Their waitress came by with a pair of menus under her arm. "Would you like some dessert?" she asked.

Phillip looked at Sacha. "What d'you reckon?"

Sacha patted her stomach. "I'm so full" she said doubtfully. "I'm just stuffed."

Phillip smiled at the waitress and reached out his hand to take the menus. "Can you give us a minute to look at them?" he said.

"Of course" the waitress smiled, and handed him the menus.

Phillip looked back at Sacha. "You always feel really full when you get to dessert, when you're at a restaurant" he explained. "But then you don't have dessert, and you always regret it."

"Do I, now?" Sacha raised an eyebrow.

"I mean 'you' as in, people in general" Phillip said. "Like you didn't know that!"

"So - that second 'you' there was me, right?" Sacha teased him. She was surprised to find herself teasing him.

"Anyway" Phillip continued, politely ignoring her, "They always take a while to bring the dessert out. Gives you - I mean, people - time to digest."

"Fine then" Sacha joked. "Gees, I'll get dessert. Stop pestering me about it, will you?"

"Good" Phillip grinned. "That way I won't feel like a pig for ordering that chocolate pudding."

Sacha looked at the dessert list. "Oh wow, crème brulee" she said. "I haven't had that for ages."

"I love crème brulee!" Matt said approvingly. "I was thinking of getting that, but . . ."

"The chocolate pudding sounds nice, too" Sacha said.

"They all sound amazing. I wish we could get a platter."

"Yeah, too bad."

"If I get the pudding, and you get the brulee" Phillip said, "we could always . . . You know, share . . ." he cut himself short, when he noticed Sacha's concerned look. "Yeah" he said, "that'd be a bit weird, wouldn't it?"

"I mean, I know we're on a 'date' and everything" Sacha said, emphasising the word with air-quotes. "But . . ."

"No, no, you're right, you're absolutely right" Phillip insisted. "Let's just get what we get, it'll be nice, we'll eat, everything'll be cool."

"Okay, cool."

"Cool."

"Sounds good."

"Uh-huh."

"So . . . shall we order, then?"