The day had come. The day that James was going to take Mia out on their very first date ever. Of course, James was nervous about the idea of taking Mia out on a date…but he wasn’t the only one.
================================================================================
Mia nervously tapped at her phone, erased the message and tapped out another. After nearly six tries she finally hit send and inwardly winced, thinking that maybe the third message would have been a better one than the seventh.
"Hi. What 2 wear 2nite? Don't want 2 b overdressed. Or underdressed."
================================================================================
James had been sitting at his laptop for at least an hour and a half wondeirng just where he was going to take Mia. He wanted to take her someplace impressive, but not a place that was going to kill his meager wallet. Ruth's Chris? Definitely out. No way. Who pays 50 dollars for just the STEAK!? Seriously?
Wendy's? No, no way. She'd think he's a cheapo to take her out to fast food...
Red Lobster? A little better than Wendy's, but what if she didn't like shellfish? Or worse, was allergic to it? It was times like these that James not only liked his precognitive power, but also cursed it for being so damn finicky. He never could tell if she was happy with whatever place they were going to go to. It was infuriating!
What about Aldo's? It's Italian, which is mostly safe...but the staff were jerks and if the staff were jerks, that might say that James was a jerk too...
After much searching on the internet while listening to some mind-numbing techno to take the edge off, James was down to two options. A Japanese Hibachi steakhouse called "Tanuki" and an Italian Pizzaria called "Cido's". It wasn't until he got Mia's text that he jumped from his intensive stare down of the two options amidst the many scribbled out options on the paper ahead of him. Smiling a bit at the text, he instantly made a decision and hoped for the best.
"Casual is good! we're going 2 tanuki!" Was his text reply, suddenly realizing after it was sent that he needed to find an iron for his button down shirt...and wondering if his dad's jacket would be good enough for Tanuki.
================================================================================
Mia grabbed her phone quickly when the little alert went off. After a couple fumbling tries, she took a deep breath and opened it up. A smile spread across her face. Tanuki? Wow. That was going to be awesome! She'd never been to a hibachi place before.
Her smile quickly faded. What does one wear to a hibachi steakhouse? James said casual, but what if she went too casual? James might think she wasn't taking this seriously and not ask her out for a second date. But if she dressed too formal, she'd look like an idiot and definitely not get asked out again!
But what if he wanted to go casual? Like this wasn't a big deal? What if it wasn't a big deal to him? What if he had only said yes to be nice?
Quickly she picked up her phone again. Jess. Jess would know what to do.
================================================================================
James stood outside Mia's door, ready to start the date while trying to adjust the button-down shirt he wore. It was one of those shiny-looking solid color types, which as red...his favorite color. He decided to leave his dad's coat home for today...maybe another time pops...and hoped that the red shirt/khaki cargo jeans would be good enough to tell Mia that he was "fashionable" without being "too uptight."
But then again, she could always take the mix of cargo pants with a button down to mean that he had no idea how to dress himself, and then never want to be seen with him, much less go out on a second date. Or maybe see the clashing colors and think the same thing. Or she could think he's underdressing and not taking the date seriously...
James swallowed an ostrich-sized lump in his throat, no, not an ostrich-egg sized lump...a fully grown ostrich-size lump, and knocked on the door, hoping he wouldn't do anything stupid, though as soon as she would open the door, he'd blurt out: "Hey Mia! I'm picking you up to Tanuki here now!"
================================================================================
Checked herself in the full-length mirror next to her door one last time. She had left her hair down for fear of getting too formal. But only came to that decision after many different attempts at putting her hair up. She smoothed her hands over the blue silk dress. The three quarter sleeved, v-necked dress matched the color of her eyes. She had seen it in the window of the shop in the mall after trying on countless outfits and just knew. THIS was the dress for her first date with James. Not too dressy, not too casual.
Hopefully he'd like it.
She wiped a bit of mascara from her upper eyelid and opened the door, heart in her throat. And stopped in her tracks. "Wow, James. You look... wow." Mia's bright grin spread across her faces and she nervously fidgeted with her hands.
"Wow..."
================================================================================
James blushed as he realized what he had said, and that it was a complete jumble of stupidity compared to the elegant and dashing phrase he had been rehearsing in his head. She didn't seem to mind though, which was more than fine. Even better actually! "Mia! You look....wow...I mean...you look really, really good..." He said with a grin. The blue matched her so well, though it did make James wonder how it would look if she still had her red hair cascading down gently over those sweetly curved shoulders and soft, creamy white skin...
Shaking his head a bit to get himself out of the dreamworld he was quickly finding himself in, he looked towards Mia and offered a hand to her, albeit shakily. "Well, shall we get going? I'm really excited for dinner tonight!"
================================================================================
Mia found herself staring at James, smiling. He looked so handsome. Well, he always looked handsome. But tonight he looked... charming. Well, no. He was always charming too. Mia wasn't sure she knew the word to describe how he looked to her at that moment. Red had always been his color. She like the way it looked on him.
When he shook himself from his daze, she blinked herself out of her own. Nervously she took his hand, biting her lip. Her fingers tingled in his grasp as she nodded to him. "Yeah. I can't wait. I've never been to Tanuki."
================================================================================
"Me neither!" He said happily, leading her as confidently as he could down the hallway, which surprisingly enough, was fairly confident. He kept a tight grip on her hand, but not too tight. It was tight enough that showed that James was afraid she'd fly away from him if he let go, but hopefully it wasn't so tight that he was crushing her hand.
