Story Hour: Part III

By this time the oppressive heaviness of the air had escalated to the point where one could just make out brief flashes of lightning in the distance. H__ didn't seem inclined to move, besides our position wasn't really in any danger of getting ourselves wet, so there we stayed, two slouched figures on those oh-so-fashionable little chairs. H__ was still puffing away, and I was already halfway through my second coffee of the night.

"So anyway. I called her, made a really horrible apology, and insisted that I take her out the following weekend. She agreed, which made me feel better, and I even let her choose the place for us to meet. I thought I'd made a good show of it, and when I turned up at the G__ that night I was pretty much confident I had control over everything."

H__ suddenly seemed jittery at this point, as if talking about it was something he didn't particularly relish.

"When she showed up, I was very relaxed. There weren't that many people, and over dinner we started talking. You know, the usual stuff, and catching up on things we didn't really get to talk about the first time. What struck me at first was that for someone who'd supposedly spent a lot of time abroad, she was still very much traditional. I'm no angel, and I think a lot of people would agree, and I told her so. I didn't expect her to agree with a lot of the things I'd done, but I also didn't expect her to react so strongly to them. Still, I guess I was just too much into save-my-own-ass-apologetic mode to realise. Man, thinking back about it, she had some really strong opinions."

I asked him to give me an example of these so-called opinions. He looked a little taken aback, and continued:

"For one thing, she insisted that I was living this whole westernised idea of life, and that it was very wrong. She made it sound like I'd been living a life of debauchery, and when I told her what some of my friends got up to, she positively freaked! I mean, sure I've fooled around while I was over there, but she gave me the impression that she never did, and got really high and mighty about it to me. Normally I'd have at least defended myself, but you know what? I couldn't make up my mind, because all the signals she was giving me the whole night pointed to her being at least a little attracted, but the way she talks, man, it's like there's a whole different person in there."

"So did you sleep with her that night?" I didn't really have time to be sidestepping.

H_ laughed. "You know, I think could have, if I could actually have seen a chance. The problem was she was being all coy and all that, telling me stories of her previous flings with guys all over the globe and flashing me a little cleavage every now and then but at the same time projecting this serious vestal virgin vibe that I couldn't really dig. It's like I can feel there's some sexual tension, but either she's too naive to use it or she's actually got me fooled, and I don't get fooled easy."

It was my turn to laugh. "Pardon me, dude, but I don't think it's strange for her to flirt, you know."

"Honestly, the whole coy/hard to get bit I could take, as with her strong stance on marriage and what not (all the while I was thinking, man a virgin in KL? my mum would love her) but it was what happened after that that should have rung those alarm bells."

"Some time after dinner, she began to ask me about some other people I knew who were at the party where I first met her. Most of these people were friends I'd picked up in the last couple years, so it's fair to say I know quite a bit on their private lives. Strange thing was, she got to asking some questions I knew my mates wouldn't be happy with me disclosing, so I kinda skirted the issue. She DID seem kind of pushy at the moment, but I guess something must have gotten through because she changed the topic."

"In hindsight, all through that first date she asked me a whole lot of questions about people, some of them I have no idea how she knew about in the first place. I'm mostly a keep to myself sort when it comes to stuff (God knows my parents would kill me if they found out) so when someone I barely know comes up to me asks questions about these things, I'm like..uh-oh, you know?"

I could only nod at this, having some secrets of my own I don't wish my parents would find out.

"So the date thing ended, I walked her back to her car, and I drove home. On the way my cousin called, and I gave her the short rundown of the whole thing. I did ask her where she knows K__ from, and it turned out she doesn't even really know the girl, they just have mutual friends. My cousin DID mention that she was a bit on the nosey side, but she attributed it to K__ being curious."

"I thought everything was settled. There wasn't much of an attraction in the first place, and I conveniently put everything out of my mind. There was work, and all that. I had no idea though just what I'd gotten myself into until the next day.."

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Part Three ends here. For the gentle reader, perhaps an aperitif would be suitable to soothe the frayed nerves from having to wait for the next continuation of this ultimately embarassing saga. Stay tuned, and renew your RSS feeds!

to be continued...