The ride to the restaurant was awkward. It was obvious both of us did not know what to say. The only question I asked him was where we were going to and he said it was a surprise. I stayed silent after that. Fortunately, it was not a long ride and there was not a lot of traffic. My mind started wondering and I asked myself where the traffic he had talked about was.

I shook my head to get rid of the question. Because there was no traffic here didn't mean there was no traffic on some other road. I wanted this date to work and thinking negative thoughts just at the beginning was a sure sign of doom.

I was woken from my reverie by Fabian opening the car door for me. I smiled at him and got down, looking at the entrance of the restaurant in front of us. It was classy alright. Even more classy than Coup de Blues and that was saying something.

"This way," he said then led me to the door. We got in and saw a smiling hostess.

"Hello and welcome to Tempest. Any reservation?" she asked and Fabian nodded next to me

"Under Phillips," he said. She nodded, looked through her computer, then led us to a table that was almost secluded from the rest of the hall.

After saying the appropriate stuff, we settled in our seats. We looked at each other and smiled. For the first time that evening, there was no awkwardness.

"So..." we said at that the same time then burst out laughing. It was a sure awkwardness killer. The conversation made more sense after that.

"So you grew up here?" I asked. We had passed our orders and were waiting on the waiter to bring them.

"Yup," he answered, "Born and bred. Though I left for college"

"What did you do in college?" I continued. I was genuinely interested in him and though we had gone off on a bad note, I hoped our relationship– whatever this was– was going to get better.

"I was actually undecided for some time," he said making me widen my eyes.

"No way!" I exclaimed, laughing. "Mr. Self-Assured, undecided?"

"Hey, don't laugh at me," he said, mock offended. I continued laughing, then picked up a bread stick and pointed it at him.

"I'm never going to let you live this down"

"Did you go to college?" He asked, when the laughter and teasing had died down.

"Unfortunately, I didn't. I would have loved to though" I said wistfully, drawing random patterns on the tablecloth. "I took over my father's business as soon as I finished high school," I explained, noticing his curious look.

"Oh," he said. "What did he do?"

"We owned a bookshop. I was actually just going to have a bookshop here, but Ingrid –the girl you met– convinced me to open a café cause why not!"

"Are you sure there's nothing like a witch spell in your muffins?" Fabian asked teasingly and I laughed.

"Well, I might have chanted over the recipe..." trailing out.

"I knew it!" he exclaimed and I laughed. At that moment, the waiter came with our food and the conversation died down a little.

I looked around for a moment and marveled a bit at my life. I never expected to experience this and it took me to the times when I used to watch those couples showing each other affection and wish I was them.

Now I was sitting here with my mate –my second chance mate– something I had heard of but had never thought would happen to me.

"Hey, you there?" I shook her head and snapped out of it. I sent him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. I zoned out for a bit," I explained.

"You do that a lot"

"I do?" I widened my eyes n surprise. Me who had always thought I was so in touch with reality.

"You do. Its kind of adorable, honestly," he admitted making me blush lightly. As I opened my mouth to answer to his comment though, the waiter came with our orders. I smiled at him and watched as he put our food down. I had always though waiters were graceful, a trait I admired cause I was as clumsy as a new born filly.

I watched Fabian as he ate, forgetting to place bites into my mouth even. Call me weird but in my opinion, you could guess a lot about people by observing the way they ate. If they were messy or didn't just care.

"The food is not good?" Fabian asked, making me shake a little. I guess I do zone out a lot.

"Oh, it's great. Just thinking of which spell to chant while making a new batch of muffins," I teased.

He gasped dramatically making me giggle. "You don't plan on giving that up? You've already charmed me!"

"Oh, well you're not enough. I need more for the sacrifice," I whispered conspiratorially.

"So this is what it was? You charming me? All for a sacrifice?"

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," I replied, playing along.

"You wound me."

We burst out laughing attracting some attention from some people at nearby tables. I could get used to this. It was different.. having silly conversations with someone other than my dad.. bit because it was different didn't mean it was bad. On the contrary, tonight was the most fun I had ever had on a date in my whole life.

Soon enough, we were done eating. We decided to skip dessert because we were both stuffed. We split the bill with little to no argument and I smiled. Something liberating about paying part of your dinner bill, even if it was a romantic evening.

"Let's go?"

"Let's go"

***

"That was fun," I said to Fabian, looking down for a moment before meeting his eyes. We had decided to come straight home because it was already late and I had an early start to the day tomorrow. It was one of my rush days.

"It was"

"We should do that again"

"We should"

"Are you just going to affirm all my.. affirmations?"

"I'm nervous," Fabian admitted.

"I should record all this," I teased. "The almighty Fabian admitting he's nervous"

Fabian smiled. It was barely visible in the dark, but I managed to spot it.

"I– I'm really sorry about my past behavior and I promise I'll make it up to you," Fabian said, making me smile in surprise.

I had not expected Fabian to apologise but I appreciated it. I looked up at him and opened my mouth to say something but he beat me to it. I guess whatever I was going to say was not really important anyways.

"So I guess it's goodnight?" He asked and I nodded breathlessly.

I kinda wanted him to kiss me to know how it was going to feel but I kinda wanted to wait and build up the suspense. Besides with his recent behavior, he didn't deserve any "treat".

I contented myself with a small smile at him then I went into my living room. I closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a huge sigh of relief.

"So how did it go?" Ingrid asked making me open my eyes, startled.

"You scared me!"

"Details!"

"Fine fine," I said a huge smile forming on my face then proceeded to tell her everything that happened.

***

🤞🏾