After catching a bus from the TP building to the Green Line, Mia and James hopped aboard the line to Skyway, where they'd head off to what was affectionately called "The Food Palace", which was a twenty-five story food-court which held various dining locations from a Ritz-Carlton to Wendy's. The more prestigious the restaurant, the higher level it was. It just so happened that Tanuki was on level 15.
A Date to Remember ((Closed))
-
Sunset Oracle
- Former Member
- Posts:42
- Joined:Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:44 pm
*Waves arms magestically and mystically*
"I seeeeee! In your futuuuuuuuuuuuurrree.....a taco! Or possibly a Yoohoo..."
More inspiration found here:
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-05-22
"I seeeeee! In your futuuuuuuuuuuuurrree.....a taco! Or possibly a Yoohoo..."
More inspiration found here:
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-05-22
-
Sunset Oracle
- Former Member
- Posts:42
- Joined:Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:44 pm
Re: A Date to Remember ((Closed))
"Oh. I was going to ask what would be a good thing to order. You know, if you had eaten there before. But since you haven't, I guess I won't. Because you wouldn't know."
Boarding the train, Mia worried about how close to get to him. She didn't want to invade his personal space and come across as... pushy? Overly affectionate? God forbid, even slutty! But at the same time, she didn't want James to think she didn't like him. And being near him. It wasn't like the train was crowded. So she couldn't even fool herself into believing that would be an excuse. And no one on the train looked particularly dangerous. For the most part it was little old ladies that seemed to smile knowingly at the young couple.
Risking any blight on her virtue, Mia sat next to James, her leg brushing against his and rest their still clasped hands on the small valley of blue and khaki. She considered threading her fingers between his for a moment. But pushed it aside. If she let go to adjust her hand, he might think she didn't want to hold hands. And take his hand back. And she didn't want that. She liked holding his hand. She liked holding his hand a lot.
Awkwardly, she searched for something to fill the quiet between them. She didn't want him to think she was boring after all. "So, um... what made you decide on Tanuki?"
===
James was enjoying the train ride, especially because he was sitting with a very beautiful girl who was holding his hand. Nothing was going to get him to let go, shy of a Rikti attack..and even then it would take some serious thought to dislodge him. Briefly, he wondered if he could thread her fingers between his, but that would be way too forward, and Mia would probably think him a jerk, or a player, and not want to see him again. So he compromised with himself to just hold her hand for the duration of the train ride.
"Umm..not sure. I looked at a lot of different places where we could go and I wanted to take you someplace nice. And I wasn't really sure where exactly to take you, and I was wondering if we were going to do dinner and a movie, or dinner and a show, or dinner and something else...so I kind of just said, let's do it all at the same time!" James said with a nervous laugh, looking down. "So um...yeah. I thought it would be nice because I used to go with my parents to hibachi places once a month and well..."
He trailed off, wondering if by talking about his parents he was taking time away from them...or making her think he was being mopey.
===
Mia's smile faded a little and she squeezed his hand reassuringly. She could imagine how tough it must be for him. After all, she lost her mother when she was very young. But then again, she never really got to know her mother. And she still had her father. If she told him about that, he'd probably just think she was trying to marginalize his pain. She didn't want that. She wanted to be there for him. To know all about him. Was talking about his family too heavy for a first date?
Keeping her eyes on her lap, she ventured carefully into the deeper waters. "So... what were they like? Your parents... and if you don't want to talk about them, I'll understand."
===
James mentally kicked himself. Stupid stupid stupid! Bringing up his missing parents on the first date! Mia's going to think him mopey and filled with baggage and totally not someone she'd want to date! She'd think he's only looking for a shoulder to cry on and not looking for anything romantic. Not to mention the emasculation of dating just so he could cry a little.
James sighed, looking at his own lap and spoke softly, hoping that the end of the train ride would come soon so that they could distract themselves from the awkward conversation with food and flat-grill hijinks.
"No...no...I...they were very nice. They were both researchers...magic researchers you know...they were like professors but didn't have the title or the pension or the....you get the point. They never let their research get between themselves or their family...which was great! I mean, I've heard a lot about people's jobs getting in the way of family and I know that I'd have trouble growing up without family..." It was then that James remembered what little Mia had told him about her family...and how being trained to be an Elder seemed to be everything to her clan...even over family.
He winced.
"Not that...you know...a job couldn't be amazing! Or that some family couldn't be done without, and I'm not saying to abandon family at all or anything just that there could be some people in a family that some people don't like being around because you can't like everybody all the time or deal with everybody all the time and..." James trailed off, looking down.
Stupid Stupid Stupid!
===
Panic welled up in Mia. She had said something wrong. He was upset with her. She could tell just by looking at him. The downcast eyes, the quiet speech. She was two seconds from blowing the whole date. She had to think of something. Fast. A new topic. That could fix it. Right? Of course! If talking about one thing got too awkward, just switch! But if she switched too quickly, that could be bad too.
She took a deep breath to steel herself and hesitated what she thought might be the appropriate length of awkward silence. Then she dove in.
"I saw you signed up for the study group. For Chemistry. I'm really awful at it, so I thought maybe a study group would help. You know, so I can at least pass my final. Everyone keeps telling me that it's easy, but I just don't get it. Maybe it's Ms Posey's teaching methods. Maybe I don't learn well in a classroom. Always been a little more of a hands on kind of person." Mia paused. His parents were researchers. Academics. What if they had taught? What if she had just insulted his parents' chosen profession? His missing parents?! Barely contained panic flashed in her eyes for a moment. "Not that that way of teaching is bad. I've never really been that great of a student to begin with. I'm sure it's just me. Maybe the study group will... You know... help..."
===
James breathed a sigh of relief when Mia changed the topic from his parents to the Chemistry study group. The awkward silence had hung long enough, he supposed. She must have hated him for his comments, which is why she took so long to respond. This date was going SO well...
