Miscalculations

[Ashley Yeo]

He had nice eyes. Alvaro, that was. He had nice eyes and when Ash looked into them, he felt a little warm, but in all of the good ways. It was true what they said, that eye-contact was important. It showed confidence, sincerity, interest; any number of things that couldn't be faked by pretty words. Ash didn't see anything malicious in Alvaro's gaze, nor anything untoward. He was a friendly, genial and highly likable guy.

So maybe he wouldn't regret doing this after all. Ash didn't have many regrets; he told himself that what happened, happened and there was no point crying about it. Even if everything went wrong, at least he was enjoying himself in the moment, and that was all that mattered. He did, however, give some thought to Monroe, who had to be... er... showering? Right now?

Shouldn't be thinking about that!

"Connections?" Ash mulled over the word. It alerted his cop senses (was that a thing?); it was a sort of buzzword. "What kind of connections?" Hazleton was a fairly sleepy, isolated little place but that didn't mean that it was cut off from the modern world. Despite some of its old-world charm, as the tour guides put it, things like drugs still infiltrated the town's seedy underbelly. Drugs... and other more sinister vices, but Ash didn't know if Alvaro was the type to be involved in those other things.

[Alvaro Castellano]

"Not those kind of connections!"

He laughed, aware that it sounded like he was some kind of mafia connected criminal. Connections came with his real job--the one he couldn't tell Ash about. There were guilds one could join, there were teams and there were even bounties. It might have been an underground world but it was a real one. He smiled wryly. If Ash really knew, would he throw him into prison or would he help? He was a cop here in Hazleton, after all. Maybe the cops already knew.

"I'm not a criminal," he said. "I just know the right people, is all. Is there a lot of crime around here?"

[Ashley Yeo]

"Uh huuuuuh," Ash said with mock skepticism, raising a brow at Alvaro. "That's just the sort of thing a criminal would say! I'll be keeping my eyes on you from now on!"

But actually... he would. Not only because Alvaro was easy on the eyes, but because it was just good detective work, and Ash had designs on that open position in the precinct. Sure, he was just a traffic cop now, but he wasn't going to be one forever. Eventually he would climb that ladder and make something of himself, and a big criminal bust would get him there.

He settled back against his seat and nodded gently. "Well, kinda. You get the usual, you know. Domestic disputes, traffic accidents, disorderly conduct, but... sometimes..." Ash trailed off gently. Sometimes there were murders that the police could do nothing about. Lack of evidence and especially inadmissible evidence made the job difficult. What judge would believe that a vampire killed a man by draining him dry? Or that a man had an adverse reaction to a werewolf bite and died?

"I'm just a traffic cop, though," he admitted a bit sheepishly soon after, "so I'm not really in on the big cases. What do you do? Banker? Real estate mogul? Mafia don?" He had to do something high-profile to own a car like this!

[Alvaro Castellano]

"Mhm."

He smirked, not quite believing Ash. Sure, he could go around and keep his eyes on him, waiting for criminal activity but... All he'd find out were secrets that he most likely wouldn't be able to use as a cop. Sometimes, Alvaro had to wonder why the police force in Hazleton wasn't more well versed in what was going on in their own town. Or maybe it was just higher ups. They couldn't all be naive about the true nature of their small town.

His smirk slowly disappeared as he listened to Ash's list of the usual suspects in a cop's life. But he trails off with a sometimes and every part of Alvaro held onto that sentence. Although he waited for more, Ash didn't elaborate. He has to be talking about the weird stuff. The paranormal stuff. The stuff that didn't have real explanations--logical explanations. Ash swept it all under the rug with his traffic cop routine and Alvaro relaxed slightly, disappointed but relieved at the same time.

"Actually, I'm just a baker right now," he said with his best, most charming smile.

[Ashley Yeo]

"A baker." Ash couldn't have looked more skeptical as he side-eyed Alvaro, trying to figure out if he was joking or serious. "You know, if you're trying to convince me that you're not a mob boss, you're not doing so well right now!" His lips twitched but he was sort of serious himself. A fancy shiny car--a Jag--and those clothes, even that attitude, it was hard to equate that with small-town baker.

"You must be charging an arm and a leg for those pies, if you're riding around in a car like this," he mused, leaning against the passenger's side door and studying Alvaro's oh-so-charming smile. That was fooling exactly nobody--but nobody.

While Ash didn't get any shifter vibes from him, it didn't take a genius to realize that Alvaro had something to do with the large supernatural population running around. Maybe he was part of that gang running drugs in and out of Portland. Maybe he was with some hunters--they always made pretty good money, from what Ash knew. That... would have been pretty ironic and amusing, all things considered, to be asked out by a hunter.

Ash wasn't defenseless, though. Hardly that.

