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Ron had not, of course. He shook his head sideways. Then, he said: "I was going to do so"

She smiled sweetly and asked him: "Well then, how about having dinner together?"

Ron was a dense inexperienced dude but due to having lived with miners his whole life, there were some things he heard. There were crude and misogynistic but that was all the knowledge he had. He recalled how a miner once bragged that he took a woman to dinner and then managed to score without having to pay.

Ron was quite surprised by her words since in his mind, a man and woman going to have dinner together meant more. That being said, she was a beautiful woman and not that old, seeming to be around thirty. Age never mattered to Ron, well, he was fine with some gap. What mattered the most was whether he could find someone to love and who would love him back. Maybe it could be this one?

Many thoughts swirled in his brain and it took him a moment to answer the woman: "I would love that"

Then, the both of them began to leave the company grounds walking next to each other. The woman tried to come up with a topic and they ended up chatting about his first week at the company. There wasn't that much to say though, he faked working throughout. He didn't fake it because he had been lazy, only that he didn't know what to do. Of course, he could never admit that to anyone, who knew if rumors would spread. He told her how he revised the project designs, got to know the others and divided their work. It wasn't entirely a lie since he did try to read through the project and in the end, learnt of it through the presentation. Those also helped to understand his colleagues. And the division of work was similar, it was done to protect himself. Of course, to the woman, it seemed like usual engineer work.

They walked towards a rather classy restaurant and Ron frowned at the prices. As they looked at the menu placated outside the shop, Ron flinched. He didn't want to pay this much for a single meal. 30 spatial coins? He could live with that for a week! And that was the price of a single plate! He decided right there and then that he would not eat here.

He hurriedly said: "Sani, I know a great place not far from here, how about going there?"

The woman beamed as he agreed wholeheartedly. She was thinking that Ron thought this restaurant was too low class. To her, engineers were golden cash-making gooses. From the very start, she believed Ron was wealthy. Best of all, he was young. A young and wealthy guy with high future prospects, it was worth getting to know him. However, as they reached the place, she frowned. She had a tough time believing where he brought her. It was a shabby place that let you eat outside. The only good thing about this kind of shop was that it was cheap. She looked at Ron with a questioning gaze. She wondered if he was trying to prank her or if he was serious.

Turned out he seemed serious as he introduced the place as a restaurant he loved to eat at. He invited her to take a seat and ordered for himself, asking her what she wanted. She was still slightly stunned about having to eat here and told him to pick whatever he believed was good. She wasn't well-off like an engineer but she was certainly not poor that she would be a customer here… She glanced at the other customers. They all wore brandless clothes that looked cheap from a glance. Then, she turned to watch Ron who was happily ordering things, talking to the robot as if it was alive. She felt quite weird about it.

She swallowed a few curses and decided to be amiable. She tried to introduce a new topic and asked what Ron did the rest of the day. Turned out he was in university. She nearly chocked as she heard it. No one told her about that part. As the conversation went on, it became clearer and clearer to her that he wasn't who she expected. As her plate arrived, she forced herself to eat quickly. It was a pizza…He had ordered pizzas… It was oily and fat, not at all to her liking. She could only blame herself on that point since she let him order but she still internally cursed him about it. She would have to work out twice as hard tonight before going to bed.

Once the meal was finished, she left in a hurry after thanking him. She ended up having to pay for her part too… This guy was no longer the lucky golden goose but an ugly miserly duck. All throughout the meal, she felt as if she was taking out her nephew to eat. It had been a horrible experience.

On the other hand, Ron was very happy about it. He ate something cheap that he liked with a beautiful woman that seemed very interested in who he was and what he did. What's more, she didn't seem to mind to pay for her own meal, she had to have some money. His opinion of her was rather high.

As to scoring after a meal, he wasn't ever sure what it meant but he probably didn't manage to do it. That being said, he couldn't really compare the sophisticated girls here to the ones dated by the miners back there. They were leagues apart. It was obvious they would be different.

Still, it had been a very nice evening. He hummed on the way to his home, pleased with himself.

Everyone's perception is different. Something is a disaster to some but perfection to another. That's what happened there. She hated it while he loved it.

And so, Ron went home and slept with a smile after setting his alarm clock.

Sani, on the other hand, worked out for some time before showering and going to bed.