James wondered just how much more he was going to sabotage his first date with Mia...
"Oh, the study group is going to be great! I mean, I'm not too good at Chemistry either..." Which was kind of a lie...he was decent enough at Chemistry to pass...not with an A, but enough to not be struggling. But she didn't need to know that. Maybe it will earn him points during the first session when he picks up on stuff so quickly. "I mean, I'm sure that it's just Ms. Posey. You're...um...a really smart girl..." He said, throwing in the awkward comment as best he can as he saw her trail off and look down. The were both spared any further awkward small talk as the train lurched to a halt and the doors opened to Skyway City, allowing James to lead Mia out and head to the Palace.
Boarding the train, Mia worried about how close to get to him. She didn't want to invade his personal space and come across as... pushy? Overly affectionate? God forbid, even slutty! But at the same time, she didn't want James to think she didn't like him. And being near him. It wasn't like the train was crowded. So she couldn't even fool herself into believing that would be an excuse. And no one on the train looked particularly dangerous. For the most part it was little old ladies that seemed to smile knowingly at the young couple.
Risking any blight on her virtue, Mia sat next to James, her leg brushing against his and rest their still clasped hands on the small valley of blue and khaki. She considered threading her fingers between his for a moment. But pushed it aside. If she let go to adjust her hand, he might think she didn't want to hold hands. And take his hand back. And she didn't want that. She liked holding his hand. She liked holding his hand a lot.
Awkwardly, she searched for something to fill the quiet between them. She didn't want him to think she was boring after all. "So, um... what made you decide on Tanuki?"
===
James was enjoying the train ride, especially because he was sitting with a very beautiful girl who was holding his hand. Nothing was going to get him to let go, shy of a Rikti attack..and even then it would take some serious thought to dislodge him. Briefly, he wondered if he could thread her fingers between his, but that would be way too forward, and Mia would probably think him a jerk, or a player, and not want to see him again. So he compromised with himself to just hold her hand for the duration of the train ride.
"Umm..not sure. I looked at a lot of different places where we could go and I wanted to take you someplace nice. And I wasn't really sure where exactly to take you, and I was wondering if we were going to do dinner and a movie, or dinner and a show, or dinner and something else...so I kind of just said, let's do it all at the same time!" James said with a nervous laugh, looking down. "So um...yeah. I thought it would be nice because I used to go with my parents to hibachi places once a month and well..."
He trailed off, wondering if by talking about his parents he was taking time away from them...or making her think he was being mopey.
===
Mia's smile faded a little and she squeezed his hand reassuringly. She could imagine how tough it must be for him. After all, she lost her mother when she was very young. But then again, she never really got to know her mother. And she still had her father. If she told him about that, he'd probably just think she was trying to marginalize his pain. She didn't want that. She wanted to be there for him. To know all about him. Was talking about his family too heavy for a first date?
Keeping her eyes on her lap, she ventured carefully into the deeper waters. "So... what were they like? Your parents... and if you don't want to talk about them, I'll understand."
===
James mentally kicked himself. Stupid stupid stupid! Bringing up his missing parents on the first date! Mia's going to think him mopey and filled with baggage and totally not someone she'd want to date! She'd think he's only looking for a shoulder to cry on and not looking for anything romantic. Not to mention the emasculation of dating just so he could cry a little.
James sighed, looking at his own lap and spoke softly, hoping that the end of the train ride would come soon so that they could distract themselves from the awkward conversation with food and flat-grill hijinks.
"No...no...I...they were very nice. They were both researchers...magic researchers you know...they were like professors but didn't have the title or the pension or the....you get the point. They never let their research get between themselves or their family...which was great! I mean, I've heard a lot about people's jobs getting in the way of family and I know that I'd have trouble growing up without family..." It was then that James remembered what little Mia had told him about her family...and how being trained to be an Elder seemed to be everything to her clan...even over family.
He winced.
"Not that...you know...a job couldn't be amazing! Or that some family couldn't be done without, and I'm not saying to abandon family at all or anything just that there could be some people in a family that some people don't like being around because you can't like everybody all the time or deal with everybody all the time and..." James trailed off, looking down.
Stupid Stupid Stupid!
===
Panic welled up in Mia. She had said something wrong. He was upset with her. She could tell just by looking at him. The downcast eyes, the quiet speech. She was two seconds from blowing the whole date. She had to think of something. Fast. A new topic. That could fix it. Right? Of course! If talking about one thing got too awkward, just switch! But if she switched too quickly, that could be bad too.
She took a deep breath to steel herself and hesitated what she thought might be the appropriate length of awkward silence. Then she dove in.
"I saw you signed up for the study group. For Chemistry. I'm really awful at it, so I thought maybe a study group would help. You know, so I can at least pass my final. Everyone keeps telling me that it's easy, but I just don't get it. Maybe it's Ms Posey's teaching methods. Maybe I don't learn well in a classroom. Always been a little more of a hands on kind of person." Mia paused. His parents were researchers. Academics. What if they had taught? What if she had just insulted his parents' chosen profession? His missing parents?! Barely contained panic flashed in her eyes for a moment. "Not that that way of teaching is bad. I've never really been that great of a student to begin with. I'm sure it's just me. Maybe the study group will... You know... help..."
===
James breathed a sigh of relief when Mia changed the topic from his parents to the Chemistry study group. The awkward silence had hung long enough, he supposed. She must have hated him for his comments, which is why she took so long to respond. This date was going SO well...
James wondered just how much more he was going to sabotage his first date with Mia...
