Jacob never would have thought that he’d ever end up going on a date with Maria. Like ever. Jacob had known her since they were children, after all, their parents had grown up together. When he was younger, he had thought that Maria would probably get married to some famous actor. When he had been older though, that had changed. Instead he saw her going out with some weight lifter in a tank top, or a male model (or maybe both). But going on a date with shy and awkward Jacob – the little boy she used to tease and pick on. Certainly not. He had never been attracted to the popular type either. Usually he found himself attracted to introverted girls, who were a little bit geeky, and kind and gentle. He definitely thought Maria had a kind heart, but she was a chatterbox, straightforward, and she could be fiery at times. Definitely not the sort of girl he as used to dating.
But here he was. Doing his hair. Shaving his beard. Puffing a spray of cologne over his shirt. Brushing his teeth. Parting his hair again. And puffing a second spray of cologne on his neck. All to make a good impression. The truth was – he was so nervous because it had been two years since he had dated anyone. The more he thought about it, the more he realised there were definitely positives to dating Maria. After all, he knew her; he knew what he was getting into. And her parents would definitely approve of him (considering some of the other jerks she’d dated, the bar wasn’t very high), and they were both ethnically the same; which meant they both understood each other’s culture.
And yet, for some reason he was still thinking about the girl he’d met in the lift. Penellope. He had to berate himself every time he did though, telling himself it was silly to keep thinking about someone he’d met for five minutes three weeks ago. Even if she had left him her book.
It usually took him twenty minutes to get ready for work. He could do it quicker if he was running late. His personal record from bed to door was five minutes - however today he spent almost an hour getting ready. When he was done, though, he was quite chuffed with how neat and tidy he looked. He wore a red collared shirt, blue Uniqulo jeans and red connies. He strapped on his Garmin Forerunner 45, and checked his hair in the mirror one more time. Just as he was about to leave, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He whipped it out. One new message: from Chloe.
‘Can’t believe you actually did it. Good luck today buddy.
P.S
She hates flowers. Don’t talk about books or running. She likes tennis and travelling.
And in case you’re wondering how she found out; we’re better friends than you think.
P.P.S
I’m expecting a full rundown on Sunday.’
Of course those girls were going around gossiping to each other.
Jacob arrived at the café half an hour early. He began wandering up and down the street hoping to walk off his nerves. Jacob looked at his watch. 2:40pm. Still another twenty minutes. He did another lap of the block. 2:43pm. Jacob wandered up and down the sidewalk trying to kill some time. He found an old book shop where he spent ten minutes browsing titles, then stopped at a pub to use the toilet. He returned to the Little Red Rose café at 2:55pm feeling like he was going to throw up. He decided to get a table and wait out the last five minutes. Or so he thought. It turned out he had to wait another fifteen minutes, because Maria was ten minutes late. But to be honest he was kind of glad; it helped him swallow his nerves.
He got a message from her at 3:08pm.
Just a few minutes away.
Cool. Got us a table out the front.
He began to watch the people strolling up and down the streets, his jaw dropped when Maria rounded the corner and came into view. If he’d thought Maria had been pretty before, well it wasn’t really anything compared to how she looked now. He would have liked to say that she stood out from the people around her like a sore thumb, but that would have been a really poor simile, because in reality she stood out more like an angel.
Maria wore a blue dress that flowed behind her elegantly. Her hair had been straightened, but somehow she had gotten it to curl down at the ends. Her nails were long and red. Her cheeks were smooth, and her lashes dark. On top of it all, to complement everything else, was her natural mediterranean coloured skin, her brunette hair and sea blue eyes.
‘Hey cutie,’ she teased as she approached him. He never knew how to react when she had greeted him like that in the past. Jacob used to think she had always done it to make him feel awkward, because it really did make him feel awkward. But now he was wondering if she might have actually meant it. Jacob blushed.
‘Hi…’ Jacob muttered quietly.
Maria bent down and kissed him on the cheek. Again, another of her usual greetings. But that kind of thing was actually quite normal in Southern Europe, and so it didn’t quite make him squirm as much. He pecked her on the cheek in return, then she took a seat on the opposite side of the table.
‘Umm, what do you want to drink…or… you know, eat or whatever?’ Jacob asked as he stood up from his chair.
‘Jacob! Are you offering to pay?’
Jacob scratched the back of his head.
‘Aren’t we on like a …’ Jacob had to choke the next word up. Not because he despised the idea, more because he was so nervous about saying it aloud. ‘Like a…date? I thought that’s what guys were… you know… supposed to do?’
‘We do live in the year twenty-twenty-three. So you don’t really have to!’
‘Umm, no, I want to. What would you like?’
‘You’re such a gentleman. If you’re insisting, then I’ll have soy latte, with a dash of honey. Thanks!’ Maria smiled brightly.
***
‘Two soy lattes please. Umm, one with a bit of honey.’
The young teenager behind the counter nodded and began juggling cups, and frothing milk as well as fiddling with the coffee grinder all at the same time. Sometimes Jacob wondered if the baristas did all that to put on a show, or if it really did save time. Either way, Jacob paid, returned to his seat and the coffees were put down in front of them two minutes later. Jacob sipped from the cup as he looked across the table at Maria who beamed at him, making him feel even more giddy.
‘So tell me about umm…travelling…and stuff?’ Jacob asked after a long sip of coffee.
Maria looked at him sideways.
‘Jacob, you’ve known me for more than twenty years and I don’t think you’ve ever asked me about travelling.’
