Casual

Totally worksafe. Next chapter isn’t, I promise.

 

Stabler had never had Ethiopian food before, and he wasn’t exactly a fan of mystery ethnic cuisine, but he was so hungry he hardly had the strength to protest. Besides, in a way he was trying to prove something to the other man (as well as himself), and it was certainly not that he was bland and close minded.

The restaurant was small, and business was a bit slow. It was sparsely decorated, but clean and welcoming. It sure SMELLED good in there, like onions and spices and incense.

A lanky, almost overly enthusiastic white girl in her early twenties greeted them at the door. “Hi! Just the two of you? You can sit…” she looked around at the nearly empty restaurant with a thoughtful look on her bespectacled face. “I guess anywhere! We’ve been kind of slow today…”

“Thank you.” Huang said with a warm smile in her direction and beckoned for Elliot to join him at a small table by the window. The girl ran off to grab their menus, and Elliot and George settled in, removing their jackets.

“I can honestly say I have never seen or heard of this place.” Elliot said, making conversation.

“I’m not surprised. This is not exactly the most conspicuous location. I only know about it from a newspaper article. Have you ever had Ethiopian food before?” Before Elliot could answer, their server had returned with two menus, and water.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Here you go, and waters. No ice, no straw for you, sir.” She said as she set a glass of iceless water in front of Huang. “And for you. I hope you like ice…oh boy, I should’ve asked first, huh?” As she gave Elliot his water, with ice, looking rather abashed at her own presumption.

“That’s fine, really.” he assured her, and she sighed with relief. He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or if she really was that earnest. “Come here often, doc?”

“Not too often. She’s got a good memory.”

“I never forget a customer’s order!” she said proudly with an exaggerated wink. “Do you guys need a few minutes; have any questions, or are you ready to order…?” she asked three questions at once, already prepared to write down their order.

Elliot glanced down at his menu. There were a few pictures of food items, all of which looked rather foreign to him. The rest of the menu was completely indecipherable.

“We’re ready,” George replied for him. “We’ll have the doro wat with gomen and ayb, please.”

“Alrighty, then! That’ll just be a few minutes.” She scooped up the menus, grinned, and took the order to the kitchen.

“What on earth did you just order?” Elliot asked, still a little confused. He had been expecting to order for himself, but he was a little relieved to have been saved the effort.

“You’ll like it, don’t worry.”

 

It wasn't long before their food was ready. Their server brought it out of the kitchen on a large, round, metal tray which she put in the middle of their table for them to share. Elliot looked down at the tray with interest. It didn't really look like his usual idea of "food" but it smelled great and he would give it a shot.  Around the outside of the tray were small rolls of beige flatbread, and Elliot picked one up. He screwed up his eyebrows and unrolled it.

"What is this...? It kind of reminds me of..."

"Human flesh?" the server said under her breath with a look around to make sure no one else heard her. "Yeah, I hear that a lot. Don't worry, it doesn't TASTE like human flesh. Or so I assume. It's called 'injera'. Anyway, I'm sure your friend here will show you what to do...He's a natural!" she dropped a large stack of flimsy napkins on the table. "You'll need these. No forks allowed!" And with that, she left them alone.

“Weird girl. I was going to say ‘pancakes’, but human flesh wasn’t too off the mark.” Elliot commented when she was out of earshot. Huang chuckled.

“She is something. She does a good job though. More or less.”

“Hm. So how am I supposed to eat this without a fork?”

“Just take a piece of injera,” George explained while doing as he said. “And scoop up some of the wat. ‘Like a crab’ as our server once explained it to me…” he finished with a brief pantomime of a crab pinching, and another laugh. He scooped up some of the wat along with a bit of gomen and popped it in his mouth. “See? Easy.”

It didn’t look too hard. He mimicked George and tore off a piece of injera, clumsily dipping it into the wat and eating it. Not half bad…He thought. The injera was a bit odd, especially after imagining it as human flesh, but the doro wat was delicious. It was some sort of chicken dish that was sweet and spicy and savory, and the gomen (collard greens) was the perfect companion for such a dish.

“What do you think?” George was watching him with amusement.

“Not half bad.” Elliot voiced aloud and took a sip of his water. “You weren’t lying when you said it was spicy.”

“It’s not that spicy. It’s better than Thai food.” George pointed out.

“I can handle it. It’ll clear the sinuses though, won’t it?” Elliot replied with a sniff.

“Mmhm.”

Things were going well. Conversation was coming pretty easy. They talked about work, the news, the food, both carefully avoiding that morning’s confrontation. It could wait, and until then, they were both enjoying the food and the atmosphere, and each other’s company as well.

About thirty minutes into the meal, they both found themselves quite full despite having shared a single entrée. As if on cue, a plump African woman in her fifties emerged from the kitchen and headed toward their table.

“Oh, here comes the owner.” Huang alerted Stabler and stood to greet her. Elliot followed suit.

“Hey!” she said to George, hugging him tight and kissing him on the cheek. “How are you? Hello, nice to meet you.” She said to Elliot, shaking his hand. They returned to their seats. She was jovial and motherly, and seemed to have a soft spot for Huang. Her accent was heavy and rather comical, Elliot noted.

“You ever has Ethiopian food before? This your first time?” she asked Elliot. “You don’t like it? Why you no finish?” she nagged good-naturedly after glancing down at their mostly eaten meal.

“It was great, but we are stuffed.” Elliot assured her.

“Yes, it was wonderful as always.” George said.

“Thank you. Have a wonderful day.” She said, patting George on the back, and returned to the kitchen.

Their server had dropped off the check without a word while the owner spoke with them. Elliot insisted on paying, so George settled for leaving a rather generous tip, and they headed back to Huang’s place in good spirits.

The conversation couldn’t be avoided any longer. They sat on the couch and were both quiet for a moment. Finally, Elliot broke the silence. “Look, doc. I’m not looking to end this any time soon if I have any say in the matter. I can’t promise that it’s a good idea, but I can promise that this is what I want to do, and I’m not taking it lightly. I don’t know what I need to do to convince you, but I want to keep seeing you. I’m not ready to put any labels on it, but I want to see where this goes. I’m not…afraid like I thought I would be. This morning, I think you scared me a little bit, but when I really thought about it, I realized I was more scared to lose you than anything.” With a hint of a smile he added “But you probably knew all of that already. Shrink.”

George was relieved by what he heard. “Believe it or not, I’m not a mind reader. I was a little concerned by what you might say. I honestly don’t think I was giving you enough credit. You’re taking this rather well. Anyway, I’m glad because I’m not ready to put a label on this either. I just wanted to know that you were aware of what we’re doing. I don’t want you to wake up one day and realize this isn’t what you want, and it was all just an impulse.”

Elliot was finding it a lot easier to discuss this topic than he thought it would be, especially after knowing the other man was not looking to pressure him into a commitment or anything like that. He just wanted to know that they weren’t just playing games, and he truly felt it had progressed beyond that.

“Maybe it started out that way, but I can only come back here so many times and claim to be impulsive. I think I’ve passed the limit.”

Huang moved closer and rested his head on the taller man’s shoulder. “I think you’re right.”