"Oh, the study group is going to be great! I mean, I'm not too good at Chemistry either..." Which was kind of a lie...he was decent enough at Chemistry to pass...not with an A, but enough to not be struggling. But she didn't need to know that. Maybe it will earn him points during the first session when he picks up on stuff so quickly. "I mean, I'm sure that it's just Ms. Posey. You're...um...a really smart girl..." He said, throwing in the awkward comment as best he can as he saw her trail off and look down. The were both spared any further awkward small talk as the train lurched to a halt and the doors opened to Skyway City, allowing James to lead Mia out and head to the Palace.
*Waves arms magestically and mystically*
"I seeeeee! In your futuuuuuuuuuuuurrree.....a taco! Or possibly a Yoohoo..."
More inspiration found here:
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-05-22
"I seeeeee! In your futuuuuuuuuuuuurrree.....a taco! Or possibly a Yoohoo..."
More inspiration found here:
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-05-22
Re: A Date to Remember ((Closed))
It was a short walk, and a shorter elevator ride until they both arrived on the fifteenth floor, where James walked up to the Waiter at the front of the store and gave him his name. The Waiter, a short Asian man with a bowl-cut haircut smiled and led the both of them over to a U-shaped table which surrounded a flat hibachi grill with eight chairs around it. Another couple, a few years older than James and Mia, sat on one end of it while a family of four with two middle-school aged kids, sat between the two couples. James tried to be a gentleman to Mia and pulled the stool out for her, but when he tried to push it in under her, it kept getting stuck on the carpet and tilting instead of sliding.
=============================================
Clumsily, Mia grabbed the front of her chair and as ladylike as she could muster, helped lift the front legs just high enough to help scoot it under her. Of course by doing so without telling James, she ended up getting the seat run into the back of her knees, causing her legs to fold under her. Luckily, the seat was there to catch her and she managed not to tip it over in her slightly subtle efforts to steady herself.
She smiled at him as he took the seat next to her. "Thank you, James." She looked around the table. She hadn't expected there to be other people sitting with them. Was she supposed to talk to them too? Was it rude to just talk to James? After all, they were here on a date. If she only spoke to James, he'd probably think she was anti-social. And who wants to date the anti-social girl?
On the other hand, if she did talk to the others, she'd have to turn her attention from James. And what if she did that too much and he thought she was ignoring him? He'd never call her again after she hurt his feelings that badly.
Awkwardly she folded her hands into her lap and buried her face in the menu, waiting on a cue from James. He'd been to these types of places before. Maybe not on a date. But surely he had seen couples on dates at places like this. He would know what to do.
=============================================
James, for the most part, was ignoring the other people sitting at the table and was focused solely on Mia and the menu in front of him. He smiled, looking down the list until he decided that the shrimp and chicken selection would be best. He looked over at Mia and saw her buried into the menu and decided it would be best to help her.
"Oh well, you get a couple of things with the meal..." James said, leaning over to her so close that their shoulders touched. James didn't seem to recognize that he was doing so. "We get fried rice with a chicken and vegetable appetizer. The vegetables will be some carrots, zucchini, lettuce and onions...and we get some onion and mushroom soup...and an appetizer salad too!" He said with a grin, more or less reading off the top of the Entree menu which talked about what was included. He mentally winced. She can most definitely read too! Would she think that he thought that she couldn't read or wasn't bright enough to catch onto the little fine print at the top of the menu? James cursed himself and wished he could bang his head on the table for being so stupid.
"But um...I really like the shrimp and chicken....which you can totally try off my plate if you want! Then you can get something different and try everything! If you want to that is..."
==============================================
He was so close to her! Mia felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. Her brain filtered out everything except the fact that he was so close to her. Was he going to kiss her? Was it like in the movies where he'd realize how close he was to her too just in time for them to both turn their heads to look at each other? Would he take her hand and steal a quick kiss before the waiter came by? And then they'd be all giggly and embarrassed at being caught?
The blush on Mia's cheeks deepened and spread to he neck. She became vaguely aware that he was explaining the menu to her and nodded slightly. Didn't want him to think she was ignoring him after all. Was she supposed to turn her head now? She glanced out of the corner of her eye. He was still so close, leaned over in his chair. His speech had become a little awkward and stuttery. Maybe she had waited too long. Had the moment passed? Desperate not to loose the moment, Mia turned her head quickly...
And ran her nose painfully into James's cheek. She jerked back suddenly, her face bright red, and covered her nose with her hand.
Way to go clumsy...
==============================================
As James' comments trailed off into the mounting din of the restaurant, Mia suddenly turned her head and slammed her face into the side of his cheek. Caught off guard, James gave a quick "Oof!" and slid back into his stool a little bit.
Why had she turned her head? Was she getting bored at what he was saying? Was she trying to kiss him? What if she wanted to take that moment to bring him in for his first kiss with her? It would be really forward of Mia, but then again she had asked him out first instead of the other way around so maybe it was something she was into. And now that he was focused too much on the food and not her he had missed his first opportunity for a kiss! Not only that, but now Mia probably thought that James didn't want to kiss her in the first place and was more focused on eating.
Way to go James....
James blushed and looked over to Mia shyly, her face covered behind her hands. "I'm sorry..." He said sheepishly with a grin. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention...and are you okay?"
==============================================
Mia nodded as she pulled her hand away from her nose and turned back to her plate. She grabbed her raspberry tea and sipped it, thankful for anything to keep her from talking and messing up the date anymore than she had. This was a disaster. A complete shambles. There was no way James would ask her out for a second date. At that moment, Mia resolved to make the best of what she had left.
