Mia
Saturday morning, I got up at 7:30 and saw both the girls asleep. I did my morning routine and headed towards our college mess and then to 'HappyC' while I spoke with my mother on the way. Since today I had to go out for dinner at 6:30 pm I had to leave from work early.
"You are early today?" Shelly said and looked at her watch.
"Yea. I have to go for dinner tonight. By 5:30 I plan on leaving. Hope that's fine?" I said as I changed my top in the change room and wore the HappyC shirt.
"Yeah that's fine"
"Thanks" I replied and got back to my work
"You look worried,"
"I am not" why would she think I was worried. Well, technically I was about to have dinner with one of the most gorgeous man in the world. He was so handsome, so posh, so classy, and so well-mannered. While I looked like a college broke girl with limited and cheap access to everything in life.
"You are entitled to have fun sometime," She said
"Yeah but not at the cost of hurting someone" This was my other major concern. I felt that I was about to cheat on Ariel and Noah with this dinner with Ryan.
"What do you mean?" She looked puzzled,
"Nothing," Shelly looked at me and knew something was wrong. So I decided to tell her about my situation.
"Do you remember that guy who came after my shift and dragged me inside to get a cat and dog food?" I said, "You and Tate gave that ridiculous smile to me, remember?"
"Oh Yeah. That very good looking guy whom you never spoke about when we asked you" she looked dissatisfied at me,
"Yeah. That one" I rolled my eyes at her.
"What happened" she was curious
"I am going out for dinner with him,"
"What?!O...M...G!! That's such amazing news. Wow I am so happy for you" she tried to hug me but I didn't let her,
"No! That's not amazing news. Ariel loves him and...Noah?"
"Does he love Ariel?" She asked and gave me a perplex look.
"No"
"And Noah. The guy who hasn't spoken to you for months, what about him? She had a condescending look.
"Noah and I stay in touch" I refuted
"Yeah. Right!" she started to walk in front of me and I followed her.
"He is busy"
"Busy with what. He can't even spare a few minutes to talk to his girlfriend?"
"He is a workaholic" She looked at me and gave me a look that told me I spoke bullshit.
"Mia I know you will support him so let's not argue on that"
"I am a little worried. I think I should decline the dinner"
"He has just asked for a plain simple dinner." she refuted,
"I don't want him to think it's a date"
"Doe he knows about Noah?" she quizzed
"I will tell him about Noah tonight," I said, which is why I said yes to him
"You let him know. And once he is aware he will probably stop trying."
"You are right but I am still worried" and I was, I wanted this day to get over soon.
"Worried about what?"
"I have no clue" I sounded irrational to her but how could I tell her that with him I felt things that I had never experienced with Noah. With Noah, my relationship was not of butterflies in the stomach, rapid heart-pound, it was normal
"Just go and have a good dinner with a good potential friend," she said
"Friend?"
"Yeah. Just a friend" she said.
I took a long breath and worked without thinking of anything. By the time it was 5:30, Shelly told me to leave. On my way, while I walked back to the hostel, Ariel called me.
"Emily is going out for dinner with Jason and I plan to go out with John and a few other friends of ours. Do you want to come?"
"Uhh no. You guys go ahead" I said. I felt guilty at the thought of my dinner with Ryan
"Why?"
"I have to study a lot" I lied and tried to sound confident
"Fine" she sounded disappointed.
"Do you want me to get food for you?" she asked and made me feel more miserable.
"No no. I will have it in the mess"
"Ok but If you need anything let me know," she said and I felt disappointed at myself. Why did I agree to go for dinner with Ryan?
"Thank you" I replied and we cut the phone together. I looked at my watch and realized I had only 20 mins until Ryan came to pick me up. The moment I reached my room I hurriedly took bath. I decided to go for a plain casual purple colored top with black jeans. I kept my hair open and put on light brown lipstick, applied black eyeliner, and wore silver color heel. It was 6:30 when I looked at my wristwatch and because I didn't have his no. I looked out of my window and saw his car at the entrance of my hostel. I locked my door and went down the stairs as I lived on the third floor of my hostel. I saw him leaned on the passenger door with crossed arms and looked down at the road. He seemed to be in some deep thoughts about something. He wore a casual dark green colored T-shirt and blue jeans with brown leather shoes. As I moved closer he saw me and in an instant gave a killer bright smile. I immediately felt happy and at ease
"Hi," I said.
