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Although I thought about her all afternoon, I also thought about the other women I dated in the past. Or tried to remember them. Hmmm. Here I was in my thirties, and I had never dated one woman more than two times.
I didn't know why that was so. But there it was. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t remember any of them.
This was probably the first time that I caught myself watching the clock. My family and my staff always accused me of having no sense of time. True, mostly, and that’s why I decided to set a couple of alarms on my cell for myself. I also called Fielding and asked her to roust me out at 4:15.
Reinforcements couldn’t hurt.
In front of The Baker’s Dozen & More as promised, I waited for Samantha to lock the front door of the shop.
Her thick hair, as it turned out, was bright auburn, and very long. She still wore it in the smooth thick French braid down her back I’d seen this morning. Nice!
I'd already booked a car and it was waiting in front. I passed her into the back seat and the driver took us to the address I'd already given her.
On the way, Samantha asked, “Are you able to drop me back home after dinner?”
I nodded, “Even if you live on the other side of the country! I’ll make sure you’re home safe and sound!”
We had a quiet, sort of isolated table in the upscale Thai restaurant that I had already eaten at two times.
While I had taken women on first dates to restaurants many times in the past, I found that I was nervous this time.
I put all of my attention on getting her comfortable and chatting. I remembered the conversational trilogy: Leisure, Travel, Work.
“I see how hard you work. How do you have any time for hobbies or outings in the city here?”
She jumped right in. “I grew up in this city. I used to love rollerblading in the park, but I don't have time for that anymore! And I can't remember the last time I went to the movies. I kind of miss that.”
Perfect opening! I asked, “Ah, a movie lover. What kind do you like best?”
So while we were waiting for our first course, we sipped on hot Jasmine tea and talked cinema, and then more about rollerblading.
She made me laugh and laugh about that. “I was so unsteady on regular roller skates before even trying rollerblades that I geared up with rainbow-colored knee pads, elbow pads, and a helmet. I think just all of that gear made me more unsteady than the skates themselves! You should have seen the drivers stare at me as I tottered across my first intersection to get to the park. But that was years ago. I was still in school.”
I then asked her about her schooling. The city's finest culinary institute?! I don't know why that surprised me.
I said, “It never occurred to me that a baker went to a culinary school but it makes sense. What did you study exactly?”
She got enthusiastic, “Oh, not just putting ingredients from a set recipe together, but there was that, of course. The big deal was food science. The chemistry of food and cooking it. How ingredients interact with each other, which is how recipes get created, right? I love creating new recipes or improving on old classics. Then, for commercial operations, there were classes on sanitation and the hygiene of food storage. Like that. All science-based.”
Samantha’s musical voice mesmerized me. Her face lit up every time she spoke. But I wondered. Was she treating this like a first date? Or a business dinner with a regular client? Hmmm.
I didn’t care! I was basking in her company. She was smart. She was oh-so-beautiful. She didn’t seem to have any expectations beyond a great meal and good conversation.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Then she asked me, “What did you study?”
She got wide-eyed at my answer, “Oh, physics and math and engineering.”
Peering at me from under her eyelashes as she ate, “Science, hmmm. But not the ones I studied. Do you use all that in your work? … Oh! Mmm. I guess I don’t know what you do actually! Well, except for repairing deep fryers.”
When I said, “I’m an inventor,” she got all wide-eyed again, and smiled her sparkling smile.
“Like me, then? Ah, maybe not.” She laughed. “Yeah, maybe not. I ‘invent’ only recipes, I’m afraid. No connection to physics or engineering! Would I know what any of your inventions are?”
I just smiled at her, “Mmm, I have no idea! Some are for the government.”
She made me laugh as she drew a zipper across her luscious lips, “Mum’s the word. I never heard you say that!” Her giggle was like magical harp music. And those lips. I wanted to … Well, no. I was behaving.
