Grace shrugged her shoulders, but he could tell she wasn't really convinced. Truth be told, he wasn't really sure if he believed the line he just gave either. Instead, she grabbed him firmly by the hand once he was dressed, and together they walked out back to the kitchen together, finding Jerry looking through one of the drawers in the kitchen.

"Ah, there you two are," he replied, pulling his hand away in almost a guilty fas.h.i.+on. "Just wondering if your mother may have any coupons or something to this restaurant we're about to go to. If you two are ready, let's go!"

The trio headed outside the house, and made their way to Jerry's car, an old Pontiac Sunfire that had seen much better days.

"Grace, why don't you sit in the front? Stephen, you don't mind right? A woman like that shouldn't be pushed into the backseat, you know?" Jerry replied, pulling the seat forward to let his son in the back.

Thankfully, the trip to the restaurant, which was more like a local diner, was only about five minutes long. Stephen had been to this particular diner before, long ago, but he had avoided it as of lately. The fare was substandard and the staff rather gruff. The prices were rock bottom though, unfortunately, just like the food.

"Ah, I missed this place," said Jerry, as their sullen waitress set down their menus at a table. "This old diner always had great food!" He gave a light smack to the table, as if it might verbalize an agreement with him. Stephen just shrugged, as he couldn't remember a time when he had anything beyond half decent food here. This was normally the place they came when they had to make funds stretch into the next payday.

"So, how are you doing, my son? Still working as a stock boy at that grocery store?" Jerry took a full sip of his water, keeping his leveled eyes on his son for the moment.

Stephen nodded, "Yeah, I still work there. But not as a stock clerk anymore. I got promoted to manager just recently." He couldn't help but let slip a little grin full of pride.

"Manager, eh? Not too bad! Run the store as you see fit, right? Almost takes the sting out of not having a real job," replied Jerry, rather callously, before turning to Grace. Stephen watched his eyes flicker down to the front part of her s.h.i.+rt, ogling the view of her cleavage before going back up to her eyes. "And you, my dear? What do you do? Modeling, I take it?"

Grace didn't smile at the compliment. "No, actually, I don't work currently. I am thinking about going back to school though and completing my degree," she replied, using her rehea.r.s.ed backstory that they had created weeks ago.

"No work or school then? How am I not surprised?" Jerry chuckled, but otherwise didn't care to explain the meaning behind his words. Stephen squinted at him, his brow furrowed, wondering what he was getting at and the intentions behind it.