Log -- Parker || Eliot ‣ WHO: Parker || Eliot Spencer ‣ WHAT: 1st face to face after realizing that they are dreaming about the same thing ‣ WHEN: After this ‣ WHERE: The Silent Dragon ‣ RATING | WARNINGS: Low || No warnings applicable ‣ STATUS: Complete || Log
People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes
Parker & Eliot Spencer
The dreams it seemed were a gateway into getting to know others and experience a shared knowledge of a world that existed just beyond the grasp of your fingers. Eliot wasn’t wrong when he said their dream!selves had an interesting way to live. Hers got her kicks in throwing herself off tall buildings and breaking into the unbreakable though some of her background was frighteningly familiar. Too close for comfort.
Still, that was dream!Parker and keeping that distinct and clear in her mind was important. Real important.
She was fussing. She knew she was fussing. Why she was fussing she didn’t know but meeting Eliot face to face after a shared dream experience felt… different, heavier, more purposeful. She did a final check of her hair, laced up her boot, and adjusted how her jacket sat around her shoulders. She was on a day off, a rare one, and it made sense to talk to the guy who was also dreaming about Nathan Ford and maybe make a new connection.
Parker slipped into The Silent Dragon and did as Eliot explained, asked for him, and sure enough she was shown to a nearby booth where she resisted the urge to fidget. Barely. She did however pick up a fork and spun it around her fingers as she waited, eyes busying themselves with looking around at all the unfamiliar faces and pointedly not cataloging everything about them.
It was weird finding out that someone else on the network had the same dream. If not the same dream, then knew of the same people within them. Nathan Ford seemed to be the connection. One that he was trying not to think about. Same with being a retrieval specialist.
When one of the ones comes back to let him know Parker was there, he heads out to the booth and gives her a soft smile. Him and Daryl both liked meeting their customers. Meeting regulars. Partially it was something that Daryl had instilled in him when he'd started learning. Get to know the people.
"Parker?"
Parker turned her head when a warm honey rich voice spoke her name and the fork went clattering to the table from where it had slipped from her grasp. “Holy crap,” she uttered, mouth hanging open a bit like a fish in water. “You look just like the guy in my dreams. Longer hair, but still, uncanny.”
Belatedly she realized he had greeted her and smirked as she offered her hand.
“Yup, that’s me.”
"You look just like the girl in mine."
Unlike the Eliot in the dreams, however, he smiled a bit more. He wasn't all serious like the man he'd seen in his dreams. How could one even live like that? Especially if it meant being like that all of the time.
He gives her hand a firm shake," Nice to meet you, Parker. Did you do what I asked?" There's a teasing hint to his voice.
Parker’s eyes narrowed, only a fraction. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” She did however accompany it with a smile, warm, friendly and a touch flirtatious because she (unlike the Parker in her dreams) was better adjusted.
She did notice the smile and reflected how it was a shame the one in her dream didn’t do it a lot because it was a nice smile, a warm smile, the sort of smile that made you feel like everything was going to be okay.
“Oh, you mean about the come hungry thing?” She asked, teasing glint in her eyes. “Yup, I totally did that. I am ravenous.”
"Definitely not a bad thing."
She seemed a bit too skinny for Eliot's liking, but if she was fit and healthy just like the girl in his dreams then so be it. That was all that mattered. The Parker before him definitely had a nice smile to her too.
"Yeah, I mean the come hungry thing."
"Good, glad to hear it," Eliot tells her with a bit of a smirk. If she was ravenous now, she wouldn't be by the time she left The Silent Dragon. "Any allergies I should know about before I go back and cook for you?"
“Nope,” Parker said with a distinct pop to the ‘p’ before grinning. “Healthy as an ox.”
She bit her lower lip and tipped her head to regard Elliot as she went back and forth in her own head in regard to speaking her mind. Not that it had ever stopped her in the past, Parker was forthright, and she liked it that way.
Way, way too many people wasted time not saying what they thought.
“What’s the likelihood of me getting to see those killer knife skills in the flesh?”
Healthy as an ox. Eliot wanted to know what idiot coined that phrase. Especially when it depended on how that ox was taken care of. He wasn't going to bring that up, though. It was just something that he'd thought about, she'd brought it up. Or, at least, had said the words.
Those eyes watch her even as she bites her lower lip and tips her head back. It was a cute gesture, he had to admit that. Even if he barely even knew her. All he knew is what had come up in the dreams. She didn't seem anything like the girl in his dreams, save for how she looked.
"I'm sure that we can eventually get you seeing those knife skills," he tells her, that voice of his holding a teasing tone to it. "But not here at the Dragon. I can't let you in the back."
Parker was pleased with how easily and playfully this conversation was going. Really pleased. It didn’t hurt that Eliot was as easy on the eyes in real life as he was in the dreams.
“Promises, promises,” she teased right back, wink given before she acquiesced as she could appreciate his point. “Okay but,” a long skinny finger lifted and promptly pointed at him, “please tell me you’ll at least eat with me.”
She followed this up with a warm inviting definitely impish smile.
