Tony looked down at their hands and gave hers a light squeeze. “Well, after Steve tried Shawarma, he wanted to try a bunch of other foods he never had a chance to. And that man can eat—it’s his super soldier metabolism—so we went looking around for places that have an option for ‘all you can eat’. Ended up here a few times and despite the, uh…”—he gestured to the storefront with the broken sign and chipped paint—“exterior, it really is nice inside. Great food too.”
“That’s totally the mom-and-pop aspect of the city, you know? One of my favourite places when I was in college was a little mom-and-pop Japanese place that had amazing bento boxes for really cheap. I spent so much time there; they even remembered my face. God, that was great.” She glanced around as they went in, breathing deep of the delicious smells. Her stomach growled audibly.
Tony nodded and also took the time to breathe in the familiar scent. “Sometimes places like this are the best, and there’s rarely a crowd. Faster service, friendlier faces… All that wonderful stuff.” He chuckled at the sound her stomach made. “Good thing too. I’ll grab us a table real quick if you want to go ahead and get started?”
“Sounds great.” Hitching her arm through the other strap of her bag, Summer headed for the ingredient selection and filled the bowl she picked up to overflowing. She didn’t even try anything exotic, just grabbed what she normally liked, too interested in getting her stomach filled and not overthinking the last half hour. But she couldn’t stop herself looking over at Tony every minute or so, or the quiet wish that he would have just not held himself back.