Quietly, she ordered the steak, agonizing over the price once the waiter had left. She looked over at James, trying to put on her best smile. "You can share some of my steak too. Since you, um... are letting me try your chicken. Yeah."
==============================================
James was crestfallen as the cook came up to cook for them. He smiled as he stood behind the grill, turning it and a very loud fan on which started up the vent directly above the grill.
"Hello my friends, welcome to Tanuki!" The cook said in heavily accented English. "I get grill warmed up nice and ready for you...and for loving couples!" He said with a smile, pointing towards James/Mia and the other couple on the other side of the table, drawing a heart with the vegetable oil he was spreading on the grill. "Okay! Appetizer first!" He called, slapping down a long row of shrimp on the grill, where he proceeded to cut the tails off with his very sharp knife.
James watched happily, remembering the last time he had been to a hibachi place with his parents. He tried his best to put the disastrous events of the date behind him and try to recover his losses. He leaned over to Mia and whispered; "I really hope he does the volcano..that's so cool to see!" Just as James had finished whispering, the cook used a fork and his knife to grab one of the shrimp ends and waggle the tailed end at Mia like a puppet.
"Pretty lady! Any love for me pretty lady?" The cook said in a high-pitched voice, as if speaking for the shrimp. Laughing, the cook cut the shrimp into pieces and shoved it to the side while he spread a massive mountain of rice and vegetables on another part of the grill. After some culinary magic, each person had a small helping of cooked shrimp on their plates and the cook continued to entertain by putting the chopped up shrimp tails on his spatula and tossing them into his hat with a grand flourish.
James smiled at the display and gingerly tasted his shrimp. They were really good! Bright-eyed, James turned to look over to Mia to see how she was enjoying this part of the evening at least.
==============================================
Mia giggled at the cook's antics, covering her mouth politely. She'd never been to a place like this before, but had heard it was an experience worth having. And so far, it hadn't disappointed. She kept expecting him to drop his knife or a piece of shrimp. Mia began to suspect he was a meta of some kind. Just when it looked like he was going to drop an egg, he turned his spatula sideways and cracked it open mid-drop. In spite of the cloud over her head, Mia grinned and clapped excitedly. This was actually kind of fun!
She smiled over at James , tucking her hair behind her ear. He seemed to really be enjoying himself. At least there was that. Seeing his smile only served to brighten her own. "The volcano? What's that?"
==============================================
"Okay!" The cook started suddenly, interrupting James as he was about to tell Mia all about the volcano. He took his spatula and started to take the rings off of a flat slab of onion, using the concentric rings to build up a small little mountain on top of its larger rings until it was a large conical shape with a small opening at the top. "Volcano time!" He called, pouring vegetable oil and water down the tiny hole. James grinned like a kid and gripped at Mia's hand, pointing towards the volcano as the cook built it.
James, being infinitely smoother when he wasn't thinking about anything, slid up closer to Mia to watch the volcano and Mia's reaction as best he could at the same time. The cook smiled and took a small lighter, clicking it on and wafting the flame over the onion-tower which erupted in a gout of flame as the oil and water evaporated, funneled out of the top. "Uwwaah! Volcano!" The cook cried with a grin, using his spatula to move the volcano about the top of the grill as the little fire tower moved along with it. James loved this part.
It was then that the one in a thousand chance event happened, where some draft of wind caught the flame from the volcano and sent up screaming towards the cook's sleeve...where it promptly caught on fire.
James...did not quite love this part.
===============================================
Mia jumped up from the table, knocking her chair back. This was most definitely not part of the show. Time slowed down amid the chaos. The cook looked at his sleeve for a moment, as if he didn't believe it was actually there. The woman next to Mia screamed and covered her daughter's eyes. Mia froze in place, unsure what to do next. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw James stand from his seat, just as shocked as she was.
===============================================
James stood, eyes wide at the fire that leaped for joy along the cook's sleeve and instantly took his glass of water and tossed it on the arm of the cook, which put out the fire, for the most part, but also splashed over the grill, causing gouts of steam to rise from the hot surface, blinding and searing those close to the cloud. The cook, in his frantic distress, hit the emergency extinguisher lever under the grill,which caused the piping system above the dining party to go off, spraying the table and all of its guests with white powder.
When the dust settled, it looked like someone had set a bag of flour to explode on the dinner guests and cook while sprinkling in a mixture of soot here and there.
Quickly, the manager came out and profusely apologized, bowing low to all of them and offering a free refund and a complementary meal. James sat on his chair demurely, looking down sadly. This date was a disaster! Mia was sure to hate him after this and never want to go on another date with him again. His exhale sent a puff of white powder dancing through the air as he looked over towards Mia, eyes a mixture of despair and worry.
================================================
Half an hour later, Mia stood outside her dorm room, a take out box in her hand. Although she had tried her best to wipe off the powder, she still showed signs of the night's disaster. Her dress, once bright blue, now looked much lighter. The creases of her face still held some of the white powder in them. Her black purse was practically silver.
She looked over at James, seeing him in much the same state. Even his hair looked closer to her silver than his natural brown. Neither of them had said much on the train ride home, and Mia had nervously clung to her box of food, afraid to try to hold his hand again. Instead she stared at her hands and idly brushed powder off her skirt from time to time. If James had wanted to hold her hand, he would have taken it. Right?
The entire night was ruined. This wasn't what a first date was supposed to be like. It was supposed to be perfect. All laughter and magic. Instead, she had given James awkwardness and chaos. Okay, she wasn't responsible for the chaos. That was just the icing on the cake.
