He couldn’t keep his mind off her regardless of what he did. Every second of the day, he wished to hear her voice and report every single thing to her, awaiting her adorable reactions. He would report on how Joe played with his toys, and she would say, “Aw!” with music in her voice. He would lie on the couch during the afternoon with his phone right by his ear and rant endlessly about the history of his family, giving her a crash course on all the cousins that lived overseas.

“Ok, so this might sound weird, but all my cousins are named after like… nature stuff. I don’t know why, but my father’s side is just filled with nature names. Even my Dad, his name is Ash so you know, you get it.”

“Mhm!” The dream girl replied. A voice echoed suspicion.

“So my father’s side, crazy, his sister, well I call her Aunty Flower, her name is Florence, see there it is again, Florence, flower… anyway- off topic- she has four kids! Four!”

“Wow, crazy.”

As the two spoke, Sam began typing an email to one of the four cousins, the only one he bonded closely with. The two kept in contact with the occasional email, celebrating any achievements in their lives and grieving over any losses. His cousin shared several photos of his brand new top-of-the-line PC, fully custom built by his own hands, and he teasingly asked Sam if Sam even knew what a custom-built PC was.

Sam in turn then shared about his romantic success with Honey, teasing back to ask if the cousin knew what a girlfriend was. The cousin replied yes, showing photos of him and his girlfriend on a dinner date, advising him to do the same.

“Once you go on a date with the girl, you know she’s legit.” He responded.

He emailed his cousin until the boy’s curfew had been reached, and then resumed talking to Honey until his eyes collapsed under its own weight. Carelessly forgetting to set his alarm, Joe had to wake him up by doing a cannonball dive on his stomach. The feeling of his intestines dislocating jolted him out of his wedding day with her.

He tried announcing the good news in the morning as soon as everyone gathered at the breakfast table, starting with the half-awoke Joe, who paid no attention to him.

“Joe! I’m dating Honey now! She likes me too!” He smiled. Joe didn’t respond, eating a slice of toast with a deadpan expression.

He turned to his mother, also eating toast but with strawberry jam. “Mom, I-”

“Joe, put some strawberry jam on your toast, isn’t it dry to eat it plain? Sam, help him.”

“No, mom, he likes it plain.”

“Ok.”

“Anyway, Mom, I’m-”

“Whose bike you wanna ride on today Joe? Mine or Dad’s?”

Joe pointed to her.

He gave up, turning to the remaining person on the table, body obscured by newspaper. He already finished the toast, now slowly sipping coffee as he waited for everyone else.

“Dad.”

The man did not respond, murmuring something business-y to himself.

“Dad!”

The wall lifted. “Yes Sam?”

“I’m dating Honey now!” He clapped his hands.

“Who?”

“The girl I like… from my club… you know… the pink hair, and the skirt…”

“Oh, oh, that girl. The pretty one. What about her?”

“We’re dating now.”

“Wow! Congratulations.”

Finally, someone heard of his achievement, or so he thought. “I was wondering… could I have some extra pocket money… so I can like… have a date?”

“A date?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna ask her out for dinner today.”

“Who?”

“Honey.”

The man raised an eyebrow, and Sam sighed. “Forget it.” He said, finishing the last bite of his toast. He went to collect Joe’s school shoes, and helped tie the laces together.

After club sessions, the girl would hop on the passenger seat and embrace him, and the two rode off to pick up Joe. Then, she stayed in his house to work on her project. So far, they were still working on the script, struggling with a narrative inconsistency. Mid-discussion, Sam floated the idea of the aforementioned dinner date.

“So… my dad gave me some extra pocket money today…” He didn’t. “And I’m just wondering, you know the western restaurant near your place? Right beside the bowling alley? What was it called again? Something-fish bar? Anyway… um- you wanna go there to eat… I mean I heard the pasta is like super good, but like- you know…up to you and stuff.”

“Aw! That’s great Sam! So, what if…” She raised her leg a little, stretching it out on top of his. “The character runs from her room…” She pointed to her left, “Out to the front-yard, and then continued down the street. That way, later when we film that final scene at my place it makes sense, since she could be running towards there, you know?”

“I mean yeah, that works. We could like buy the sharing platter for two, and then just share it… or like separate dishes is better, you think? You wanna have the dinner today? Or…”

“How about tomorrow night instead?” She smiled from ear to ear.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, that works. You wanna lie down? You look a little tired.”

“Aw! How’d you know?”

After her cab arrived, he got to work planning his first date. He spent an hour searching for online resources, eyes glued to the screen like a laser pointer. This has to be perfect. Joe sat beside him, trying his best to help. “Joe, do you like Honey?”

“No, you like Honey!”

“No, I mean as in, do you like it when she comes to our house? Do you like spending time with her?”

He nodded. “She played zombies with me!”

