still bothered. As far as she could tell, the cost for their cheapest dish could be enough to buy groceries for her and her mom for a couple weeks, three if they really squeezed it. As nice as it would be, having a man pay everything for her, she was too independent for this to be completely okay with her. Still, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford it, when she was pretty sure she couldn’t. Also, she didn’t want to argue, or end things between them before they could get anywhere.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she went on looking over the dishes. She’d probably just pick the cheapest ones on the menu, but she still read over the other dishes in interest.
“So, my brother mentioned that the two of you met over an interview?”
Camila looked up to find Adrien hadn't even opened his own menu. It was on the table in front of him, and all his focus was on her. Camila blushed. She couldn’t face that kind of single-minded attention and not be flattered.
“We did,” she agreed, lowering her menu. “I work for a photoblog and I had an open spot for a new project. I interviewed him for an article.”
“It’s so unlike my brother to do something like that,” Adrien commented with a chuckle, leaning back in his chair. “What kind of blog is it, exactly? I feel like I should have come instead, and you’d have gotten a better story out of it. Big brother isn’t always the best at talking. Though I am curious what his interview was about, but when I asked, Samuel just ignored me.”
Camila wondered why. Was he regretting the interview already, or was there a reason he didn’t want his brother to know?
“Well, it’s a blog with a fairly large readership, and the theme is around the people of New York City. We get to interview and make posts with important, influential people. The choice of who to look for is usually based on popularity. And popularity isn’t necessarily based on the factors you’d expect. This one time, there was this guy that posted this video online—”
“If,” Adrien said, cutting her off as he leaned forward, folding his arms on the table. “If I was out in the open like Samuel was, and if he didn’t go to great lengths to make sure no one knew he had a twin brother, could I have ended up on an interview with you, maybe?”
Camila frowned, partly at the interruption, and at the thought that Samuel was suppressing knowledge of his own brother.
“Why would he do that?” she asked.
“Who knows?” Adrien shrugged. “Samuel does what Samuel wants and doesn’t care what I think.”
Well, it certainly explained why she hadn't found out someone as high profile as Samuel Kane was hiding a twin. It didn’t seem as if Adrien wanted to hide or anything, either, so it must all be on Samuel’s end? Especially as it seemed, judging by Adrien’s words, that Samuel did whatever he wanted. Which made her consider something else. Samuel and Adrien also had a sister that she had never even met yet. It made her wonder, was Samuel embarrassed of his family or was it something else entirely?
“I guess it’s possible you would have been asked for an interview,” she answered him seriously. “Though you probably would have had to come with Samuel, what with you two being identical twins, it would garner a lot of interest.”
“Hmm,” Adrien hummed, pursing his lips.
Camila wasn’t sure, but by his gaze, she felt like he wasn’t happy about her comment. Before she could delve too far into it, though, the waiter showed up.
“Good afternoon, sir and ma’am. Are you ready to make your order?”
Camila hurriedly picked up her menu, because she hadn't made her decision yet, but before she could say anything, she heard Adrien speak up. She watched as he made the order, his voice flowing smoothly over the foreign names. He didn’t even bother looking at the menu, and didn’t seem to have touched it besides pulling it closer to himself. She did perk up when he also made an order for her, and she didn’t know what it was. She opened her mouth to protest, but he transitioned smoothly into something else.
“I’d like to see your selection of wines. Red, please. Thank you.”
The waiter simply noted everything down, nodded, then picked up their menus and turned to leave. Camila was left looking at Adrien with her mouth open.