Mary-Jane rested her back against the leather seats of the booth, a contented sigh escaping her mouth as she laid her fork down, having devoured her meal in a matter of minutes.

Peter had watched her eat like a wolf, a sophisticated wolf that knew the difference between a steak knife and a butter knife, as he slowly ate his own spaghetti.

"You know something?" Peter asked suddenly.

"A few things yes, but I get the feeling you're going to tell me something new" Mary-Jane nodded, resting her hands on her stomach and closing her eyes.

"I probably should've punched the guy working at the door for the way he talked to us" Peter said, looking back at the man behind the desk with an angry expression.

"Hey, don't let it get to you Tiger, if I was in his place I'd be a little skeptical if two fifteen year olds walked into one of the most expensive restaurants in New York and claimed to have a reservation" Mary-Jane said "You're gonna have to get used to dealing with assholes in life, it's a known fact"

"Trust me, I'm good at dealing with assholes" Peter said, moving his fork to his mouth and filling it with delicious spaghetti, putting a hand over his mouth to make sure he didn't spit out pasta chunks as he spoke "This is a really nice place, food's great"

"You're right, that was the best steak I've ever had in my life" Mary-Jane said "I'll have to come here some other time"

"Yeah, good luck with that, this place is stupid expensive" Peter said.

"Don't worry, I'm working on a model's salary now Peter, I can afford a good few things that most kids our age can only gawk at" Mary-Jane shrugged.

"Yeah, how's the modelling thing going for you anyway?" Peter asked.

"It's going great actually, the girls there are really nice and welcoming, Cadance is a really nice woman as well, I'd heard stories growing up about how she was a bit of a wild child at our age but she matured when she met Shining" Mary-Jane described "But the thing that really caught me by surprise was how much she offered me to work for her"

"Really?" Peter asked, sipping from his glass of Pepsi "How much did she offer you?"

"Well, seeing as how I'm under eighteen she said she couldn't give me the same contract as she did for the other girls so I'd lose a few grand from that, but she said that if I did a few good shoots, brought revenue into the company and attracted a few investors before I was eighteen she'd be more than happy to give me an additional zero onto my salary" she explained "But I'm being paid the basic salary for a girl my age at her company, which is thirty-eight grand a year"

Peter had to tighten his lips to prevent himself from spitting Pepsi all over the table, a look of pure shock in his eyes as the redhead raised an eyebrow at him.

"You alright there Tiger?" she asked.

"Y-Yeah, just... that's a shit ton of money Mary-Jane, some adults don't even make that amount of money" Peter said after swallowing his mouthful of soda "I don't even think my Aunt makes that much a year"

"I'm quite happy with it actually, it means I don't really have to worry about bills and stuff as I get older, I can focus mostly on school and college with work on the side" Mary-Jane nodded, sipping from her straw, something Peter only just noticed.

"Why did you ask for that?" he asked.

"Ask for what?" Mary-Jane responded.

"A straw, d'you not like drinking out of the glass normally?"

"No, it's so I don't smudge my lipstick on my bottom lip and don't wash it off the top one" Mary-Jane said.

"Huh, I never thought of that" Peter nodded "Good thinking"

"Trust me Tiger, us girls have about three hundred different things we need to take notice of when going out on a date to make sure we always look good" Mary-Jane said.

"Such as?"

"Well one thing is that we have to decide whether or not we'll take a purse or a bag with us, and that involves factoring in the outfit we've chosen to see if it matches, what place we're being taken to to see if it's appropriate for that environment, then we have to arrange and ration what we put in the purse because if it's too heavy it could upset us walking in heels and with it being too heavy it could cause to to exert ourselves and the sweat'll ruin our make-up" she explained.

Peter sat there for several log minutes, his mind being blown at the space-launch-esque list of things women needed to do before dates, including packing emergency make-up supplies in case of unforeseen weather changes, a different pair of shoes depending on whether or not they were being picked up in a car or walking to their destination.

His mind was completely overwhelmed by the descriptions of the pre-planning and then it nearly exploded as she began to detail how to make the actual date to go well, that stuff included keeping constant check on your make-up in ways that didn't make you look vain, the best excuse being a watch that had a highly reflective face to allow you to see if you still looked good.

A pack of mints tucked away in a pocket of your purse in case the date got a little more intimate and also a bottle of Mase if it got intimate when you didn't want it to.

Mary-Jane finished her Master's Thesis on feminine dating rituals by describing the process of easing the boyfriend into seeing her with less and less make-up on the more and more he spent time with her so he wouldn't be horrified by the sight of her suddenly appearing without make-up on.

"But surely you don't have to worry about that right?" Peter asked "I've seen you without make-up on right?"

"Have you seen me in the shower?" Mary-Jane asked.

"Regrettably, no" Peter answered.

"Then you've never seen me without-" Mary-Jane said with her finger raised in the air to make a point before she dropped her hand onto the table and gave Peter a very unimpressed look "You know something Parker, I thought you were different from the other guys who've asked me out"

"Well I can say with one-hundred percent certainty that I am very different from most other guys" Peter said with a nod "In ways I don't even wanna try to explain"

"Really?" Mary-Jane said, sitting up straight and placing her hands on the table "Because right there you just proved to me you're only interested in sex"

"What?" Peter asked in a horrified tone "No I'm not... that was a joke M-J"

"No Peter, I don't think it was" she growled, crossing her arms and looking away from him.

"GG Parker, really good going there asswipe" Peter thought to himself, trying his best to think of a way to turn this situation around again.

A second went by before he was hit in the face with his counter-argument, one he was sure would make her believe him.

"I can prove to you in less than two sentences I'm not just after sex" Peter said confidently.

"Go ahead" she said dryly.

"I abandoned you, remember?" Peter asked.

"What?"

"At the interview for work, I put something else above you and left you on your own, would someone who makes their every move about trying to get into a hot redhead's panties fuck up as bad as I did then?" Peter asked "And I don't think the excuse 'You did it on purpose' applies here because that would be a stupid thing to do on purpose"

"Fair point, but then I could just say that you heard me offer you a date and then decided you wanted to try and fuck me, what do you say to that?" Mary-Jane asked.

"This: If I was making an attempt to fuck you disguised as patching up our relationship then why would I bring up the reason you're mad at me?" Peter asked "Don't lie, you're still bitter about that and me reminding you of it got you angry at me again didn't it?"

Mary-Jane was silent for a second, dragging her well-manicured nail around the rim of her glass before her eyes fell to the table, her response a mumble.

"Alright, fine" she said.

"There we go, now can we forget about my stupid joke and go back to having a nice time?" Peter asked.

"If you're willing to pay for another round then sure, I'm game" Mary-Jane said, finishing her drink and placing it down on the table with a relieved sigh.

"Fair enough" Peter said, looking around for a waiter. Next Chapter: End of the Night Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 45 Minutes