‘Well did I ever need to? You used to tell me about it weather I liked it or not, didn’t you?’
Maria chuckled.
‘We’re on a date but we don’t need to be weird about things. I’m still me and you’re still you. Nothing has changed; you know that right!’
‘I’ve never dated a girl who I’ve been good friends with. It’s always just one or two conversations and then things happen.’
‘Life isn’t Shakespeare Jacob. You don’t always see a girl across the room at a Capulet ball and fall in love instantly. Usually it happens over time!’
‘Ahh, so you have read a book before,’ Jacob teased. He suddenly felt his nervousness wash away.
‘And you consider me to be a good friend!’ Maria teased back, ‘if you want to know the truth – I HAS to study it in High School. But in reality, I just read a summary online and paid my older boyfriend to write my essays for me. It was easy for him because he was a year above me.’
‘You paid your boyfriend…?’
‘Yes. But I only paid him in kisses. I couldn’t afford anything else.’
Jacob grinned.
‘I kinda feel like you’ve told me about this before…’
Maria looked upward.
‘Oh…have I?’
Jacob laughed and took another mouthful of coffee.
‘Please. Tell me about your trip,’ Jacob said, eager to change the subject, ‘you were away for a few months earlier on in the year, weren’t you?’
Maria grinned suspiciously.
‘You really want to know about it?’
‘Yeah,’ Jacob replied, ‘I do.’
‘We went to Bali. It was okay but it was mostly just Australian tourists and locals who thrived off them. By the end of it I was sick of hearing ‘taxi, taxi do you need a taxi’ or ‘I’ll give you this t-shirt for a good price. Common, a good price just for you!’ Maria pretended to throw up, showing how much she disliked the whole experience, ‘Chloe was supposed to come with us actually,’ Maria continued, ‘but she got sick at the last minute and couldn’t make it. Shame. Overall it wasn’t too bad. But last year we went to Europe… oh, I’ve already told you about that, haven’t I?’
‘It’s fine. Tell me again.’
‘Okay then! We flew to the UK, and then we went to France, and Spain, then Italy – and of course we visited Malta. The UK was lovely. There’s a lot of history in London. We went to see Big Ben, and, oh, wait.’
Maria pulled her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it, placed it in front of the both of them, and began scrolling through photos.
‘This is Big Ben! And this is my friend Amy, and Jen. Oh and that’s Jordan, with the brown hair. And Oli. This is us in front of the Thames. Leo can be such an idiot; that’s him with the blue eyes and long hair, pulling a really stupid face. He’s actually really good friends with Chloe – that’s how we know him. I used to date his cousin. His cousin was a nice guy, but he had a gambling addiction. Oh, I’m so sorry, you probably don’t want to know about my ex-boyfriends. Anyway - this is us in front of the Colosseum. Look at that pasta. Sorry, I couldn’t help taking a picture of that. And then this is us in Malta. That’s my Zia Katrina and my Zio Joe. This pastizzi place is sooooo good. And this place here is called Forn Ta L’Ghawdxi, it’s like this Gozonian restaurant; with pizza and all sorts. You’d love it Jacob! You really would. This here is the church in Marsa. You know that’s where your grandparents got married, right?’
Jacob’s eyes widened. Maria was speaking so fast that it really was hard to keep up with her. But that last part had struck him quite clearly. He looked closer at the picture. It was a grand structure, made of white limestone. It had large pillars and paned windows, with bells at the top.
‘Anyway,’ Maria continued, ‘this is us swimming in Camino, and oh – this is the Eiffel tower. My goodness the view was stunning. It was a hard climb though!’
Maria spoke for a while. Jacob was content to sit and listen. He actually preferred it that way. He found it hard to make conversations, especially in these kinds of situations. Usually, when he went on a first date, he wrote a bunch of questions down on his arm. What sort of things do you do in your spare time? Where are you from? What’s your favourite book? That sort of thing. It was just in case he got stuck for conversation. And he wrote it in French. Because that was his second language, and if the girl he was with ever asked what it was (which they did from time to time), he could just say that it was some boring stuff about work. Plus he always sounded smart when girls found out that he could speak French.
But it had seemed pointless to do this with Maria. He had known her for long enough that he could probably answer all those questions already. In her spare time she listened to music, and watched trashy TV shows. She was from Melbourne. And of course Maria didn’t read. Neither did he need to flex by telling her that he could speak French; she already knew.
And so he was happy to let Maria take the lead when it came to conversation.
Before too long they’d both finished their coffees. Maria continued to talk just as vigorously and Jacob continued to listen. Eventually Jacob asked her if she wanted to go for a walk – and soon Jacob found that the minutes were passing by rather quickly.
A few hours later they found themselves wandering down the streets of St Kilda, and then barefoot along the beach, with the vast blue ocean in front of them and the sun beginning to set. The light glistened a beautiful orange upon the gentle waves of the sea, and a few people began to turn and look at the horizon with awe.
‘Dolphins,’ Jacob whispered.
Maria looked around. Sure enough, there they were. Several of them jumping silhouetted in front of the setting sun. Maria leant against Jacob’s shoulder. Suddenly Jacob felt Maria’s hands brush against his, and then she clasped her hand around his. Jacob didn’t protest. A cool tranquil breeze blew through and rustled their hair as the two of them watched the dolphins, and the setting sun, and the people of the city pass them by. Jacob hadn’t really noticed, but he had suddenly forgotten all about Penellope.
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