Thirty-Nine
Thomas took Mary to a relatively low-key restaurant in Vista Del Mar, not that far from the Legion of Honor. The owners were a very sweet couple from west Malaysia who, already in their mid-fifties, had brought their expertise in cooking Malay and Pan-Asian street dishes to north San Francisco. The food was simple but incredibly tasty and just like Mary had wanted, quite light when it came to calories. Their selection of world wines was also very accomplished.
‘Would you like to choose the wine,’ Thomas said, undoing the top two buttons on his dress shirt, as he handed Mary the wine menu, which in truth was more like a wine booklet.
Mary took it and quickly scanned through it. The wines were grouped by countries, and the list was seriously extensive. She chuckled. ‘I think that this goes a little beyond my understanding of wines.’ She flipped through a couple more pages. ‘Umm… I’m open to suggestions here.’ Her eyebrows arched at Thomas. ‘Anything you can recommend?’
‘I’m sure we can find something. Let me see.’ He once again reached for the wine list. ‘OK, give me something to work with – red or white?’
‘Red.’
‘Alright, and would you prefer something a little lighter like aPinot Noir, or something a little more full-bodied, like a Malbec or Zinfandel?’
‘I actually love Zinfandels,’ Mary replied.
‘OK.’ Thomas smiled and flipped a couple of pages on the menu before pausing and angling his head slightly right. ‘Oh!’ There was no hiding the surprise in his voice.
‘Found something?’ Mary asked.
‘Yeah, I think so. Have you ever tried any Zinfandels from Russian River Valley?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Oh, then you’re in for a great surprise.’
They ordered their meals and a bottle of Williams Selyem Fanucchi Zinfandel.
‘Wow,’ Mary said, as she had her first sip of her wine, after allowing it to breathe for a couple of minutes. ‘This is very nice.’
Thomas breathed out relief before giving Mary a cheeky smile. ‘One of my favorite Californian wineries.’
‘Yeah, I can see why. Cheers.’
They touched glasses.
Mary and Thomas ate their meals, drank their wine, and chatted as if nothing had ever happened. Not once did Thomas mention the incident back at the Legion of Honor, which pleased Mary, but what had really surprised her was that throughout their entire evening, Thomas never asked her any of the typical questions that most men on a first date would ask. He never asked her about her past life, never asked her where she was from, or how come she’d ended up in San Francisco. He never even asked her what she did for a living, as if none of it really mattered to him. All they did was talk about art, wine, films and music, and laugh a great deal. Thomas turned out to be a great storyteller, always adding a touch of humor to just about everything.
‘Would you like to have a look at our dessert menu?’ the waiterasked, once Mary and Thomas had finished their meals. ‘We have some great Asian sweets.’
Thomas simply lifted his eyebrows at Mary.
‘Oh no, thank you.’ Mary shook her head, lifting her hand at the waiter. ‘I couldn’t eat another bite of anything.’ She nodded at her completely empty plate. ‘That prawn salad was absolutely delicious, but also incredibly filling.’
‘Same here,’ Thomas agreed, also lifting a hand at the waiter before indicating his plate. There wasn’t a scrap left on it. ‘I couldn’t eat another bite, but please send my compliments to the chef. Everything was simply delicious.’
‘Thank you, sir. My parents will be really pleased to hear that.’ The waiter put his hands together and gently bowed his head at Thomas before repeating the gesture at Mary. ‘Ma’am.’
As the waiter walked away with the empty dishes, Thomas divided the little that was left of the wine between Mary’s glass and his own.
‘We could order another bottle, if you like.’
‘Oh no!’ She gave him a subtle shake of the head as she checked her watch. ‘It’s Wednesday evening. I’ve got things that I’ve got to do tomorrow morning,’ she lied. ‘And another bottle would mean that at the end of the night, counting what we already had back at the Legion, we would’ve drunk more than a bottle of wine each… that rarely ends up well. I’m actually already feeling a little tipsy.’
Thomas agreed with a head gesture. ‘Yeah, you’re right. A second bottle would probably be too much alcohol for a Wednesday evening, and when that happens – mistakes usually follow.’
‘Um-hum.’ Mary nodded before finishing her wine and once again locking eyes with Thomas. This time, they both held each other’s stare for several seconds longer than any of the previous times. Mary was trying hard to read Thomas’ intentions. She’dread an article in a women’s magazine a few months back about body language and facial micro-expressions – what they could actually mean (from a romantic standpoint), and how to read and interpret them. It was a long article. Mary couldn’t remember everything, but something that had stuck with her was when the article mentioned the eyes. It revealed that a lot could be gathered just from observing a person’s eyes and eye movements, and Mary remembered that the article explained that as two people gazed at each other, if one of them had a strong romantic interest in the other, that person’s eyes would often keep on redirecting their focus to the lower part of the other person’s face – mainly tip of the nose and lips – considered to be the sensual glance area by body language experts.
Mary was trying to figure out if Thomas was focusing his attention on her lips or not. The problem was – instead of looking at his eyes, she kept on diverting her attention to his lips.