Collecting her thoughts, Mia cleared her throat. "Um... thanks for th-the food. I'm sure it's you know... really good. I mean, the shrimp was good! Before it got sprayed. So why wouldn't the rest be good, you know? And I'm really sorry everything didn't go right. Just, um... chalk it up to a learning experience, right?"
=================================================
James was running the rest of the night on a detached autopilot. The night was in shambles, and the chaos was sure to cement him into the "undateable" category for Mia. It was like he was a zombie, walking back mindless and hollow with Mia tagging along next to him like some sort of Zombie-Buddy. Zomb-dy? Budbie? Zoddy. Yeah, that worked. Zoddy.
He stood outside of her door with his gaze on the ground. The powder was still on them, which made his hair match Mia's at least. So he had that going for him. Oh who was he kidding? There was no silver lining to this night....just a silver hairdo.
"Mia..." He started, leaning against the wall and inspecting his feet demurely, "I'm sorry...that this night went all crazy...There were so many things going on, and with everything that happened and I tried to see what would be the best place to take you and it didn't turn out anything like it should have...."
James stopped and took a deep breath before tentatively looking up to her. 'I wanted to impress you...take you someplace nice...Show that....you know...I'm not just a joker all the time...and I...I really wanted you to have a good night and have a good dinner....but I gave you probably the worst night of your life....and I'm sorry...."
He closed his eyes and leaned back against he wall, his head thumping the dry-wall with a hollow thud. "And now you'll never say yes to a second date..."
=================================================
Mia looked up at him, a little shocked. "O-of course I would say yes. To a another date, that is. I mean, if you really want to ask. Not that you have to! And I'll understand if you don't want to." She realized she was babbling again and quickly bit her lip, trying to quiet herself. Who was she kidding? He wasn't going to ask her out on another date. Who wants to date the nervous girl who spazzes out every half hour? At least? She just had to resign herself to the fact that the one shot she had with James was over and done.
=================================================
He looked over towards Mia and took a moment to take in how she looked. Her eyes were wide, if a little frantic...but who could blame her after a night like tonight? Her silver hair almost shone in the light of the dorms and her lower lip quivered cutely. In his own little world, James saw her, and just took a moment to appreciate probably the last time that he would ever get to look on her-
Wait, did she say yes?
Now it was James' turn to look shocked. He was certain that he had done everything wrong on this date and that she'd totally hate him afterwards. But...she'd say yes to another date? He had another shot?! Relief and exhilaration raced through his veins almost as fast as the icy-chill of adrenaline did.
"You....you would?! I mean....That's....that's great! Um...I'm so totally going to make up for this disaster! It'll be a great date and I'm going to make sure everything goes right this time! And I'm going to find a really impress...." James trailed off at the end, thinking. "Um...do you...um...I think it might be better if we did something small...with less chance of fire..." He laughed nervously as the blush lit his face nearly as red as his shirt used to be. "So um....I'll uh...I'll um...give you the details later? How does...Saturday? Yeah....Saturday. How does Saturday sound?"
==================================================
A bright smile spread across Mia's face. "Of course I'd like to! Saturday sounds great! Saturday sounds awesome. Wow."
This was great! This was perfect! Another chance to not mess up things with him. Just one week to work out the details and talk to her friends about what she had done wrong on this date and...
In her nervous joy, Mia opened the door to her room and stepped inside. Lost in her own happy thoughts she set her food down on her desk, smiling. It wasn't until that point that she realized she had left James in the hall. Quickly turning back to the door she opened it to find an empty hallway. Her smile faded just as quickly as it had come, her mood sinking just as quickly. Closing the door again, she leaned her forehead against it, frowning.
"Sweet dreams, James."
==================================================
Fin.
=============================================
Clumsily, Mia grabbed the front of her chair and as ladylike as she could muster, helped lift the front legs just high enough to help scoot it under her. Of course by doing so without telling James, she ended up getting the seat run into the back of her knees, causing her legs to fold under her. Luckily, the seat was there to catch her and she managed not to tip it over in her slightly subtle efforts to steady herself.
She smiled at him as he took the seat next to her. "Thank you, James." She looked around the table. She hadn't expected there to be other people sitting with them. Was she supposed to talk to them too? Was it rude to just talk to James? After all, they were here on a date. If she only spoke to James, he'd probably think she was anti-social. And who wants to date the anti-social girl?
On the other hand, if she did talk to the others, she'd have to turn her attention from James. And what if she did that too much and he thought she was ignoring him? He'd never call her again after she hurt his feelings that badly.
Awkwardly she folded her hands into her lap and buried her face in the menu, waiting on a cue from James. He'd been to these types of places before. Maybe not on a date. But surely he had seen couples on dates at places like this. He would know what to do.
=============================================
James, for the most part, was ignoring the other people sitting at the table and was focused solely on Mia and the menu in front of him. He smiled, looking down the list until he decided that the shrimp and chicken selection would be best. He looked over at Mia and saw her buried into the menu and decided it would be best to help her.
"Oh well, you get a couple of things with the meal..." James said, leaning over to her so close that their shoulders touched. James didn't seem to recognize that he was doing so. "We get fried rice with a chicken and vegetable appetizer. The vegetables will be some carrots, zucchini, lettuce and onions...and we get some onion and mushroom soup...and an appetizer salad too!" He said with a grin, more or less reading off the top of the Entree menu which talked about what was included. He mentally winced. She can most definitely read too! Would she think that he thought that she couldn't read or wasn't bright enough to catch onto the little fine print at the top of the menu? James cursed himself and wished he could bang his head on the table for being so stupid.
"But um...I really like the shrimp and chicken....which you can totally try off my plate if you want! Then you can get something different and try everything! If you want to that is..."
