“We do?” Harlow asked.
“Yes, it’s our bake-and-take package. Did the system make a mistake?” the woman asked and looked down at her computer screen. “It shows me that you booked that one, so you get to make two pizzas and have one here and take one home with you. We vacuum seal it for you, so you can bake it at anytime, but we recommend within the week.”
“Oh, no. I’m sure I booked that. I just booked the first thing I saw, honestly.”
Larissa laughed a little.
“So, pick your dough. You can pick two of the same or different ones. It’s up to you. Then, you’ll go to a station. I’ll put you at station one. We’ve got five different sauce types you can choose from or mix and match, as well as different cheeses and all the other toppings you could want. If you don’t see something there, or you don’t know if we have it, just ask Eric. He’s your helper tonight and should be behind your station.”
“Okay. Thanks,” Harlow replied.
“Other than that, when you’re finished, Eric will help you get them into the oven, and you can have a seat. We will wrap up the other pizzas and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to go, so don’t forget to grab those when you leave. When you sit, you’ll have a waiter, who will bring you drinks and/or any other food if you’d like. We have a small menu, but standard stuff for an Italian restaurant.”
“Okay. Great,” Larissa replied and rested her head on Harlow’s shoulder.
Harlow’s eyes went wide.
“Is everything okay?” the woman asked.
“What? Oh. Yeah, sorry. First date, and she just did this really cool thing.” She pointed to Larissa. “The head-on-the-shoulder move.”
Larissa shook her head as she laughed, but she didn’t move it off Harlow’s shoulder.
“First date?” the woman asked with a smile. “Well, I think we should do something special for that, then. How about a free dessert on me tonight?”
“Can you do that?” Larissa asked.
“I’d hope so; I’m the owner.” The woman winked at them. “Come on over to station one.”
They followed her over to the station, and unfortunately, Larissa had to lift her head from Harlow’s shoulder to do so. They each selected their dough, with Harlow choosing a thin crust to bake there and a deep dish to take home and Larissa selecting a hand-tossed one for there and a thin crust for later, and as they created their pizzas, Harlow thought about a night in the near future when they could put their pizzas in the oven and have them together over candles and a nice date number two or three before they watched a movie. She added pepperoni to her pizza and watched as Larissa put cheese on hers first and then added the sauce, and a lot of it, on top of the cheese.
“What are you doing?” Harlow laughed.
“What? I wanted to have fun. Isn’t this how they make the Chicago-style pizza?”
“I think that’s in a deep-dish pan, but I’m not much of a fan of it, so I don’t know all the details.”
“Well, I love extra sauce, and I never get it when I ask for it. They deliver it, and I swear, it’s even less sauce than the normal amount, so I’m getting the sauce I want tonight.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Harlow teased as she added a few more toppings to her own pizza.
“Are you ready to put them in the oven?” Eric asked.
Harlow let Larissa go first and watched her as she awkwardly slid the giant spatula thing under her pizza and almost knocked it off the counter in the process. Eric was there to help, and he let Larissa push the pizza into the oven by herself before he pushed it farther back and into the right spot. Harlow watched the joy on Larissa’s face and felt, at least in some part, responsible for it. Her own pizza went in next, and they walked over to table three, where their waiter took their drink order. They decided not to spoil their pizzas with an appetizer and talked while they sipped their wine. Harlow would have preferred beer, and Larissa might have, too, but it was clear that they both wanted tonight to be different. They shared a brief toast to their first date, and not long after that, their creations were placed in front of them.
“I can’t even see the cheese under that sauce,” Harlow teased with a laugh.
“That was the idea,” Larissa told her with a smile, and Harlow laughed again when Larissa picked up a knife and a fork and sliced into the pizza.
When Larissa took her first bite, she promptly opened her mouth and waved her hand in front of it.
“Hot!”
“Yeah, babe. It just came out of the oven. You probably should have–” Harlow stopped.
Larissa closed her mouth, and it didn’t look like she was chewing, either. That meant she’d heard it, too.
“Is that okay?” Harlow asked.
