Chapter 3 : The Dinner

I was getting the jitters. In the car, we sat so close that I could smell the faint fragrance emitting from her body. I wonder if it is her perfume, female pheromones, or just me?

"Sam, where are we going?", She spoke, interrupted my trails of thoughts.

"Soon. We will reach soon.", came my reply. I really wanted to give her a surprise but it is not an easy feat, judging by our relationship level.

According to Argyle's theory, all social relationships are governed by rules like trust and confide in each other, emotional support, help rendered in time of need, etc; and based on these rules, our relationship with another fall into different hierarchy position.

I am only just a friend of Jo, or strictly speaking just an acquaintance. Other than sharing the same activity conducting free public screening, we had never met out for casual dinner, movies, or even chitchatting over the phone. What's more the basic sharing of information like her family, her interests, her dreams, etc. The more I thought of it, the more I went into a trance of thinking of how to bring this "acquaintance" level to a higher level tonight.

I pulled up my car quite a far bit away from the restaurant which was pretty close by the sea.

"Here?", her voice seems hesitant in asking.

"yup. Just a bit further ahead. We need to walk. A little exercise before dinner aids digestion.", I tried to crack a joke to calm my jittering nerves.

"Sure!", she giggled.

Amidst her giggles, I sensed a tinge of discomfort from her. She might had guess what I am up to or she might just be concerned whether there are any eateries around this place.

I had very much intended to bring her to a Mediterranean restaurant by the sea. ed her to a long narrow bridge that brought us to a restaurant that seems to be floating on planks.

"Wow! I didn't think such a place exists. It is exotic", She exclaimed as she stepped into the restaurant.

I had came the day before specially and I had reserved for a special table tugged into a quiet corner with a nice view of the open sea. The sun was just about to set and the ray was rather piercing as it cast upon on us. I asked if she was alright. She nodded her head while looking out to the scenic view of the sun setting into the sea, turning the sky to nice shades of pink and purple and the water dazzling like thousands of falling stars.

She signaled me to edge towards her and whispered into my ear, "Sam, here looks expensive. Did you get the right place? It is just a simple dinner. It is not too late to change venue."

I smiled back, "No worries. You deserve it for all the hard work you put in for the screening." She deserves far more than this, she is my Princess.

The dinner went on smoothly. We had mozella cheese as our starter and pasta as our main courses with good exchange of conversation. She comes from a large closely knitted family with a total eight siblings. She likes drama and was with her university’s theatre troupe before. We shared about life goals, values, dreams and aspiration. Amidst all these chattering, my mind was half drifted and planning for the ideal moment to pop IT out. My feelings.... On one hand I felt so eager to tell her how I felt and on the other hand, I don’t really want to… it’s a rather confusing and conflicting emotions turmoil. I had practice it over and over again in my head the night before but this calls for spontaneous and all the “preparation” seems redundant.

To be cont.