A Daughter of Light(A Light onto the World)

Chapter 9

Marimar

Chapter 9

Are you for real?  “Restaurante De Lemus.  Latin?”

“You like Latin food, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I love it,” I mumble.  Again with the clichés.  If he wanted to eat Latin food we could have just ate at my house. 

Take deep breaths, Marimar, I reiterate.

We pull up into the restaurant and park.

“Do you think I should take my sweater?” I ask.

“Umm, yeah.  You might want one, restaurants are usually kind of chilly.”

“Kay.”

I already unbuckled myself and am out the door when Sage reaches me and closes the door for me.  Sage opens the restaurants’ door for me and we both walk in.  The cool air engulfs me.  We pass through one more set of doors leading into a larger room.  This room is downright cold.

The receptionist greets us warmly.  She has red hair, freckles, a kind face, and a warm smile — she looks likes she’s in her twenties.  Her name tag reads, Ruth Anne.  Ruth Anne leads us towards a couples table, Sage requested, in the non-smoking section.  Barely anybody is in this section.  Now, we’ll have more privacy and less noise to bother us.

Sage pulls out my chair for me.  Any harsh feelings I was harboring towards him before melt away.

“Someone will be with you momentarily,” Ruth Anne says, before turning to leave.  Sage thanks her.  A few seconds later our waiter, a spindly teenage boy with windswept tuffs of hair, appears; giving us our menus before leaving.

“May I take your orders?” our waiter — whose name tag reads; Carter — asks.  When his eyes fall on me he gives me an awkward, crooked smile.

“I’ll have the Enchilada Grande and a coke,” Sage says as he hands him his menu.

“And you miss?”

“The same please, thank you.”

Carter nods and walks away.

“So, how do you like the place?” Sage asks.  The room looks nice and expensive.  I hope he didn’t use all his money on me.  I’m already impressed by his manners. 

“It’s nice, thank you,” I say sweetly, giving him a warm smile.  “You know, you didn’t have to go all out.  A burger place would have sufficed.”

“It’s fine.  Don’t worry, besides, you are totally worth it.” 

I blush, deep red sets into my cheeks.  I can’t help but look down, embarrassed by his charm.  He’s good.

“Here are your two cokes; the meal will be out in just a few minutes.”

 I sip my coke as I rack my brain for a good question to ask.

“How did you know about this restaurant?”

“A friend of mine told me about it.”

“Ah.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I just thought that you might have taken your ex here.”

“Nope.  Never been here in my life,” he says.  “Let me ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Is this your first date?”

“What makes you think that?”