==============================================
He was so close to her! Mia felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. Her brain filtered out everything except the fact that he was so close to her. Was he going to kiss her? Was it like in the movies where he'd realize how close he was to her too just in time for them to both turn their heads to look at each other? Would he take her hand and steal a quick kiss before the waiter came by? And then they'd be all giggly and embarrassed at being caught?
The blush on Mia's cheeks deepened and spread to he neck. She became vaguely aware that he was explaining the menu to her and nodded slightly. Didn't want him to think she was ignoring him after all. Was she supposed to turn her head now? She glanced out of the corner of her eye. He was still so close, leaned over in his chair. His speech had become a little awkward and stuttery. Maybe she had waited too long. Had the moment passed? Desperate not to loose the moment, Mia turned her head quickly...
And ran her nose painfully into James's cheek. She jerked back suddenly, her face bright red, and covered her nose with her hand.
Way to go clumsy...
==============================================
As James' comments trailed off into the mounting din of the restaurant, Mia suddenly turned her head and slammed her face into the side of his cheek. Caught off guard, James gave a quick "Oof!" and slid back into his stool a little bit.
Why had she turned her head? Was she getting bored at what he was saying? Was she trying to kiss him? What if she wanted to take that moment to bring him in for his first kiss with her? It would be really forward of Mia, but then again she had asked him out first instead of the other way around so maybe it was something she was into. And now that he was focused too much on the food and not her he had missed his first opportunity for a kiss! Not only that, but now Mia probably thought that James didn't want to kiss her in the first place and was more focused on eating.
Way to go James....
James blushed and looked over to Mia shyly, her face covered behind her hands. "I'm sorry..." He said sheepishly with a grin. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention...and are you okay?"
==============================================
Mia nodded as she pulled her hand away from her nose and turned back to her plate. She grabbed her raspberry tea and sipped it, thankful for anything to keep her from talking and messing up the date anymore than she had. This was a disaster. A complete shambles. There was no way James would ask her out for a second date. At that moment, Mia resolved to make the best of what she had left.
Quietly, she ordered the steak, agonizing over the price once the waiter had left. She looked over at James, trying to put on her best smile. "You can share some of my steak too. Since you, um... are letting me try your chicken. Yeah."
==============================================
James was crestfallen as the cook came up to cook for them. He smiled as he stood behind the grill, turning it and a very loud fan on which started up the vent directly above the grill.
"Hello my friends, welcome to Tanuki!" The cook said in heavily accented English. "I get grill warmed up nice and ready for you...and for loving couples!" He said with a smile, pointing towards James/Mia and the other couple on the other side of the table, drawing a heart with the vegetable oil he was spreading on the grill. "Okay! Appetizer first!" He called, slapping down a long row of shrimp on the grill, where he proceeded to cut the tails off with his very sharp knife.
James watched happily, remembering the last time he had been to a hibachi place with his parents. He tried his best to put the disastrous events of the date behind him and try to recover his losses. He leaned over to Mia and whispered; "I really hope he does the volcano..that's so cool to see!" Just as James had finished whispering, the cook used a fork and his knife to grab one of the shrimp ends and waggle the tailed end at Mia like a puppet.
"Pretty lady! Any love for me pretty lady?" The cook said in a high-pitched voice, as if speaking for the shrimp. Laughing, the cook cut the shrimp into pieces and shoved it to the side while he spread a massive mountain of rice and vegetables on another part of the grill. After some culinary magic, each person had a small helping of cooked shrimp on their plates and the cook continued to entertain by putting the chopped up shrimp tails on his spatula and tossing them into his hat with a grand flourish.
James smiled at the display and gingerly tasted his shrimp. They were really good! Bright-eyed, James turned to look over to Mia to see how she was enjoying this part of the evening at least.
==============================================
Mia giggled at the cook's antics, covering her mouth politely. She'd never been to a place like this before, but had heard it was an experience worth having. And so far, it hadn't disappointed. She kept expecting him to drop his knife or a piece of shrimp. Mia began to suspect he was a meta of some kind. Just when it looked like he was going to drop an egg, he turned his spatula sideways and cracked it open mid-drop. In spite of the cloud over her head, Mia grinned and clapped excitedly. This was actually kind of fun!
She smiled over at James , tucking her hair behind her ear. He seemed to really be enjoying himself. At least there was that. Seeing his smile only served to brighten her own. "The volcano? What's that?"
==============================================
"Okay!" The cook started suddenly, interrupting James as he was about to tell Mia all about the volcano. He took his spatula and started to take the rings off of a flat slab of onion, using the concentric rings to build up a small little mountain on top of its larger rings until it was a large conical shape with a small opening at the top. "Volcano time!" He called, pouring vegetable oil and water down the tiny hole. James grinned like a kid and gripped at Mia's hand, pointing towards the volcano as the cook built it.
James, being infinitely smoother when he wasn't thinking about anything, slid up closer to Mia to watch the volcano and Mia's reaction as best he could at the same time. The cook smiled and took a small lighter, clicking it on and wafting the flame over the onion-tower which erupted in a gout of flame as the oil and water evaporated, funneled out of the top. "Uwwaah! Volcano!" The cook cried with a grin, using his spatula to move the volcano about the top of the grill as the little fire tower moved along with it. James loved this part.
It was then that the one in a thousand chance event happened, where some draft of wind caught the flame from the volcano and sent up screaming towards the cook's sleeve...where it promptly caught on fire.
James...did not quite love this part.
===============================================
Mia jumped up from the table, knocking her chair back. This was most definitely not part of the show. Time slowed down amid the chaos. The cook looked at his sleeve for a moment, as if he didn't believe it was actually there. The woman next to Mia screamed and covered her daughter's eyes. Mia froze in place, unsure what to do next. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw James stand from his seat, just as shocked as she was.