If Eliot was being honest with himself, he'd realize just how easy Parker was to talk to. Like best friends who have known each other for years. Not people who talked on the network and then decided to meet up with one another.
He can't help but give a laugh at that finger pointing at him. The chef can't remember the last time that he had someone do that. No, that wasn't true. Last one to do that had been the football coach. Actually, it had been Daryl teasing him when he'd first started getting into his culinary skills.
"Seeing as I'm the owner and head chef, I don't think it'll be a problem. I'm sure I'll be able to sit out here and eat with you while the boys and girls in back hold down the fort."
Parker grinned like she was the cat that had just gotten the cream when Eliot confirmed that he would eat with her. “Alright, I’m gonna hold you to that.” She propped her chin into the palm of her hands and that grin carried over to the look she was giving him now. “Looking forward to it.”
She then kept herself busy and out of trouble by flicking through the menu and totally eavesdropping on the conversations happening around her. What? She was equal parts curious and nosy. Parker would not be a very good detective if she wasn’t both of those things.
It was amazing what people said or did when they did not know they were being observed.
Eliot watches her for a moment before disappearing into the back of the Dragon. There's a few commands given while he's back there and a chorus of 'Yes, chef' that comes out of them. However, he does focus on what he's making for himself and Parker.
He's pretty good with his knife skills and knows that some of the other chefs are jealous. To think, he'd learned what he did from the man running the Squirrel. He'd have to get Daryl in at some point and fix something for his mentor.
Leaving the kitchen in the capable hands of his employees, he takes the plates out and sets them down on the table. One in front of her, one in front of himself. One of the waiters should've gotten her drink order by now that way she had something to drink.
"Medium-rare filet mignon steak, rosemary potatoes and a bit of steamed asparagus."
The waiters had gotten her drink order which was some fancy cocktail that she had liked the sound of and when Eliot returned with the plates she was currently nursing the straw between her lips as a plate of some really delicious looking and smelling food.
“Wow, that smells amazing.” She reached for her cutlery. “I think this is the nicest looking plate of food I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t tend to be able to eat out a lot, work is a demanding mistress.”
She looked up and waited for Eliot to sit down before she began in on the food.
"It's not good if it doesn't look nice."
When it came to how things needed to be prepared he made sure it looked good. That was one of the things that Daryl had taught him a long time ago. Make sure that the food was amazing.
He sits down and watches her reaction to the food for a moment, then starts in on his own food. Though, she wasn't wrong. Work was demanding. That was something that even he knew. Being an owner and top chef could be just as demanding as any job out there, but he loved it and wouldn't give it up for anything.
“You’re right about that,” Parker said with a nod and flourish of her fork. “People eat with their eyes or at least that’s what I’ve heard.”
She was happily munching on a delicious tender piece of steak and watching Eliot intently as she compared and contrasted. This one seemed happier, less angry, and seemed to be doing what he loved so that was good.
“What made you want to become a chef?”
She probably wasn't the only one comparing and contrasting, he was too. Parker was different than the girl from his dreams. This one seemed like she had her life together a bit more. Like there wasn't this huge chip on her shoulder. However, looks could be deceiving too.
"A friend of mine, actually. I'd been big into football, it didn't take off. Watching him and what he did caught my attention. And as you can see, the rest is history."
“Looks like you made the right call,” she said with a smile as she deliberately looked around herself, at his restaurant, and at all the people that filled the seats. “I’m pretty sure me becoming a cop was an inevitability.”
A cop had saved and turned her life around after all.
"I did make the right call." Actually, he made more than just the right call. The Silent Dragon was a damn good place to go to eat. He even had locations in other parts of the state. This one, however, gave him a bit of friendly competition with his best friend.
There's a bit of a smirk out of Eliot, playful almost," You'll have to go to Squirrel Creek. Let me know whose is better."
"Why's that? If you don't mind me asking." Honestly, they could shelf talking for another day. She did have work and he couldn't stay out there too long. "Or, instead of telling me, we could meet up again and talk about ourselves. Outside of work."
“Don’t you tempt me,” Parker answered with a waggle of her fork in Eliot’s direction. “Because I totally will.”
Oh, she liked the idea of meeting up again with him and talking outside of work.
“Let’s do that.” She reached into her jacket, tugged out her phone and offered it up to Eliot unlocked and on the new contact section. “Give me your digits, and we’ll make plans.”
"What if I want to anyway?" Eliot asks with a bit of a chuckle, clearly teasing. It's not like he was worried. Daryl had been the one to teach him what he knew, after all.
"The head chef there is the one who taught me what I know."
Her handing him her unlocked phone was the last thing that he'd expected, but he takes it from her and puts his number in and hands it back to her. "Message me, let me know it's you and we'll go from there."
Parker grinned in Chesire Cat fashion. “Guess that’s something else I can fill you in on the next time we meet.”
She took her phone back and nodded. “I promise not to slip into your DMs all creepy like without a name.” Parker winked and put the phone away. “Now, I’m just going to turn into an absolute animal and devour this food you just made so don’t expect any conversation from me for the next… thirty minutes.”
With the warning given Parker did in fact just focus on her very delicious food, pleased at how well this first meeting had gone.