Garnet had long since finished her salad; Steven had likewise finished his own, plus the ribs he had ordered, and all his soda. They had discussed many topics over the course of their meal, and though Garnet wasn't very talkative, she was a great listener.

There was only one thing, Steven thought, that could make this evening better.

"Can we get dessert?" he asked.

"Sorry, Steven," said Garnet, "there isn't enough time."

"There isn't?" said Steven. He looked a clock on the wall. "But my bedtime isn't for another—"

The clock—and the wall it was on—was destroyed from the outside by a large, purple gorilla-like creature with a jewel in its forehead.

Garnet leapt to her feet, summoning her gloves. "I'll deal with the creature! You make sure the humans are safe!"

"Okay!" Steven shouted. Glancing about the restaurant, he saw that most of the people inside had already taken some sort of cover, save for Ronaldo, who was standing in the middle of the room, pointing his phone at the battle.

"Ronaldo!" Steven admonished, pulling him away. "You have to get to safety!"

"But I'm recording this for my blog!" Ronaldo protested.

"You've got enough footage!" Steven cried, and he shoved him into the men's bathroom. He ran about the room looking for the other diners.

He found Jenny hiding under a table. "You okay?" he asked.

"Physically? Sure," Jenny replied. "Emotionally? We're being attack by a giant gorilla!"

"Technically, it's just a Gem creature that looks like a gorilla," said Steven. "And don't worry, everything's under—"

"Look out!" Jenny yelled.

The creature had thrown a chair across the room at them; Steven adeptly summoned his shield and blocked it. "Everything's still under control," he said, "but we still ought to get everybody out of harm's way. Where's Lars?"

"I don't know; he fled once the fighting started."

"Don't worry, I'll find him. Now, come on," he said, and pulled Jenny across the restaurant and to the door to refuge.

"But that's the boy's bathroom!" Jenny protested.

"Don't worry, it's just Ronaldo in there," Steven said, and pushed her through.

Garnet and the creature stumbled past, locked in a grapple. "You need any help?" Steven asked.

"If I needed help, I would have brought the others," Garnet said. "Just take care of the staff and patrons."

"Okay," said Steven, wondering a bit about her comment about bringing the others. He headed off to the kitchen area, where the chefs and the waitress, who was really wishing her car couldn't start, were hiding out. "Is everyone okay?"

The employees, not completely certain what was going on, nodded.

Steven glanced around. "Are Lars and Sadie in here?"

"Who are Lars and Sadie?" the waitress asked. But Steven had already left to look for them.

He found them huddled behind the now-overturned salad bar, clinging to one another.

"Great! You're not hurt!" Steven cried happily. "Now, let me escort you to another room…"

"With that thing still on its rampage?" said Lars. "No way. It'll see us if we try to move!"

"Lars is right," said Sadie. "Other places might have more protection, but to get there, we'll have to expose ourselves to that monster."

"But she's too preoccupied with fighting Garnet!"

This, however, was quickly proven wrong as the creature, having spotted the young hybrid, and consequently the hidden humans, charged at them. They screamed, but Steven managed to summon his shield once more, blocking its intended punch and slowing it down enough that Garnet was able to deliver one final blow to defeat it; its gem dropped to the ground and she bubbled it.

"Good job, Steven. Our work here is done."

Steven glared at her. "You knew about this all along, didn't you?" he said angrily.

"I did. My future vision alerted me this morning that—"

"I thought you were taking me to dinner as a treat! But really, the only reason you took me along was because you wanted my help to fight this monster!"

Garnet stood silent until at last, she spoke: "You're right. I should have informed you of my exact intentions beforehand. I could try to justify myself by claiming that I didn't want you to be anxious of what was going to come, but no. I withheld the true purpose of this trip from you, and I am sorry."

This neutralized Steven's anger. He gave a big sigh. "I guess I understand. It's just… it hurts, you know? I wanted us to hang out together because you're my friend, not because you had some ulterior motive."

Garnet smiled. "Then I guess I'll just have to make up for it."

"Do you mean…"

"Yes. We can go out to dinner again tomorrow. And there'll be no Gem attacks, I promise."

"All right!" Steven ran to her and gave her a huge hug.

"I knew you'd like that," Garnet said. "Now, I'm going to inform everyone that the danger is past. You and your friends can wait out here."

"Okay!" he said as Garnet left. He looked around. "Boy, it's sure a mess in here," he said. He turned to Lars and Sadie. "Can you help me clean up a little? Just so that the staff doesn't have to do it all."