[Alvaro Castellano]

"A baker. Yup."

He side-eyed Ash right back, then laughed. What Ash said was true; he was doing a really poor job of establishing himself as a legitimate man. Or a man of legitimate means. A baker didn't typically drive a Jag. Or wear the kind of expensive, high end brands that Alvaro wore. He was asking for trouble, really, doing that kind of flashy thing in a town like Hazleton.

"I don't own the place so I don't get to come up with the prices," he said ruefully. So if he didn't own the place, how did he afford the things he had? Alvaro let out a small, amused sound at himself. Oh, the holes he was digging for himself... Teasing a cop wasn't a good idea but lying to him wasn't either. After all, he could easily look into Alvaro's background records and see for himself that Alvaro wasn't old money--one lie he had considered. And when he met Alvaro's mother, he'd soon find that she wasn't old money, either.

"My dad left us a lot of money."

There. He grinned. That worked just fine.

[Ashley Yeo]

Riiiight...

Ash shook his head and let out an uncontrollably exasperated laugh. "Okay, maybe you should stop now." He reached over to pat Alvaro on the shoulder. "Stick to baking." Because inventing believable cover stories wasn't really his specialty. Then again, what he said could be true, because the craziest stories were sometimes the truest ones. It was a toss-up, really, at that point and Ash didn't want to actually end up taking Alvaro anywhere in a squad car--in handcuffs.

"So where are we meeting your mother?" There were only a handful of restaurants in town and maybe only one classy enough to be considered fine dining.

[Alvaro Castellano]

Aw, look at that. Ash was being condescending. Or patronizing. He was definitely treating Alvaro like he didn't believe him. Alvaro only smiled as he turned the car down one of the main streets in downtown Hazleton. Although Ash was asking about the place where they were going to eat, he could probably hazard a guess by now. There were a number of places to eat in downtown, but there was only one down this particular street that was fancy enough to warrant a guy in a Jag eating there.

"Rosemary's," he said, even as he eyed the traffic on the street. There was one really nice spot in front of Rosemary's and if he got there quickly enough, they wouldn't have to park around back. Alvaro preferred the front street treatment, and not just because the back lot was known for break ins.

"You don't mind Italian, do you?"

[Ashley Yeo]

Ash was definitely being patronizing and condescending--best of both worlds?--but he was half kidding, too. Sort of. It was hard not to be on the job off the job. Not that Ash was married to his job or anything but he liked it and he wanted to do a good job.

"Rosemary's?" he echoed curiously, craning his neck to get a glimpse of the place. He'd only heard of it but from what people said about the price of the appetizers... and on a rookie cop's salary...

The place was brightly lit and it looked nice from the outside, at least. "Nope! I love Italian!" Ash chirped as they cruised up to the curb, just in time to cut off someone who also had designs on the lone parking spot. Ash eyed the driver who was giving them the stink eye, followed by a rude gesture. "Wish I had my ticket book here," he muttered, eyeing them right back before the car sped off.

But now... "Here we go!" He strained up to check himself out in the rearview mirror. Hair okay, he wasn't haggard or anything. Ash gave Alvaro an enthusiastic thumbs up, then paused. "Wait. Do we need a back story? How did we meet? How long have we been dating?!"

[Alvaro Castellano]

Alvaro let out a small laugh, despite his anxiety that his Jag was about to get wrecked. Luckily, he made it to the spot before the other person could collide his ugly ass Ford truck into his beauty. The laugh had been more for Ash's comment. If he had his ticket book, could he legally use it? Now that was an interesting question. Not interesting enough to ask aloud, however. They were here and it was time to look good in front of his mother.

Like Ash, Alvaro made sure every hair was in place and that he had remembered to zip up his fly. Everything seemed to be in order. He gave Ash a thumbs up right back and started to turn to open up the door and get out. He paused at Ash's question.

"Good point."

Alvaro's mother was a nosy one and she would have a hundred questions--especially since Alvaro was walking in with a man. Should he just say that his date canceled on him and that he was just bringing a friend? No. No, he promised his date and he even bragged that they'd been dating for a while. Alvaro cleared his throat.

"Okay. So we've been dating for about six months," he said--which had been true of his old girlfriend... until she bailed on him like a snap of the fingers. Alvaro didn't even have time to grieve over the loss of the relationship--that was how fast it all happened! "We met... where's a place where I'd meet a guy like you? I'm not going to say you pulled me over because I don't drive like a demon. Ooh! The bakery?"

[Ashley Yeo]

"Okay, six months," Ash said, holding up six--count 'em, six--fingers for confirmation. "And... sure! I love baked goods!" But then again who didn't? Besides, coming on to a cop during active duty wasn't a crime, but it was highly frowned upon. He thought for a second, then added, "First time we met, I bought half a dozen donuts. My favorite color is red, I'm 23 and I have a sister and 2 brothers, all older than me."

