The cab ride was shorter than Richard had expected, but still slightly awkward. He blamed that on the ride rather than either of them- he had never liked cabs, and this time he didn't even know how long they would be riding. So when they pulled up in front of a small Italian place called Cunetto's House of Pasta, he was slightly relieved. When he scrambled out of the car and took a good look at the restaurant, he was even a little excited. It had all the signs of being a great restaurant. Chief among those, at least in Richard's book, was the fact that it looked like a hole in the wall. If he had to guess, he would say that the building was probably a converted house with a tiny screened in porch added on, and the parking lot was not a lot more than the triangle where two streets met at an angle. It was also completely packed.
As he turned to help Vanessa out of the car, he smiled- the first genuine smile of the night. "Something tells me I'm going to like your taste, Vanessa. But I think we might have to wait a while for our seat."