"Hi" he replied and showed all his perfect aligned teeth.
"So what do you want to eat?" He asked while he opened the passenger door for me.
"Nothing specific." I said as I hoped in and he closed my door. He went around to his side and got in.
"let's try 'Cfud-Grill'. Hope that's fine with you?" he said enthusiastically and awaited to see my same response. Did he know that I loved seafood?
"That will be fine," I said with no enthusiasm and looked at my phone. He waited for me to say something more but I didn't have anything more to offer. I was really happy to eat seafood especially crabs and shrimps because they were my absolute favorite. He didn't say anything and instead he looked ahead and drove in silence. When we reached, The grill was more of an open shack and it stood on the beach. We went in and got ourselves a table right next to an aquarium at one corner of the room.
"This place is amazing for crabs and shrimps. You will love it" he said and beamed at me. So he knew about my preference towards seafood?
"what would you like to have?" he asked,
"I think I will have butter garlic prawns and crab meat curry with rice"
"And Drink?"
"I will have a coke"
"No alcohol?"
"No. I don't drink alcohol" I said and he didn't look surprised. Many people who asked me were surprised to know that I didn't drink. After Ryan called out to the steward, he ordered our dinner and we were soon left to talk with no disturbance.
"It seems to me that you know I love seafood," I wanted to know if he knew about it or was it just coincidence
"Really? What makes you think that way"
"I have my reasons" and I gave him a stare which meant don't lie to me.
"John told me," he said with a smile
"John?"
"Yeah, Ariel talks about you to John"
"Oh" whoever knew me, they all knew my love for seafood.
"How was your date last night," I asked. He gave a small laugh and looked at me.
"I am glad you asked. My elder sister, Chloe, she keeps arranging these blind dates for me. The girl you saw yesterday was one of the arranged date that I had to agree on" he looked at me like he meant every word. The waiter came and placed a coke in front of me and a beer in front of Ryan
"So! did you like her?" I was curious, the blondie was a breathtaking beauty.
"A nice girl but not for me" he smiled and took a few sips of his beer
"Why?"
"Cause I like someone else," he said and his eyes blazed at me with sincerity. It made me feel uncomfortable in an instant. I immediately got on to the point about my personal life.
"I have a boyfriend back home and we have been dating for the last 3 years," I said quickly. He didn't respond but continued with his heat stare on me.
"We plan to get married next year or so." I lied, there was no marriage plans for now.
"I miss him, he means a lot to me," I finished and waited to see some change in his expressions but he gave nothing except the intense stares. To me, it seemed like this news did not bother him at all. I couldn't look at him anymore so I took a big sip of my coke and looked at the aquarium.
I know about your bf Mia," he said after a long torturous silence. I looked at him with a surprise and his face had a soft expression while he spoke.
"You know about Noah?" I was surprised!
"Yeah! through John" he smiled at me. God! Ariel and John talked a lot about my life. I finally realized that I probably thought too much and maybe he was just interested in being friends.
Ryan
I knew Mia had a boyfriend named Noah and they have been dating for over 3 years. They both were faithful to each other but they hadn't spoken to each other at all in the last few months. She wanted to marry him and it broke my heart. From the very beginning, I knew I had to maintain a distance from her but I couldn't. If I had to keep her close and make her my friend then the only way was to not let her know about my feelings for her. But somehow I couldn't stop them especially with her around. I had to pretend like it didn't affect me when she talked about her relationship with Noah,
"So hows the long-distance going?"
"It's going great," she said with a big fake smile and I knew she lied. All I knew was if she ever needed me I would be there for her and even if she didn't want me I would still support her silently. Her happiness mattered to me and I was ready to do just anything for her. Finally, our dinner arrived and the look she had when she saw the crabs and the shrimps got me happy. She was so excited about the food and it made me so happy that in an instant I realized that her feelings affected me. If she was happy I was happy if she felt sad I felt sad. I tried to divert myself from my thoughts and I talked about current scenarios. We talked about politics, the growing terrorism, the underprivileged children. We talked and talked until we were ready to eat some dessert.
