The Circle...My Maiden!

Dating the Maiden

In the warm summer breeze of September evening, Leo walked with his cue around the car body mounted billiard table. He was confident that he would get the ball from this angle. A slight tap and the ball followed his command smoothly, rolling through the bed cloth into the leading pocket. He hooked his leg on a nearby stool and leaned on his cue, waiting for Zihao to make his move. Leo scratched his slight stubble, deep in his thoughts. If only Xing Min was as easy as the balls on a billiard table. A month had passed since he had started dating, and the annoying bit was that he could not sleep with her. Leo Zhang, the mighty playboy rider, had been unable to ride Min! Not that he had any strong feelings for her.

  Shame on his womanizer image. What irked him more was the fucking wager where he could not get laid with anyone else. Thirty days of celibacy was getting on his nerves. Even the blonde he had taken a month ago would do now. He bounced back from his thoughts when he heard Zihao's confident laughter as he hit a ball into the pocket. The end moments of the game were usually interesting. Leo sprang up like a leopard, ready to strike.

  "You look stressed, Leo. Is something bothering you?" queried Zihao innocently.

Leo didn't miss his friend's twinkling eyes. He leaned on the table, angling the cue at his target. He hit, getting two balls with it. "Xing Min is a mystery I am trying to solve," hinted Leo dryly.

"You've been dating her for a month now. For you to have a girl in your bed is easy," said Zihao confidently, asking as an afterthought, "Don't you get along with her?" He didn't wait for Leo's reply and added, "Both Jian Yu and you are doing pretty well with your wager. Both have been dating for almost a month now and have made it in the media, too. What more do you want?" he asked sardonically.

Leo scoffed at Zihao's assumption. Screw Min? The Plain-Jane won't even allow him to hold her hands! "For your information, I get along with Min, well, most of the time," an image of them laughing and walking on the bridge popped into his mind. "But I haven't slept with Min yet," Leo deliberately paused, waiting for Zihao to digest the information. Who reacted exactly as Leo had expected, surprised with an open mouth. Hell, even Leo was lost for words. "I have worked my way into a girl's undies more times than date them. But here it's only dating with silly rules that suck," finished Leo as he threw his hands in the air.

"Whoa, hold on, it's too much to digest, man," Zihao raised his hand like a road user's stop signal. "Did you say you are not able to screw her?" asked Zihao with a teasing laugh. "Okay," he stopped at Leo's thunderous glare. "Silly rules of dating, what do you mean?" As Leo was about to tell him, Zihao cut in, "Wait, tell me from the beginning; I mean your first date, and don't you dare miss out on any details. Only then I might help you," he added, trying to keep a straight face.

"A month ago, I had asked Min for an apology dinner, intending to date her. At first, she refused," Leo pursed his lips at Zihao, who was chuckling. Images of his first dinner date surfaced, "I had to make last-minute changes to dinner plans because Min didn't dress properly. Can you believe it? She wore ripped jeans and a T-shirt for dinner at Tang Xi's?"

"You made it clear you were taking her to a celebrity restaurant, right?" asked Zihao, narrowing his eyes.

"No. Ok, I'll accept it was my mistake. For the first dinner date, we had hot and spicy Thai cuisine on my yacht. You see, the night cruise was Plan B. But going to the night market, eating street food, and riding the Ferris wheel wasn't."

Zihao asked unbelievably, "You ate hot and spicy Asian and street food?"

"The minx dared me too, but I got my revenge. She's afraid of heights," winked Leo, smiling as the image of Min clinging to him in the giant wheel gave him a warm feeling of satisfaction. "She has three rules for dating me: One: We take turns to choose what we plan to do for our dates; Two: no touching; and Three: we stop dating after a month if we don't get along."