He had a short time due to the anticipation of his meeting with Wang Fang the next day.
He woke up at exactly 5 a.m. That was a bit early compared to his usual time of waking up.
He had slept late and woken up way too early. He called at exactly 7 a.m. to remind her of the date, and she had assured him of turning up.
*********
DIVINO BAR AND RESTAURANT
Wang Fang got to the restaurant, and they both agreed to meet.
She got there 10 minutes late compared to the time they had initially agreed on.
Meanwhile, Jinyong was already seated as he waited for Fang's arrival.
With the look on his face, one could easily predict that he had been there even before the agreed time and was tired of waiting for Fang.
"You look worried; is anything the matter?"
Wang Fang asked immediately after she got there, even before Jinyong could notice that she had arrived.
"For how long have you been standing there staring at me?" Jinyong asked as he threw a charming look at her.
"I just got here. I'm not surprised you didn't notice me when I stepped in. I guess you were deeply in thought," she said as she carefully drew out one of the chairs from beneath the table to sit on.
"I was only bothered about your late arrival. So tell me, what happened? Why are you just coming?" Jinyong asked as he focused his gaze on Fang to know why she had come late.
"What does it matter? I am here now, and I see no reason why I should be answering that question," she responded with a frown.
He Jiinyong noticed the mood swing in her and decided not to ask her what happened so as not to provoke her more.
"What do you care for?" He quickly changed the topic by asking her what she cared for.
"I have to go through the menu first to see what they have here," she said.
She took her time to go through the menu to make her choice, and as soon as she came into contact with the one she liked, although not her favorite, she asked Jinyong to signal the waitress to come and take her order.
He Jinyong signaled the waitress, and in a jiffy, she arrived! She politely asked Jinyong what he wanted, and he was directed by Jinyong to take Fang's order first.
The waitress then averted her attention to Fang.
"Miss, what do we offer you?"
"Let me have Sichuan and a bottle of Jiabelan to go with it." She placed her order.
Unknown to Wang Fang, that was He Jinyong's order. Those were his favorite orders whenever he was at "Divino Bar and Restaurant."
He had wanted to eat the same meal as Fang, but little did he know that she was going to go for his favorite meal.
To Jinyong, that was awesome; she was beginning to make things very easy for him anyway.
After the waitress had taken Fang's order, she switched her attention to He Jinyong.
"Sir. What do you care for?" she asked, smiling at him.
"Let me have her order."
The waitress then left to get their order. As soon as the waitress was gone, Fang threw a kind of killing stare at him and uttered
"Is this supposed to be a joke or something? Why do you have to go with my order?
Oh, so that is why you asked her to attend to me first?
"Not really; I had it in mind to have Sichuan and a bottle of Jiabelan. I take those two each time I come here, especially at dinner. I hope you don't have any problem with that."
"Not really; it's fine by me."
Just as they were still talking, the waitress swiftly placed their order on the table in a formal way.
They began to eat in silence. Jinyong could not take his eyes off Fang as they were.
He believed he had not taken her out, basically just to eat but also to have a conversation with her.
He kept Starting with Fang, he wanted to break the silence. Fang knew what was going on in Jinyong's head.
He didn't know how to go about breaking the silence without offending Fang, as she was busy enjoying her meal.
She noticed the way Jinyong had been staring at her.
"I hope you are enjoying your meal." Jinyong finally broke the silence.
"Yes. Thanks a lot," she responded without looking at Jinyong.
"Can we talk about you?" He Jinyong asked her, as his heart beat faster than normal, what would be Fang's response to his question. Was she going to get mad at him?"
"Seriously? Right now?"
"If possible. At least that is one of the reasons I asked you out on a lunch date to get to know each other."
"Alright. What do you want to know about me?" Fang asked him. This time around, she was focused on Jinyong.
"Let me start by asking you what you do for a living."
"Huh?... What I do for a living. Okay. I work as a receptionist in a hotel, she replied.
On hearing that, the excitement on his face dwindled.
"Ooh, you work in a hotel. That's nice, you know."
She took a close look at He Jinyong and noticed that he was happy with the kind of job she does. She was not surprised, though; Jinyong wasn't the first person to not like her job.
But that was not a problem to get; after all, they are not dating.
"Why the sudden switch of mood? You don't like what I do for a living, right? Just be honest."
"Honestly, I don't like your job. But that isn't going to change anything." Jinyong sounded reassuring.
"I don't get you. What do you mean by "it's not going to change anything?" Is there anything that's going to change if my job disgusts you?"
Listen, if you think anything is going to happen between us, just have a rethink because it's never going to happen." She said reluctantly;
Dissatisfaction crossed Jinyong's face Temporarily by the time he realized Fang was trying to be too hard on him.
What had he done to get such a hurtful word from her? To the best of his knowledge, he's been calm and patient with Fang. He hadn't said anything bad to her at all.
"Wow! You know what? To allow these words of yours to get to me." He said this as he laughed pretentiously.
They both got out of the restaurant after spending enough time there. Jinyong Bad suggested that they go home because of the way Fang had reacted to his other questions.
He had asked her some questions that Fang had failed to answer.
Wang had acted way too foolishly, and whatever had come over her was not a good one.
Although He Jinyong had not made it obvious that he was not happy, he was man enough to have understood the kind of person Fang was and had not said anything that would make her regret ever going out with him.
He drove her home and made sure she had gotten inside her apartment before driving off to his residence.
On his way home, he kept thinking of how to make Fang his forever, not minding the attitude she pulls up all the time.
There was something about Fang that kept making Jinyong want to make her his own, but he seemed not to understand what that was.
He hoped things were going to be as smooth as possible for him as he continued to work so hard to make Fang fall in love with him.