===============================================
James stood, eyes wide at the fire that leaped for joy along the cook's sleeve and instantly took his glass of water and tossed it on the arm of the cook, which put out the fire, for the most part, but also splashed over the grill, causing gouts of steam to rise from the hot surface, blinding and searing those close to the cloud. The cook, in his frantic distress, hit the emergency extinguisher lever under the grill,which caused the piping system above the dining party to go off, spraying the table and all of its guests with white powder.
When the dust settled, it looked like someone had set a bag of flour to explode on the dinner guests and cook while sprinkling in a mixture of soot here and there.
Quickly, the manager came out and profusely apologized, bowing low to all of them and offering a free refund and a complementary meal. James sat on his chair demurely, looking down sadly. This date was a disaster! Mia was sure to hate him after this and never want to go on another date with him again. His exhale sent a puff of white powder dancing through the air as he looked over towards Mia, eyes a mixture of despair and worry.
================================================
Half an hour later, Mia stood outside her dorm room, a take out box in her hand. Although she had tried her best to wipe off the powder, she still showed signs of the night's disaster. Her dress, once bright blue, now looked much lighter. The creases of her face still held some of the white powder in them. Her black purse was practically silver.
She looked over at James, seeing him in much the same state. Even his hair looked closer to her silver than his natural brown. Neither of them had said much on the train ride home, and Mia had nervously clung to her box of food, afraid to try to hold his hand again. Instead she stared at her hands and idly brushed powder off her skirt from time to time. If James had wanted to hold her hand, he would have taken it. Right?
The entire night was ruined. This wasn't what a first date was supposed to be like. It was supposed to be perfect. All laughter and magic. Instead, she had given James awkwardness and chaos. Okay, she wasn't responsible for the chaos. That was just the icing on the cake.
Collecting her thoughts, Mia cleared her throat. "Um... thanks for th-the food. I'm sure it's you know... really good. I mean, the shrimp was good! Before it got sprayed. So why wouldn't the rest be good, you know? And I'm really sorry everything didn't go right. Just, um... chalk it up to a learning experience, right?"
=================================================
James was running the rest of the night on a detached autopilot. The night was in shambles, and the chaos was sure to cement him into the "undateable" category for Mia. It was like he was a zombie, walking back mindless and hollow with Mia tagging along next to him like some sort of Zombie-Buddy. Zomb-dy? Budbie? Zoddy. Yeah, that worked. Zoddy.
He stood outside of her door with his gaze on the ground. The powder was still on them, which made his hair match Mia's at least. So he had that going for him. Oh who was he kidding? There was no silver lining to this night....just a silver hairdo.
"Mia..." He started, leaning against the wall and inspecting his feet demurely, "I'm sorry...that this night went all crazy...There were so many things going on, and with everything that happened and I tried to see what would be the best place to take you and it didn't turn out anything like it should have...."
James stopped and took a deep breath before tentatively looking up to her. 'I wanted to impress you...take you someplace nice...Show that....you know...I'm not just a joker all the time...and I...I really wanted you to have a good night and have a good dinner....but I gave you probably the worst night of your life....and I'm sorry...."
He closed his eyes and leaned back against he wall, his head thumping the dry-wall with a hollow thud. "And now you'll never say yes to a second date..."
=================================================
Mia looked up at him, a little shocked. "O-of course I would say yes. To a another date, that is. I mean, if you really want to ask. Not that you have to! And I'll understand if you don't want to." She realized she was babbling again and quickly bit her lip, trying to quiet herself. Who was she kidding? He wasn't going to ask her out on another date. Who wants to date the nervous girl who spazzes out every half hour? At least? She just had to resign herself to the fact that the one shot she had with James was over and done.
=================================================
He looked over towards Mia and took a moment to take in how she looked. Her eyes were wide, if a little frantic...but who could blame her after a night like tonight? Her silver hair almost shone in the light of the dorms and her lower lip quivered cutely. In his own little world, James saw her, and just took a moment to appreciate probably the last time that he would ever get to look on her-
Wait, did she say yes?
Now it was James' turn to look shocked. He was certain that he had done everything wrong on this date and that she'd totally hate him afterwards. But...she'd say yes to another date? He had another shot?! Relief and exhilaration raced through his veins almost as fast as the icy-chill of adrenaline did.
"You....you would?! I mean....That's....that's great! Um...I'm so totally going to make up for this disaster! It'll be a great date and I'm going to make sure everything goes right this time! And I'm going to find a really impress...." James trailed off at the end, thinking. "Um...do you...um...I think it might be better if we did something small...with less chance of fire..." He laughed nervously as the blush lit his face nearly as red as his shirt used to be. "So um....I'll uh...I'll um...give you the details later? How does...Saturday? Yeah....Saturday. How does Saturday sound?"
==================================================
A bright smile spread across Mia's face. "Of course I'd like to! Saturday sounds great! Saturday sounds awesome. Wow."
This was great! This was perfect! Another chance to not mess up things with him. Just one week to work out the details and talk to her friends about what she had done wrong on this date and...
In her nervous joy, Mia opened the door to her room and stepped inside. Lost in her own happy thoughts she set her food down on her desk, smiling. It wasn't until that point that she realized she had left James in the hall. Quickly turning back to the door she opened it to find an empty hallway. Her smile faded just as quickly as it had come, her mood sinking just as quickly. Closing the door again, she leaned her forehead against it, frowning.
"Sweet dreams, James."
==================================================
Fin.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests