Where's that Taco stand?

Charlie chuckled as Amy mentioned LC. "I gotta warn you, he is a nasty combination of smart and a total attention monger. Once you start petting him he won't let you stop."

Alaina nodded in agreement. "LC is such a good wittle boy though!" She said in a cutesy 'talking to an animal' voice. "LA huh? I love LA, but not as much as San Diego." Alaina said with a wink. "Do ya ever miss home at all Amy? I mean, other than the weather of course."

Alaina began to drive the only way she knew once everyone was in the car: Very fast with lots of lane changes. Charlie was used to it, and this was mild compared to the way he used to drive... but that led to his near career-ending accident. Charlie looked back at Amy hoping she wasn't terrified by the ride. "Don't worry, we'll be there soon!" Charlie assured Amy. However, he figured anyone who drove along the LA Freeway was used to a traffic weaving maniac of a driver like Alaina.

“Great!” Amy said as she slipped into the car. “Needy dogs are the best.” She buckled up in the backseat and cocked her head. Time to come clean. “I love Japan, but I miss home a lot, especially the Mexican food. So you could say I’m pretty excited about lunch.” Amy leaned forward between Charlie and Alaina. “Do you mind if we leave the top up? No offense, but I actually kinda hate convertibles.”

It was a good thing she asked, because Alaina drove like a madwoman, darting through traffic and changing lanes without signaling. True, her erratic roadmanship got them there pretty quickly and unscathed, but there were more than a couple of close calls. Amy released a long breath when they finally pulled into a parking spot in a neighborhood crowded with buildings. Never again.

She placed a hand on Alaina’s shoulder before she stepped out of the car. “Nice driving. Did it take you long to get used to the roads here?”

Alaina looked back at Amy and smiled. "Hun, I don't get used to the roads. The roads over here had to get used to me." Alaina said as they all got out of the car and she locked it. "Ya know... you fought Daisuke Takeuchi right?" Alaina asked. She thought Amy's name sounded familiar....

Charlie got out and began to walk down an alleyway as the women talked. He really wanted to eat. He always wanted to eat. "So what are you guys getting? I hear the crunch of the taco shells already and can smell them..." Charlie said as he followed the alley, and his nose. LC wasn't here so someone had to make sure their eyes weren't deceiving them. "Amy, ya mentioned my ahh, lackluster match at the PPV... did ya check it out to watch Daisuke lose? Or was my act as a punching bag so compelling you couldn't look away?"

"Right, but driving on the other side of the road, that had to take a bit of getting used to." Amy started to follow Charlie. The alley wasn't all bad; sure, it was dirtier and darker than most that she'd seen in Japan, but it was far less threatening than your average foreboding alley back home. "I did! Knocked him the fuck out, but messed up my leg in the process. It was worth it though. Dude's a douchebag. Why, you know him?" Amy craned her neck and stretched out; the buildings loomed overhead, reducing the sky to a narrow blue strip, crisscrossed by various electrical wires and laundry lines. "That was my debut match. Man, feels so long ago..." Though really it had only been a couple of months. With all that had happened so far, it was almost hard to believe.

Charlie's question snapped her back to attention. She decided against revealing that she was also well-acquainted with their third team member. "No, I just happened to be in the audience. My friend was in the main event, fighting for the title. You know Domino?" He had lost, and it was also due to interference from one of these Thorns of a Rose jokers. Taking that, Charlie's match, and King's Crew's win all into account, Showdown was pretty awful for the good guys this year. Amy shook the thought out of her head. Something smelled good, and Amy was salivating. Easy, easy. She wiped her mouth and grinned. "Are we getting close? I didn't say anything before, but "we're not shady shitheads" is exactly what a shady shithead would say."

Alaina looked over at Amy and laughed.  "I know Daisuke and his sister.  I beat both of them, but Daisuke was my first AFW victory.  He ran his mouth about Charlie because right after Charlie signed he messed up his knee in a car wreck.  I dumped drinks on Daisuke's head at a bar, then beat his ass in a hardcore match after he ambushed me at the start of the match."  Alaina looked back at that brutal match fondly.. not that she is a great fan of hardcore matches, but she never quit and showed a lot of toughness to get that first win.

"Yeah, I am a speed based high flyer trying to wrestle after reconstructive knee surgery.  Probably not too smart huh?"  Charlie said.  "Daisuke has a lot of arrogant pride but the dude is decent in the ring.  Nathan seemed like a quiet kid, but well meaning although everyone booed him.  Shit.. I was the only competitor in that match that got cheers and because of Aoi my offensive contribution for my team was non-existant."  Charlie shook his head.  That match bothered him, he hated cheaters.  However, after patting the contents of the bag in his hand he immediately smiled.  The thought of getting married dismissed all the negative memories of that match instantly. "Oh, Domino? I have heard of him but never met the guy. It sucks that he lost the title the way he did, I hate that kinda thing ya know?"

The trio rounded one more corner and there it was... A small building on the left, colored white.  The window trim was brown, as was a small roof extension that hung over a couple benches outside.  An old man was eating a taco when he noticed the group.  He smiled at Alaina and Charlie.

"Hello Kenji-san!"  Alaina said in Japanese as she waved and smiled warmly at him.

"Kewnji-san whats good?"  Charlie said as he greeted the old man.  Kenji, Alaina and Charlie were regulars here it seemed.  Kenji nodded politely at Amy, and as the group walked in may have stolen one last fleeting glance at the two beautiful women of the group.

“Ugh, he had a sister?” Amy rolled her eyes. The smell of food was getting stronger, but her stomach was turning. “Any chance she’s a sweet and lovely woman?”

Amy made a note to ask Charlie about his knee. She agreed; pro-wrestling didn’t seem like the best career choice for somebody that had gone through that kind of thing.

And Amy made a second note, too: she caught that little smile. Something in that tiny jewelry store bag was making Charlie really happy, and that was making Amy really happy.

But, for now, the trio had turned a corner. They stood in front of a small white building, a facade Amy might have completely missed if not for how conspicuously bright and clean it was compared to its neighbors. And if not for the wizened Japanese man munching away at a taco at its entrance.

“What up, Kenji-san?” Amy said as followed her guides into the restaurant, her eyes never straying from the door in front of her. An old Japanese man sitting at a wooden bench enjoying a taco like this would have made an awesome picture, but: priorities.

Charlie’s crunchy taco shell remark had worried her, but they evaporated once she was inside. The smell was just right- smoke, meat. The sound was just right, too- the sizzle of flesh over fire, the shouting of orders, the joking in the back, though the language was more oriental than she was used to. And the sight… assembly-line? Check. Taco-artists in hairnets? Got that too. They even had that huge-side-of-pork-on-a-spit thing; this might be the real deal.

The restaurant was small, and seating was minimal, but that was okay since the restaurant was practically empty. A bad sign in most instances, but Tai’s Taco Stand was clearly some sort of local secret, one that, now that she was in the know, Amy was only too willing to keep.

Maybe it was a little premature, but Amy was bursting with excitement: she clapped her two taller companions on their respective shoulders. “You guys are my best friends. My very best.” There was a menu (Japanese, English, Spanish) but Amy already knew what she wanted. She surged past her new best friends to the front of the line. “Three tacos. One al pastor, one carne asada, and one adobada, por favor.” The Japanese man behind the counter didn’t shy away from the foreign words; he merely nodded and started in on her order, cutting away at the skewered meat with a mean-looking slicing knife.

When he was done, she collected her tacos, paid for her meal at the register ("Guys, look! They have horchata!"), and sat at a table by the front window, where she could watch Kenji-san eat. Once Alaina and Charlie had caught up with her, Amy started in on her meal. She picked up her palm-sized carne asada taco at two ends of the same diameter on the warmed tortilla, put half of it into her mouth, then bit down. Amy closed her eyes as she chewed. Objectively, they were merely decent. But, considering how long it had been since her last taco, they flirted with the edge of transcendent. Once she swallowed, Amy opened her eyes again. “Damn. I can't believe how much I've missed cilantro.” She smiled as she raised her taco back up to her mouth. "So it's come to my attention that you guys are actually not a couple. Charlie, what's your deal? Is there something exciting in that bag you've been carrying around?" Then she bit down again. So good.

Alaina laughed at two things. First she laughed at Amay's sarcastic questions asking if Ami Takeuchi was a sweet woman. "Ha! She's the greater of two evils in that family. Daisuke and I have come to a sort of strange understanding even if we're not friends we don't hate each other like we used to." Alaina said before thinking of her rivalry with Ami. And then recalling the meeting between Mamouru and Ami that she bumped into. Now her blood was boiling, but she did her best to keep it in check.

Getting a laugh out of Amy's reaction to eating here helped cheer her up and calm her down. "I understand completely. This is my cheat day for the month so I can eat here. Charlie eats here all the damn time." Alaina said with a hint of jealousy in her voice. Amy pointing out them not being a couple also got a laugh out of the larger woman. "Haha, yeah. Everyone over here thinks its impossible for a male and female to be best friends without sex involved."

Charlie happily ate as the two women talked, but grinned ear to ear when Amy asked about what was in the big. "Oh that? Heh, well I asked Al to come out and help me pick out an engagement ring for my girlfriend Talia." Charlie said. "After completely sucking canal water in my Tension PPV debut I should be pissed off or something, but she is the best thing to ever happen to me. We've been together a year and its been awesome. I have the proposal spot picked out and everything!" Charlie beamed.

Amy knew it was an engagement ring, because I mean, come on, duh, obviously. She started to chant silently: Engage-ment ring. Engage-ment ring.

And that’s how she knew that Alaina and Charlie weren’t a couple. Alaina didn’t seem like a stupid woman; was Charlie supposed to have said, just a sec, hon, pop off, then reappear with a jeweler’s bag and expect her to think it was no big deal? Not likely. Still could be a necklace or somethi- fuck that noise, look how giddy the guy is.

Oh, what’s that? They could have been a couple ring-shopping together? Alright, fair point; Amy was miles away from considering marriage- literally, since hell if she was gonna get hitched while on her travels- but that’s how she would want to do her engagement ring/wedding band purchase, too, if she was going to get them at all. But, if that was the case with Alaina and Charlie, answer me this: Who the fuck invites a total stranger out to lunch on the day that they buy their rings together? And while you ponder that, here’s another: why would they keep the rings in the bag? Why not wear them out of the store? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

But there was always the chance she was wrong; human beings had this way of subverting logic. So she kept her mouth shut, wanting to avoid setting off an enormously awkward and embarrassing conversation.

She wasn’t wrong, though, and the occasion was worth putting down her taco for. She wiped her hands on her jeans, then reached an open palm for a high five over the table, a big, dumb grin on her face. “Dude! That’s awesome! Congrats!”

Charlie high fived Amy and smiled. "Thanks, I never had any luck with women before so finding her over here was a big surprise." Charlie said, truly thankful to have Talia in his life. "So do you have a boyfriend or anything?"

Alaina sighed as Charlie went on about Talia. Charlie was an amazing guy. He didn't put himself first, he was loyal, and he was an animal person. Anyone who could love a crazy corgi as much as him had to be a sweetie. Shit, she lived with the guy and didn't realize what she had in front of her. Instead she saw the boyish charm of Mamouru Higurashi and fell in love with him, while his dick fell into other women during their relationship.

"So Amy, what titles do you have your eyes on?" Alaina asked, talking shop and trying to steer the conversation away from relationships.

Amy had taken a big mouthful of horchata while Charlie talked, and it was a good thing she did, too. It inserted a pause between Charlie’s question and Amy’s answer, a pause during which Alaina expelled a muted but unmistakably weary sigh. Amy studied Alaina’s expression as she gulped down her drink in installments. Alaina wasn’t doing so hot when it came to relationships, apparently; that couldn't have been easy juxtaposed next to her buddy’s impending proposal. Amy sympathized; people in relationships could be so unbearably and unabashedly happy, even to the point of annoyance. Yet Alaina still came out to ring shop with Charlie. Good friend.

So when her mouth was no longer occupied, Amy nodded, but kept her answer to Charlie nice and short. She lifted up her purchase from the mall. “Yup. This is for him." The hand came back down. "It’s a pretty new relationship, but things are going well so far.” Then, when Alaina then moved the conversation onto a new topic, Amy smiled at her. “None of them, actually. I’m not gunning for any belt; actually, I’m doing my best to avoid championship matches altogether.”