"Huh? Er, I guess we could do that," said Lars.

"Well then, let's start with this salad bar." He led Lars and Sadie in lifting the bulky object back upright. Soon, although its contents had been dumped on the floor, it otherwise closely resembled how it had been when the three had been getting their salads.

Sadie looked at this and tentatively turned to Lars. "You were right," she said.

"About what?"

"About trying to make you jealous by coming here. But that wasn't fair to you, and it definitely wasn't fair to Ronaldo. He's a nice guy, but I don't really want to date him. The person I'd really like to date… is you. But if you'd rather be with Jenny, I'll let you two be."

"Sadie…" said Lars. "I… I do like Jenny… but I like you more. But I can't be with you. Because I know I'll just hurt you, just like I hurt you so many times before. I hurt you just by going out with Jenny. I hurt you when I accused you of trying to make me jealous, even if it was true. I don't want to hurt you, I don't mean to, but I always winding up hurting you anyway. So it would be best for me to stay away from you."

"Lars, don't," said Sadie, tears in her eyes. "Yes, you've hurt me, but I forgive you. And I've hurt you several times too. The island… the fire salt… tonight… We've both made mistakes. But if we acknowledge that we've made those mistakes, then maybe we can learn to stop making them… together."

"So… you're saying you'd be willing to start an actual relationship?" said Lars.

"Only if you are."

"I am."

The two of them embraced. After a while, Sadie pulled away with a horrified look on her face. "What are we gonna tell our dates?"

"Why not just tell them the truth?" Steven suggested.

"Because not everyone's as understanding as you are, Steven!" Lars groused. "We need to think of a way to smooth things over so that they don't get too angry."

"Well, you'd better think of it soon, because here they come."

Jenny and Ronaldo were walking across the upturned dining area to where their dates were.

"Oh! Hey, guys!" Lars said nervously.

"Hey," said Ronaldo, also nervously. "Um, Jenny and I have something to tell you. Something… you might not like."

Their dates glanced at each other, somewhat bewildered. "What is it?" Sadie asked.

"Well," said Jenny, "when we were in the bathroom, waiting for the monster attack to be over, well, we started talking about his blog and stuff, and it turns out he's actually really interesting!"

"Yeah, he's like that," said Steven.

"And so, we thought it would be nice for me to go over to Ronaldo's house after this so he can show me some more of his stuff, so, uh… would you mind letting us drive home in the delivery car, while you two take Sadie's mom's van?"

Lars and Sadie looked at each other and smiled. "I don't think that will be a problem," Sadie said.

"Really?" said Ronaldo. "That's a relief! We were worried you might be jealous!"

The two coworkers laughed. "Believe us," said Lars, "we are definitely not jealous."

Jenny raised an eyebrow. "You know, that sounded vaguely insulting, but I'm going to just ignore it and leave with Ronaldo." She looked around. "I guess we should pay our bill first. It looks like this place is going to need the money."

"Allow me," Garnet said. She pulled a wad of bills from her hair and placed it on one of the tables. "This should be enough for all three of our meals," she said. "Plus the costs of repairs. Plus a substantial tip for our waitress."

"Well, that's all settled!" said Lars. He, Sadie, Jenny, and Ronaldo all walked out. Garnet started to leave as well, but Steven stopped her.

"I think we should stay and help clean up a little more," said Steven, indicating the White Wall Grill employees who had emerged from the kitchen and were looking around, dismayed at the state of their workplace.

Garnet shrugged. "We can do that."

"You did a nice job helping clean up," said Steven. They were walking out of the restaurant, having assisting in righting tables, sweeping up, and doing other tasks that didn't require a skilled carpenter.

"You did a nice job, too," said Garnet.

"Thanks!" said Steven. He thought for a bit. "And you also did a good job fighting the Gem, all things considered."

"And you did a wonderful job protecting everybody."

"Thanks, though it would have probably been tougher if there were more people. It's a good thing that so many employees had car trouble."

"Yes; Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot performed their task quite sufficiently."

"Wait; they caused those car problems?" Steven thought for a bit. "Huh. I guess that makes sense."

"I wanted as few bystanders at the scene as possible. Though I am sure you could have handled more, I didn't feel the need to take unnecessary risks."

"I just wish the restaurant didn't get destroyed before we could get dessert."

"Then how about we stop for ice cream?" Garnet asked, smiling.

Steven gasped. "Yes!"

The two hopped on Lion and warped to the nearest ice cream place.