How I Didn't Get The Romantic Movie Ending

Everything in Between

We went out for lunch a couple of times. I quickly noticed how nice she treated the waiter or the waitress. That was definitely a good sign. We came back to the coffee shop often, and incredibly, we were able to always sit where we sat the first time we met. We went to bookstores and watched movies. We could spend whole afternoons in bookstores. And it was during a movie that I first gathered the courage to hold her hand. I just wished it hadn't been a movie about a massacre. But the important thing was that our fingers were intertwined.

When I started to fall in love with her, I finally asked her out to dinner. Dinner was a big deal to me. I wouldn't take a girl out for dinner if I wasn't serious.

***

So we went out for dinner. I took her to this French restaurant my friend suggested. The food was supposedly "phenomenal." The place was very fancy. Harper seemed to really like the paintings displayed on the walls. When we got to our table, the waiter gave us our menus. As soon as I saw the menu, I wished I had brushed up on my French. I didn't know how to pronounce anything on the menu. I thought the names of the dishes would be in English.

Luckily, the waiter asked for Harper's order first. I was amazed to find out that she spoke French fluently. When the waiter asked for my order, I had already thought of a way to not embarrass myself. I said, "I'll have what she's having." The waiter nodded and left.

"So, you like the place?" I asked her as she was looking at the paintings.

"When you told me where we were going, I kind of felt nervous. I'm not very fond of fancy places because you can't really get comfortable. But when we got here and I saw the paintings..." she trailed off.

"You like art?" I smiled at my new discovery.

"Actually, when I was growing up, I wanted to be an artist. But my parents told me to pursue a more financially stable career," she said with a sad smile.

"Hey..." I reached out for her hand, "For what it's worth, I think you can paint something better than what's on these walls."

When our orders came, I realized what my friend said was true. The food really was delicious. But afterwards, I started feeling a tingling sensation in and around my mouth. Then my tongue started to swell. It didn't last long before I realized I was having an allergic reaction. Turns out, the food that Harper ordered was loaded with tarragon. Something I'm allergic to. But I didn't realize it was in the dish because I haven't had it since I found out I was allergic to it at age six.

***

Despite our first dinner turning into a disaster in the end, I decided to ask her out to dinner again. But I made sure the next dinner was at a restaurant that had menus in English. That dinner turned out well. We started having dinner more often. And eventually, these dinners led to breakfasts. And I knew she was my girlfriend. I wanted to make sure it would stay that way.

I’ve never really had a serious girlfriend until her, because I never wanted a serious relationship until her. I turned to my friends for advice. And they told me that if I wanted a happy ending like in the movies, I’d have to work for it like in the movies. So that’s what I did.

I gave her flowers at least twice a month. Her favorite were white frangipani flowers. They always came with cards that had short poems on them. I gave her gifts. Some had special meanings only we knew, like the decapitated teddy bear lamp. Some were just expensive and pretty, like the ruby earrings. And we also went on trips to every place she hasn't seen in Fairview.

***

For our first anniversary dinner, I rented a whole restaurant. She thought it was too much but she appreciated the gesture, nonetheless. A string quartet played in the background as dinner was served to us. I had been having a hard time choosing the right anniversary gift for her. I didn't want to freak her out by buying something extremely expensive. But I didn't want to seem lazy by choosing just anything. I wanted it to be special. Eventually, I decided on buying a painting she had seen at this art shop we went to once. I remembered how much she liked it. And she liked how I remembered that because when I showed her the painting, she was ecstatic.