I Don't Date Dragons

Chapter 3

They were sitting across from each other - thinking their own thoughts. He had taken her to a nice restaurant. Inside she was waiting for him to speak. She wanted him to delve deep on this date. She wanted all the information. What he was like, where he came from, what his parents were like. Once this information wasn't readily available to her she started to get fidgety.

"Hey I heard they have karaoke down the street, maybe something we could do after" after all it was a Friday night.

"What" he said. He was distracted. Mostly by her lipgloss. And the way she sort of bit her lip when she was nervous.

"What are first dates all about you should ask me something about myself" he sort of blurted out.

"What was the first moment you remember you could be in love" she asked. Well he wasn't expecting that.

He thought a minute.

"Dodgeball in grade 4. Her name was Amanda. She was getting it pretty bad from the other team and I kept trying to get her attention for her to grab the balls that were coming my way. She was so inept. It just made me like her more. Thought I had to protect her."

"Jack, the protector" she answered. Satisfied he had that innate need to protect and aid.

"You're name might as well be Andrew Smith" she said with a sad smile.

"Why did that strike a cord?" He was genuinely curious.

"Andrew was my first love, but he was in love with my next door neighbour. I know I may fool you now but I used to be quite the tomboy. My mother used to ask if I was a lesbian. Talk about being overly concerned. She's the one who gave me those short hair cuts. And then she was confused when I came home crying that these guys liked a proper girly girl." She sighed quite heavily. "It is sort of a sore spot" she conceded.

"Well look at you now, eat your heart out Andrew " He laughed. She joined in. This guy was alright.

"What did you order again" he asked.

"Umm, the sharshuka, Its middle eastern in origin, very spicy, and where were you in your head while I ordered?"

"I think everything was on mute while I was watching you fiddle."

"I don't fiddle", she answered with a coy smile.

"You fiddle with everything - napkins, your hair, you're a regular fiddler"

She laughed whole heartedly.

"Well I'd rather be a fiddler than someone who checks out in their heads for long periods of time - even if it is attributed to my curious foibles.

"I know exactly what you ordered. The BLT with duck. I used to want to be a chef when I was younger, my complete ineptness with cooking sort of derailed that interest but I still like reality food shows, I'm very current with cuisines of the day, if you ever need someone who knows what a pickle back is, I'm your girl" she laughed nervously then realized she had been rambling. The fact that he looked a little somber didn't help matters.

"I'm sorry, did I say something?" She asked tentatively.

"Oh no not at all, if I ever need a food connoisseur I'll let you know..." he sort of looked like he was weighing something in his head then continued. "...its just my sister. She's on the spectrum, you know Aspergers, and she lives with my mom right now and all she does is re-watch old episodes of this food show called 'Just Desserts'. My mom and I have tried getting her to watch you know, National Geographic stuff, but no for her it's just reruns of this show, every day all day." He didn't mean to reveal that much. He sort of wish he hadn't. She doesn't want to hear this, he thought.