His heart melted at the sight of Honey playing with Joe. Could she get any more perfect for him? He needed to give her something she wanted or needed in her life. His notebook laid on his lap, with pen in mouth as his gears turned. Perhaps he could buy her a dress, but that was outside of his budget. He could enlist his cousin for funding, but that would take a week to arrive which seemed too long for him; he asked anyway, just in case. His cousin held no reservations sending him a hundred dollars upon request, as if to spare some change to the beggar down the street or to tip the waiter a few cents more for excellent customer service; but he still felt bad asking for it every time. With much on his mind, he began jotting his ideas down on a fresh page, and wrote ‘Honey’ in big bold letters as the title.

**

Tomorrow night was a no-go apparently, seeing that the girl had a shift, and after an arduous rush hour, she sounded too exhausted for dinner. A familiar disappointment overcame him tomorrow, and the voice at the back of his head returned.

They finally received a fourth member after Sam berated Sonia for turning her down initially, which helped speed up production by a miracle’s worth. He made some more changes to the script, compromising on the narrative in spite of Sonia’s complaints, and revised the schedule on his notebook. And for the first time ever, it was in the realm of possibility that they could submit the film on time.

As he packed up his camera, he saw Honey leave prematurely under Sonia’s command, and before he could confront her, she towered over him with arms crossed. What now? His heart began racing as he turned to face the beast. Did his streak of luck end? There were only 3 days left before submission, and all that remained was post-production work and the possibility of reshooting. The stars were aligned for success, and Sonia was gonna derail all of it.

“What?” He raised his guard up, preparing himself for a showdown.

“You two are dating now?”

“Yeah, and?”

“Break up with her.”

He rolled his eyes, ignoring her.

“I’m not gonna say it again, break up with her.”

“What is wrong with you? Like- seriously? All you do is tear people down and ruin things. Like… what is all this supposed to accomplish? Do you just love watching the world burn?”

“This isn’t about me!”

“Ugh.”

“I’m not letting you hurt her.”

“And what makes you think I’ll hurt her?”

“You don’t even know anything about her.”

“Says the one who can’t appreciate her acting. Oh my god, you know what? I honestly can’t take your-” He motioned to her body. “I honestly can’t take you anymore!” He exclaimed. “If you still want to stay in this club after we submit ‘Singing Doll’-” He raised his voice. “Then shut up! Or learn to say something nice, or even neutral. Can you do that? Say a sentence, no, a word, that isn’t just-” He scoffed, finding no patience to finish his sentence.

“You mess with her, you mess with me.”

“I regret ever meeting you. I just- you know what… no. Enough. You’re out of the club, right here, right now, you’re done. Don’t bother coming here tomorrow.”

For the first time, the girl seemed rattled. “Seriously? You’re gonna fire your only editor because you’re being petty?”

“I’ll simply teach Erin how to edit and replace you. You did most of the work already anyway.” Sam now towered over her, flipping the tables in one move. “I don’t want anyone dragging me down, and I sure as hell don’t want any freeloaders snatching up a fourth of my prize money!”

**

He left without saying another word, trying his best to erase the encounter off his mind as he cycled to pick Joe up. Honey agreed to come over after a quick phone call, and the two resumed filming her project in his house.

The two shared a romantic moment where they watched footage on playback with their faces in close vicinity. His chest began wrestling to escape his body. He brought up the dinner date again, feeling uneasy without the seal of legitimacy his cousin spoke of.

“Hey, so, you wanna have that dinner date tonight? You don’t have a shift.”

“Hm?”

“Like, the both of us, having dinner together, by the restaurant near your place.”

“Oh! Sorry, I can’t. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Why not? You don’t have a shift today.”

“I know, but by the time we finish planning, I’ll be completely wiped out.”

“Then we can take a break for today. It’s unhealthy for you to eat dinner so late everyday anyway.”

“But I really have to get this project done Sam. I mean, there’s still post-production, and the teacher said something about having to add transition effects and I have no clue what that is… I don’t know if I’ll be able to submit on time if we take our own sweet time, and if I don’t submit it then I’ll-”

“Ok-ok-ok… you’re spiralling again. Just… take a deep breath.” The two took a deep breath together. “I’ll go get you a cup of water, okay? Don’t worry about it, everything will be fine. Here… look-” He pulled out his notebook, “Based on your submission time, we have months to work on this, and with the script we have, we can complete it all well within a month, which leaves ample time for any changes and reshoots, and definitely time for you to take it easy… and have dinner with me tonight.” He laid the book on the floor, hoping this would convince her.

“Aw, thanks Sam!”

He nodded and left to the kitchen, and as the water sloshed about in the cup, Sonia’s words echoed in the back of his mind, and he wondered how else can he prove himself to her. The cup overflows with water, waking him up from his daydreams of their dinner date.

“So?” He returned. “Can we have dinner sometime this week? You have all the time in the world to finish this project.”

Honey paused for a moment. “Ok… you sure we can finish in time? I still have to do it on my own to make sure you aren’t cheating.”

“Yes. Definitely!”

“Ok, fine, then we can do it on…” She counted numbers in her head. “Friday!”

“Perfect!”

“Mhm.”