University Art of City J
At the moment, I was waiting for Aileen to finish her training. I felt confused about what I was currently doing.
I suddenly decided to pick her up. I used Mom as the reason to pick her up even though it was indeed one of the reasons. However, the other reason was because I also wanted to pick her up.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
A knock on the car window made me turn around and I saw Aileen standing outside the car.
Creak!
"Are you done?" I asked when Aileen entered the car and sat comfortably beside me.
Aileen immediately turned to me while fastening her seatbelt.
"Um, yeah, I am done. Thank you for waiting," Aileen replied and showed her sweetest smile.
Yes, in my opinion it was a sweet smile. That was why I just nodded, then immediately turned my face towards the front. I didn't want to be mesmerized by her smile, let alone to be tempted by its sweetness.
"You're welcome. Let's have dinner first, ok?" I replied.
Then I started the car engine and tried to ignore the sudden pounding of my heart.
"Ok."
After that, the car I was driving drove away from the campus parking lot, towards one of the restaurants in the city center.
The atmosphere in the car was suddenly awkward because neither of us was talking. This was really strange, because normally Aileen would eagerly ask this and that, but now she just stared out the window and didn't look at me at all.
"Hmm.... Strange, where's the cheerful Aileen?" I thought curiously.
Not long after, we finally arrived at a pretty fancy restaurant. Aileen and I got down together, then walked together towards the entrance. Arriving at the door, we were greeted by a friendly waiter then the waiter led us to one of the empty tables in the corner of the restaurant as per my request.
After the waiter gave us the menu, we immediately ordered our dinner. Aileen ordered a vegetable salad and of course a salmon steak which made me shake my head at her choice. Aileen always ate salmon at every opportunity. Even if I didn't cook salmon at home, she would ask with a sullen face.
"Then what do you want to order, Sir?"
"Ahh! I also order the salmon steak. But, add wasabi mash potato, and there's no need for the vegetable salad. Then, I ordered a glass of 'Aga White Wine'."
I almost flinched in surprise because of the waiter's question. It seemed I didn't realize that I was carried away by my thoughts because of the food ordered by Aileen. And this was just food, nothing else.
"Shit, I am so lame," I cursed.
"Ok, let me repeat the order: two salmon steaks, one salad and one wasabi mash potato. Then, a glass of 'Aga White Wine' and one strawberry smoothie. Is that all? Ok, Please wait!"
The waitress left our table, leaving Aileen and me who for a moment looked at each other, before she finally looked away and cut her eye contact with me.
"What the..." I cursed.
"What is this? Why is she so nonchalant? Could it be because I picked her up?" I asked myself.
"Ai," I called, when I felt that the atmosphere between us was not what it used to be.
My brain said that I should just let her and didn't interfere with what she was feeling. But strangely, that was not what happened. I suddenly called her name. Aileen turned to me, put on an unusual expression and looked at me questioningly.
"What?" Aileen replied with a sneer.
"Huft.... Can anyone explain to me, what's really going on with Aileen right now? Because, since in the car she's been like this. She's not what she usually is." I thought to myself.
"Could it be because I picked her up," I continued to myself.
"What's the-
"Excuse me, your order."
We immediately looked to the side, where there was a waiter carrying a tray containing our food orders. I swallowed my words again, and let the waiter to arrange the food on the table.
It didn't take long for the waiter to arrange the food on the table, then the waiter left our table again and Aileen immediately took her knife and fork. Seeing her like that, I chose not to disturb and followed her, holding both a fork and a knife.
"What did you want to ask me, Glenn?"
I looked back at her, when she asked me a question I hadn't had time to ask her. With a shake of my head, I answered her question and again I saw a strange expression on her face.
"That expression again," I thought curiously.
We ended up eating differently tonight. I felt strange with our silence, what was actually wrong with Aileen. This situation just made me feel guilty.
While we were enjoying the food in silence, suddenly the corner of my eye glanced to the side where there was a woman standing with her arms crossed.
"Glenn, you already have a new woman? That's fast," mocked the woman standing beside us.
"But of course later on, she will also get dumped, especially when you focus on your work. I wouldn't be surprised if that happened." She continued, when I didn't respond at all.
"Hn," I replied disinterestedly.
I would rather enjoy my dinner and ignored her. Then I could hear the stomping of her footsteps that sounded annoyed, made Aileen who didn't care at first stop her eating activities, put down her fork and knife, and looked at the woman who was still standing next to us, then turned her gaze to me.
"Who is she?" Aileen asked in a calm tone, making me look at her strangely.
I thought Aileen would curse the woman who was my ex, Zoya.
Yes, she was my ex who messed up my apartment the day we broke up.
I hadn't had time to answer Aileen's question, Zoya immediately responded to Aileen.
"Who are you?"
"Huh? You really don't know manners. It doesn't matter who I am. But at the moment we are enjoying our dinner, why did you come to disturb us like this?"
Wow!
I whistled in amazement at Aileen's classy answer. Normally, Aileen would face her opponent with rude. This was based on my experience with her.
At that time there were people who grabbed the queue, when we wanted to pay for the things we bought at the mall some time ago, precisely it was the second time we went for shopping together.
"You-
"Waiter! Please take care of this woman. We feel disturbed. How does the security of this restaurant work? Why let customers feel uncomfortable like this?"
Oh my God!
I almost chuckled, when I saw Aileen interrupted Zoya's words. Zoya's face was red with embarrassment. Even people around us looked at us and whispered about Zoya.
I was actually embarrassed as well by this incident. However, when I saw this other side of Aileen, I was a little challenged by what Aileen was hiding. I was sure, if there was still a lot of uniqueness on Aileen.
Not long after a waiter came and asked nicely Zoya to leave us. But Zoya was still Zoya. She stubbornly left our table after throwing threats at Aileen who just showed an unconcerned face.
I repeated an unconcerned face, not a mocking face like the one she usually showed when fighting with someone or me.
This made me even more curious about her. I wanted to get to know her more.
After the drama with
Zoya, we continued enjoying our dinner in silence, as if nothing had happened even though it was clear that our dinner had been interrupted by me ex. This was my first time meeting an ex who was still annoying. Usually when I met them, they would pass me by with shy and hopeful faces.
But not with Zoya. She just made fun of me. What she did, annoyed me but I couldn't fight with women. I didn't want to be labeled as a bastard like she said before we parted first.
"What?"
I smiled with a faint smile towards Aileen who seemed to have noticed that I saw her all the time. Then I raised my hand towards her who instantly fell silent because of my actions.
"Sorry, but there's a little stain here," I said as I greeted the viewpoint with our thumbs and brought the remaining stain on my thumb to put in my own mouth.
"It's clean now," I continued in a relaxed tone.
Instantly she widened her eyes and stopped eating.
"Quickly finish your dinner." I casually said without caring about her who was just silent and looked at me with a look that was hard to read.
She looked so cute, especially when her cheeks turned to red. Maybe she was confused about what I did earlier.
But I didn't care. I just took it as a payback for not making us the subject of continuous spectacle because she was acting like a respectable lady, instead of the usual barbaric response to Zoya's behavior a while ago.
I thought our dinner would be different because of the silence, but I was wrong. Tonight's dinner was more exciting, because I could see the other side of her, and also saw the red strokes as a bonus.
To be continued.