"Do you want any dessert?" I asked
"Yea. I will have a walnut coffee icecream." She said and we ordered for two.
"So what's your opinion on the growing hate for other religions?"
"I don't think there is any hate for any religion. We all are human beings and we should respect and care for each other's feelings and thoughts. For instance, if you have a friend who loves chocolate and you love strawberry, you won't force her/him to love strawberry. You will respect their love for the chocolate. So, in the same way, we should have love and respect for each other's feelings as well" she said while she enjoyed her ice cream.
"Forcing someone to follow some particular practice only creates hatred. Respect and love comes gradually, and if you want that then you can't force anyone because even if you force, it will eventually lead to something uneventful" she said and I enjoyed each of her answers.
"What's love for you?" I asked.
"Love is selfless. But first, we need to love ourselves, if we don't we can never be happy" she said
"Love ourselves?"
"Yeah. I mean if you are in an abusive relationship you should immediately get out of it. You shouldn't be stuck into it no matter how much you love him."
"A lot of people don't have that privilege"
"That's because no one is ready to take a stand for themselves. Everyone should know that nobody is going to save you. You have to save yourself if you going through anything horrific. People will support you but the first step for any freedom should always be taken by you" She said.
"So what's your take with Noah?" I asked
"What Noah?" she sounded surprised.
"How's he with you?"
"He is good. He respects most of my career decisions" she said confidently and I smiled at her.
"Will split the bill," she said as soon the steward gave me the bill
"That's a big No!"
"This is not a date Ryan. You aren't supposed to be paying for me" she said
"After a long pleading you finally said yes and since you are with me let me do the honors," I said but she didn't agree with me
"It was a pleasure having dinner with you as well so lets split the bill"
"Mia! No!! I understand that the ladies now days like to split the bill but chivalry is not dead and quite frankly I loved having you with me. So let me do it" I said with authority. She had to know I didn't intend her to pay
"Ryan let me please" she pleaded.
"Fine. If we split the bill then you agree for a dinner with me again"
"Ryan?!"
"Your choice Mia!" I smiled at her. I knew what she would choose.
"Fine, you can pay" she looked upset
"Thank you"
"If we meet again then I will treat you" she replied
"I will surely meet you," I said and she blushed. After our dinner, we sat in the car and decided to head to her hostel.
"Ryan! do you like Ariel?" she asked and looked at me with seriousness while I drove towards the hostel.
"Ariel? No!!! Why?" I gave her 'what kind of question' look to her. She turned her face away from me and looked out of the window and didn't say anything.
"I know Ariel because of John and he loves her a lot. So I have no interest in her at all" I said. She instantly looked at me.
"I don't think Ariel knows that John loves her," she said.
"Well, it is something that John needs to work on. Also, he knows that Ariel likes me. That is why I maintain a distance with her"
"Do you think Ariel will give John a chance?" She sounded unsure.
"John has been in love with her since our school days. If his love is true then she would notice and give him a chance. Besides he keeps her happy all the time. I think she will notice"
"I just hope she gets the love that she deserves, She is an amazing person"
"That's real sweet Mia" I smiled. She had to be the most soft, genuine and a pretty person. I felt so glad to have her next to me.
As I parked my car outside her hostel entrance, I knew it was time for another long goodbye.
"Thanks for tonight. I had fun" She said as she got out of the car
"Your welcome," I replied with a small smile. The thought of not to see her made me uneasy and sad. I didn't want her to go away from me.
"Goodnight," she said and closed the door of my car
"Mia?" I immediately rolled the window down and called her out
"Yeah?"
"If you don't mind can we exchange numbers?" I asked. I hoped she would agree and to my surprise, she did without any hesitation. I took her no. even though I had it but I wanted to get it from her willingly.
"Goodnight. Hope to see you soon" I said with smile.
"Goodnight," she said and walked inside her hostel. I waved at her and left when she stepped at the end of the staircase.