Damnit, there was so much to cover! Six months of dating meant that they had to know practically everything about one another and so far, Ash had only covered the basics. He stopped to take a deep, calming breath--this was stressful!

"Anything else we can improvise on the spot, right? Ooh and if she asks..." Because this totally came up with his last boyfriend, when he got dragged in to meet the parents, "We've never had sex because I'm a prude and I'm waiting for the right moment."

Which was far from the truth but it would forestall any awkward questions, just in case Alvaro's mother cornered either of them.

[Alvaro Castellano]

Alvaro laughed. "All right. Cop buying donuts. Anybody would believe that."

The rest was interesting, if not entirely intimate. Favorite color, age. Family was a little more interesting. Alvaro raised his brows. So, Ash here was the youngest child, huh? That explained some things. He felt silent while he let Ash's words sink, then imagined what sort of topics would come up with a pair that had been together for half a year. More than favorite colors and ages, he was sure.

Before he could start naming off his own favorite list, Ash continued and Alvaro stared at Ash for a long moment. If she asks? Alvaro let out another laugh. He couldn't help it--the idea of his mother asking whether or not he and his new gay boyfriend had sex yet? Sure, she was one of Those Moms who asked about grandchildren but she wouldn't ask if they had sex yet.

Or would she? Alvaro mulled that over. He never dealt with his mother and a boyfriend. And she could be pretty damn blunt, especially when she was surprised. So... Maybe Ash had a point. She might just bring it up. She might say something about safe sex, too, because of AIDS, even though that wasn't as big a concern now as it had been in the 90s.

"All right," he said finally. "Well, this is kinda funny. You're the youngest in your family? I'm the oldest. I've got two little brothers. My dad passed away when I was ten. Oh, and I'm 28 so... The age gap might come up. She might ask about kids, too, so how serious are we right now?"

Oh God. He hoped he didn't ruin this for his mother with all the weirdness he was about to plop into her lap.

[Ashley Yeo]

"We've got that opposites attract thing going for us right?" Ash laughed--nervously now--after Alvaro's turn listing off his family and past. The part about his dad drew a sympathetic noise but clearly he wasn't looking for pity here and it wasn't the time nor the place for it. Ash thought about the age gap; he thought hard about the kids.

"...don't care about the age difference. It's not a problem for us because we have so much in common. Like..." His brain stalled and he looked to Alvaro. Hobbies? Interests. Activities. "Soccer!" he blurted out. "We're big on soccer! And baking. I'm learning how to bake from you."

As for kids...

"No kids until we're financially settled. Err..." Wait. Alvaro was pretty much set, it looked like. "I mean. Not until we think we're ready to commit to kids, which isn't off the table but isn't gonna happen within the next... five years. Because we're... sorta serious but still not quite sure about a long-term commitment!" He stopped for breath, almost panting a little because of the strain of having to come up with a story. Not all of it was faked, though; there was a lot of thought given to things like marriage and kids in his former relationship (the one that went bust suddenly and inexplicably towards the end). 

[Alvaro Castellano]

"I am pretty big on soccer."

Kids, though. That seemed to have thrown Ash for a loop. Hey, that was his mom's deal, all right? She was just being a Mom and she probably thought it was part of her duty as a mother. Plus, Alvaro was the eldest so he got a lot more pressure than his siblings. Made sense, given the circumstances. Poor Ash didn't seem as ready to hear it, though. Slowly, he reached out to lightly squeeze Ash's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down and reassure him.

"Hey, hey. This is just for the night. Don't worry too much about it. My mom's just one of those moms." He smiled and then patted Ash on the shoulder he'd squeezed. "Now come on. Let's go inside before she calls the cops and reports me missing."

[Ashley Yeo]

"Yeah, no, it's fine. I'm good." He patted the hand at his shoulder and then moved to ease out of the car, pausing only long enough to say, "But that'd be perfect! I show up with you ten seconds after she calls, and it makes me look like super-cop!" Annnything to stop himself from focusing on the date itself, which was looming up as they approached the restaurant.

Ash wasn't jittery before; he thought it was kinda funny. Now... faced with the reality of deceiving someone's mother?! Thinking of his own mom, it brought an uncomfortable knot into the pit of his stomach. And the kids? Way too close to home and he didn't want to think at all about his scumbag ex and all of their grand plans for the future.

The restaurant's interior matched its exterior, he noted, with potted plants everywhere and plush red carpet underfoot (that wasn't stained or crumb-laden). "Nice place," Ash remarked, keeping a tight hold on Alvaro's hand. One, it made them look genuine. Two, it helped alleviate the nerves. "Do you see your mom? Is she here already?"