Bed Partners

Tried

Tape 13, Side B

I went out to a date with that guy again. Twice. I am bad at this.

That saying was true, never make a decision when you are mad. No good thing will come out of it.

I am mad at Qing so I suddenly decided that when before I am not sure if I will go out with the guy I dated who almost killed me with his kiss, now, I want to continue dating him. Qing pushed me to go on dates again.

I should probably name him. We'll name him Pho. He is actually not a bad person, I just don't like him.

He is as tall as me, three years older, a junior assistant in a law firm, studying law and a bit distractable, which is not that of a bad thing.

Pho is on the flabby side, with chubby cheeks and full lips. He likes crime drama and debate show. He is a good speaker. We have interesting conversations. I am not bored while talking to him.

See, he is not bad at all.

Except he is cheap. And stingy.

Okay, I am not a materialistic guy. On our first date, we dutch it even though we ate in a fairly regular restaurant slash fastfood. Which is fine by me, dutching is fine. I can pay for my own food.

Our second date, I paid. Which is also not bad. I have money. But him saying that I should pay because he forgot his wallet is kinda a typical excuse and lame. But I let it go. What irritated me was what he said after I paid our dinner.

"Next time, it will be my treat. We will go to a nicer place. I mean, this place is decent but I think they charge too much for their food and services when their food is not five star. This place is a bit of a let down. Thai food is not my area anyway..."

I just smiled and nodded and didn't point out that he had two servings of spring rolls and three rice on the restaurant's Thai curry. And I chose the restaurant because it got rave reviews from my friends and acquaintances.

I think Pho is full of himself.

Then our third date happened and it solidifies my impression that he is cheap.

He took me to a Japanese restaurant because his boss gave him coupon stabs.

I am not kidding. At first I was surprised too. Do Japanese restaurants gave out coupons? I asked him.

Pho smiled at me, "My boss took a client here and we had a feast. The owner was pleased so he gave my boss stabs for discounts on his next visit. My boss gave it to me so we can eat here. This is a nice place. Their sushis are delicious. Have you tried sushi?"

Yeah, a lot of times. The last time was on my apartment after Qing and I slept after sex. That's the time I was avoiding him and got busy packing my stuffs to move to my mom's condo.

I simply nodded. Sometimes, there are things you should not say.

So we ate. I love sushi but that night, I feel like it's lodging on my throat. Actually, I had trouble eating for the past few weeks.

Two weeks, to be precise. Since I broke that deal with Qing. But I don't want to go there and think about it. I might lose control and hurl food back out. That will not be pretty.

So I ate slowly. Thinking that today is Friday, sixteen days since I walked out of Qing's condo. Ten days after we had that disastrous talk in his office. I think it's time that I start calming down and forget everything.