"Strikingly handsome, devilishly charming, unexpectedly shrewd, uncannily observant..."

"Sure, but no points for having little to do with it; yes, when you're not jumping in headfirst with a complete lack of foresight or information; where; and also when," she ticks off on her fingers, one by one, in response to each adjective.

"I'm sure you must've noticed the where and when, if you're at all interested in me," says James, leaning forward and propping himself up on his elbows.

"It's not my job to keep track of your good qualities, it's on you to display them," she snorts. "If it isn't easy to see your best qualities then you're not trying hard enough."

Her father is eating, watching without more comment than some subtly raised eyebrows and the faint hint of a smile.

He shrugs. "I suppose that's fair enough. I am not one to refuse an opportunity to show off."

"I'd be surprised if you did. ... Also perhaps a little disappointed."

"We couldn't have that, then, could we? What kind of gentleman would I be, disappointing my lady?"

The way he says the word "lady" and the way he's looking at her make it pretty clear he means "love of my life".

Aaaaaaaaa he's doing the thing again and this time it's in front of her dad aaaaaaaaaa where have her words gone she swears she had them a minute ago!!!!

Her father's expression has slowly morphed from 'Aw, my daughter likes her boyfriend!' to something a bit more long suffering. He is mysteriously meticulously focused on getting through a reasonable amount of this dinner in front of him, perhaps so he can flee from the sappy couple.

He is pretty sure that scaring her words away means he Wins, so he will just have this enormously smug smile on his face and carefully eat the food he's prepared.

"Sooooooooo," says Franklin Lowell, desperately grasping for a topic change to hopefully clear the air of young couple hormones instead of just fleeing from them, "uh... dent...istry?"

"Oh, yes," says James after swallowing the latest bite, not the slightest sign that this was about as appealing to him as chewing on wood. "It was... I suppose you could say a spur-of-the-moment decision, if going to school for dentistry and then taking up office can be called that," he continues, with a self-deprecating laugh. "I wanted to help but... I am not a very predictable man, I reckon."

Yeah, Franklin has no idea what to do with that.

"Oh. Okay."

"What part of dentistry appealed?" wonders Yvette, curiously.

"Its rarity, if I'm honest. There are not a lot of dentists around, and I like feeling special."

"... Really?? Aren't there, uh, easier professions that take less schoolwork than dentistry but offer more specialness??"

Shrug. "Not much in the directly-helping-people area."

"Oh. Huh. I suppose most of the stuff that would make you more unique requires some benchmark of time and education investment."

"Yeah, exactly."

Dinner winds down with similar smalltalk; her father mostly fading into only nominally being a participant, but it's clear he's trying. Even if he does look a little bit like a guilty teenager looking for permission to flee the table the minute he's run out of food to eat.

Yvette smiles (a little sadly) and doesn't keep him. "Good night, Papa, I'll clean up, don't worry."

"It was a pleasure meeting you," says Franklin sincerely to James, "please don't hesitate to drop by."

He waits long enough for pleasantries with James, and then absolutely flees up the stairs like an antisocial teenager.

Yvette snorts, under her breath, and begins cleaning up.

James makes sure her father is all the way up the stairs, then looks at the cleaning up process and asks, "May I?"

"Really, James. Really. They're dishes, you don't need to show off with dishes."

He raises his hands in a defensive gesture. "I was not meaning to show off!!! I just meant to have more time with you."

"Oh. But you've still got the same amount of time with me, I'm just not paying full attention to... oh, yes, I see the problem." She snorts. "Fine, fine, go ahead, and then I can pay full and undivided attention to you, poor bereft boyfriend who has been unfairly ignored all this time."