The table Mat had chosen in this beautiful French restaurant, was right by the window -looking out into the sparkling, busy lights of London. He noticed his reflection in the window to his right and took the opportunity to run his hand through his chocolate curls, fix up his tie, test his breath and once satisfied enough - take a good long look at himself. Of course, Mat still didn’t feel satisfied, no matter how many times he fixed up his already fixed tie, or test his perfectly fine breath. He was about to have dinner with a woman so beautiful, she makes the term “way out of his league” seem an understatement.
Mat has had a fair bit of female attention, sure; but he never felt good enough - especially not for Martha. Thoughts were buzzing around in his head, and he could almost feel them ricocheting inside his skull. With his elbows on the table, he places his head in his hands, he starts feeling incredibly anxious. ‘What if I mess up?’ ‘What if she changes her mind?’ ‘What if she doesn’t come in the first place?’ ‘What if she’s expecting a kiss and I completely freak out?’ ‘What if she isn’t?’ ‘What if I try to kiss her but she doesn’t want me to?’ ‘What if she hates me?’ ‘What if...’ ‘What if...’ ‘What if...’. Mat lifts his head and his eyes shoot up, only to lock with an extremely cold Martha, who’s just entered the restaurant and escaped the freezing wind out - doors.
Mat feels his mouth going dry, not able to move, just staring at Martha... she looks absolutely breath - taking in the red dress. She stands by the entrance, in a heavy black coat; rubbing her hands together, giving Mat a re - assuring, bright smile. She has curled her long blonde hair and it’s resting on her left shoulder. She’s not wearing a large amount of make - up, but enough mascara to bring out her gorgeous blue eyes.
Then all of a sudden, something registers and Mat shoots up from his chair - almost knocking it over in the process, his eyes still locked with Martha’s. The only thing he can get out is an embarrassingly squeaky "Hi". Martha giggles and Mat follows, realizing how nervous he must seem. He clears his throat and makes his way over to Martha, a smile crawling upon his face with every step he takes.
He walks her back to the table and helps her take her coat off and hang it over the back of her hair. He then pulls the chair out for Martha to sit. Mat walks around to his seat and removes his jacket, leaving him in a sparkling, white fitting shirt rolled up to his elbows and an ash grey tie. With the contrast of his floppy, chocolate curls that have a hint of red under the restaurant lights... he looks absolutely delectable. ‘Oh my lord’ Martha thinks to herself. Mat offers a nervous smile and then picks up the menu. Those dark brown eyes of his pierce right through Martha and for a split second - she feels faint.
Martha picks up the menu and starts to skim read through. It takes her a few seconds to realize the entire menu is written in French. ‘Of course!’ Martha thinks to herself. ‘This is French restaurant after all!’. She smiles to herself and looks up to find Mat engrossed in this foreign text. Martha frowns. ‘But how? It’s all in French! Unless...’ “Erm... Mat?”. Mat looks up almost immediately. “Yeah?” ‘Oh, no’ Mat thinks to himself. ‘She wants to leave, doesn’t she. Or point out that I’ve spilt water or something all over myself. Or -’
“Do you speak French?” asks Martha; not in a generally curious way, more in a ‘I never knew you spoke French!’ kind of way. Mat smiles a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I do”. He gave Martha a smile. “Oh, that’s good then because I can’t understand a damn thing on this menu” said Martha jokingly. Mat gave a low chuckle, and Martha felt her heart almost flutter out of her chest. “I’m sorry, I should have said something before, I wasn’t think -” “It’s fine” smiled Martha. “Just pick me something edible, yeah?” joked Martha once again. “Promise” smiled Mat back as he looked through the menu for something for his date. Of course, Mat knew that Martha couldn’t speak French and he knew that she didn’t know he could. Which is why he brought her to a French restaurant, he wanted to surprise her and make a good impression when he fluently orders their meals in front of her. Besides, Paris is the city of love, is it not?
“So, how did you learn to speak French?” asked Martha with a curious grin on her face. Mat leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, using them as support while talking to Martha. “Well, I studied in France for 5 years, at the Rose Bruford College of Drama and Direct Speech. I took a few lessons when I could, but I mainly learnt while trying to survive amongst my other French - speaking flatmates” said Mat, sipping his water. “Ohhh, okay then” Smiled Martha. Mat could sense that this was going to be a good evening, it felt so right with Martha, it really did.
~ 2 Hours Later ~
Mat put his coat back on, then helped Martha with hers. He then walked her to the restaurant exit, which was the entrance, and held the door wide open for her. “Thank you” said Martha and Mat smiled back in return. As soon as they stepped outside, the bone - chilling London wind almost took the aback. For a few seconds, they just stood outside the entrance, their hands in their coat pockets - looking into each other's eyes, trying too figure out how the other could possibly be so perfect. ‘This is good’ Mat thought to himself as he stared into Martha’s beautiful blue eyes.
‘I could... I suppose I could... kiss her’ thinks Mat glancing down at her lips. ‘No, not a smart move... But I want to... And maybe she does too... No. Forget about it.’ “So, where are you parked?” Mat blurts out, trying to stop his thoughts from getting out of control. “Oh, just a couple of blocks down there” said Martha, pointing behind her. “Oh...I’m... up there” said Mat unhappily, pointing in the opposite direction to Martha’s car.
Martha was hoping they could walk together for a while... she was planning on perhaps giving him a well deserved kiss before entering her car. She was really looking forward to it but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now... Unless... No. Kissing him now wouldn’t be right. Besides, she’ll probably mess it all up. ‘Although...’ thought Martha. ‘I did see him looking down at my lips a couple of times... and I can’t say I haven’t looked at his... Maybe...’ “So, um... it’s getting late, I bet get going. But I really enjoyed toni-” Martha was cut off by the sudden contact of Mat’s lips on hers.
She gave a small squeal of surprise / excitement as Mat took a step closer, decreasing the amount of space between them and cupped her face with one hand and with the other gently pulled her in close. After Martha had adjusted to the unexpected kiss, with no hesitation, she kissed him back - making the kiss deeper. Martha then wrapped her arms around Mat and in that moment, they were one - completely and utterly devoted to one another. Time seemed to slow down, then stood still and no - one in the entire universe could do anything to ruin this. Right here.
Unfortunately, humans also need to breathe, so inevitably their lips broke apart, but they were still only a few centimeters apart from one another. Martha opened her eyes, only to find Mat’s beautiful dark chocolate ones staring right back at her. They both smiled a smile that said only one thing -
'I’m so glad I found you’.
YOU ARE READING
Dougton
RomanceMat and Martha are two young actors that just landed a job - the same job. They soon find out that they like each other a little more than they should. Will they find a way to be together? Or will they be restricted to their work?
