How To Date A Greek Boy

Spaggheti Issues

A little ways down the street, there was a café. The sign over it read ‘The Little Ferry’.

It was literally a ‘little’ place- hardly the size of a small house, and completely open air. Little white tables for two and four dotted the place. Every table had a multicolored striped umbrella over it. It was really cute.

We chose a table closest to the street so that when we looked out, we faced the sea and could see the activity and all the ferries and boats.

While Kon found us a place, I went and spoke to Fran, telling her not to stay up for us, and explaining to her what had happened and where we were.

She squealed so loudly when I described the place, I think I’ve injured both my tympanums. I’m partially deaf now, thank you Fran.

By the time I went back, Kon had ordered one dish for us both, which I was fine with because we were short on cash anyway.

Until I heard him actually ordering – Spaghetti Bolognaise.
Spaghetti Bolognaise.

Nobody as conscious as me would like to eat spaghetti at a first date. And the reason was clear once we actually started eating it.

It is so annoying to eat spaghetti! For starters, it’s way too long, and it hangs out- of your fork, of your plate, and of your mouth. I could grow old trying to put every single strand of spaghetti neatly onto a fork and making the fork undertake the journey between the plate and my mouth. And it keeps slipping away. It’s like trying to hold a live fish out of water!

As yummy as spaghetti is, you just don’t take chances eating it on your first date.
What if it slips out when least expected? What if you drop on the table? What if flies out of your mouth? What if it flies out of your mouth on his face?

Spaghetti was the kind of food you ate with friends, when it was fine if you happened to let food slither out of your mouth, when it was okay to make slurping noises trying to suck in the whole length of noodle, when it was fine if a little sauce dribbled on the table.

Not on a first date.

Kon ate spaghetti like a pro. Not a single strand of spaghetti was out of place, or slipped out when you least expected it to, or slid around the plate like an F1 race car around a track.

It was like the Chinese eating rice with chopsticks. Only they knew how to do it.

I just looked at the plate, letting out a mental peace treaty towards the spaghetti strands.
Dear spaghetti, I love you, but please behave yourselves and stay in place.

And then, I hesitantly picked up my fork and approached it.

“Leanna?” Kon said from across me.
I looked up at him.

“I’m pretty sure everything in that is cooked well enough, it won’t come alive and bite you.”

I must have looked confused, because he continued.

“Why are you so hesitant? You do like spaghetti right?”
“I love spaghetti. I just don’t want to make a mess.” I admitted.

He gave me a smile full of fondness, then reached a hand out, enveloping mine.

“You do it this way.” He said, picking our hands up and starting to wind the fork through the spaghetti, then picking it up.

And it was all piled onto the fork. Nothing left hanging down like a stray piece of wool.

“And then, I believe you take the fork to your mouth.” He grinned, feeding me the pile of spaghetti.

“See? It’s easy.” He shrugged.
“That’s because you fed me.” I laughed.
“I could get used to that.” He smiled.

After dinner, we walked back home, hand in hand, talking about the most random things on Earth, like why the sky was blue (scattering, I told him, but he claimed it was because it was a boy, and boys liked blue) or why the Earth was round (it wasn’t, it was oval, I said; he said it was because it was female, and females should be curvy) or why that woman sold wooden ferries (it was a ferry wharf, so she’d obviously sell ferries, I said; he said it was because that may be what she was best at).

By the time we’d reached home, we’d discussed practically everything, ranging from the sun and sky, till the old lady selling wooden ferries who was packing up her stall.

When we walked in, he stopped by the reception.
“I think you should call your mother and talk to her if you’re worried about her.” He said.
I nodded and told him to go on to our room; I’d be back after I was done.

I dialed Mom’s mobile, and waited while it rang. Finally, she picked up.
“Mum?” I asked, a little hesitantly.
“LEANNA!” She literally breathed out into the phone. “Gosh, I’ve missed you! I was so worried when you didn’t call! Where are you? How are you?”

“I’m fine, Ma.” I smiled. “Just wanted to check up on you.”
“Last I checked, I was your mother.” She chuckled.

Bracing myself, I approached the topic I most feared.
“Have you seen the videos?”
“What videos?” Mum asked. I pictured her frowning. “Ah! Those vid- Yes, Charlie showed them to me just today morning. He was so excited! He kept saying he was famous at school now because everyone was asking him about his sister!” Mom chuckled.

“You’re alright with this, then?” I asked incredulously.
“Lee, when you left, I..” She trailed off, unsure of what to say. “I knew that another side of you was emerging. In fact, I expected something like this.” She chuckled again.

“I just want you to be happy. Whatever you do, wherever you are. Just be happy.” She continued.

I smiled at her words.
“I am happy, Ma. It’s like, I’m finding a new side to me every day! We see new things, meet new people. It’s amazing.” I told her everything I’d done since we last spoke.

I even told her about Josh and the way he kept showing up. She told me to just ignore him if I was over it, he’d get the clue sooner or later.
She was pretty mad at him for scaring me like he did, but she was happy in a way because that made me call her.

I laughed at that, as did she.

And since we were opening up and discussing, I also told her about Kon. She was worried at first, given my history with the opposite gender (which consisted of only one bad experience, but it was in Mom’s nature to worry about it anyway), but then she came around with just one warning of being careful.

It was nice, talking to Mom again.
At least when I hung up, I was guilt free.

Hola :D Don't you just LOVE Konstantinos? :P
This thing is going to be wrapped in about say, 10 more chapters? :P Maybe lesser.
Do give me feedback! Is it getting too long?