Persuaded to Love

Part 4-Laughter, Tease and Close to Home

"Falling into my lap." Horussun said to himself. There was no point in sleeping. He went into the nightstand drawer and pulled one of the books inside. The book he retrieved only made him groan.

It was a romance novel which had a similar situation like what he was in. It seemed that he had to surrender to his thoughts of the girl in his mind. Horussun started to remember the day they were in Chinatown.

***

Horussun waited by the far end of the dining room area where a window faced the street. It had just finished raining but it was only drizzle that fell. Checking his watch, it showed three minutes to four o'clock. He made sure to get there five minutes earlier in case Hathora was already waiting for him.

Like a vision, he saw her sautering towards the restaurant. Wearing a Chinese dress of black with red flowers. Was his eyes deceiving him? Was he mistaking someone else for her?

Hathora walked up to the table where a speechless Horussun sat.

"Hello Horussun." She said happily.

He was so transfixed on her beauty that he almost didn't hear his own name.

"Hi Hathora." He finally said

He pulled out a chair for her and they awaited for their drink menus.

Hathora smiled at him and he thought he was on cloud nine. She was intoxicating.

A waitress came over and handed them their menus.

"XieXie." They both said and Horussun looked at Hathora with surprise.

"You speak Mandarin?" He asked her.

"I understand the beginning of it, I'm better at writing Chinese than speaking it actually." She clarified.

Horussun placed his hand on his hair and began to laugh.

"I actually have been trying to learn the language for a while now. I was even living with my tutor at one point."

She set down her drink menu

"That must have been interesting."

"The tutor understood English perfectly. I know a couple of words like Niaho, Jai La, Bu, Baba, MaMa, Lashoi. I actually have been thinking about brushing up on it."

Hathora reached over to touch the sleeve of the suit he wore.

"A suit like yours is more appropriate for a business meeting, wouldn't you agree?" She asked while smirking

Oh. She's teasing me, Horussun thought. He started to remove his suit and showed that he had on a white button down shirt.

"Is that more casual for you" He asked while arching his eyebrows.

The moment he did that trick Hathora quickly turned her face away.

From the corner of his eye Horussun noticed a hint of pink in her cheeks. I think she'll think twice about teasing me now, he thought triumphantly.

"I think we better collect our plates of buffet food." Horussun said.

"Agreed."

Hathora took his hand and he led her to the aisles of cooked food. While they were gathering their plates of food. Horussun noticed that Hathora was filling her plates with all food groups. Not only that, she had gone back to their table and returned to collect another clean plate. Then, she repeated this two more times.

Once Horussun had returned to their table. He saw in front of Hathora four plates full of a variety of food. Judging from the commissary, Hathora likes to eat.