Small Talk

While our little feud with telling and not telling the reason behind the choker, the waitress had put two cokes down in front of us while our food was on its way. When she placed them we both went silent and thanked her before she left.

"You'll see soon enough Olivia. Now tell me more about yourself, don't leave out any details." Jason insisted before taking a sip from the coke in front of him. I thought for a moment wondering what else to tell him that I hadn't already. And only a few things had popped up and well, I wasn't planning on telling him these things at all.

"Well, I love to read while under a warm blanket with a cup of hot cocoa. Hate scary movies though." I replied trying to say things that weren't embarrassing as the ones I had thought of when he asked me. He nodded from my responses and put his glass down before putting his elbows on the table and put his hands together to present a more serious stature. It was unnerving to see him like that when tonight was a simple date, at least from what I was told it was supposed to be a great one.

"I feel like there's something missing that you haven't told me yet." He accused as I took a sip of my coke and almost coughed from his interjection. How could he tell I wasn't telling him something? Now that I recall this has happened twice already and it's starting to become concerning.

"Well it's personal things that I only can think of now and I don't feel comfortable sharing them right now," I said while looking down at my hands as I twirled my index fingers around each other. I could feel his eyes boring into the top of my head as I avoided his gaze and heard him let out a sigh.

"Alright, that's fine. We barely know each other so it makes sense to keep the more personal things to yourself for now. I just hope you can open up to me more in the future when our relationship deepens." He replied before I lifted my head and gave him a small smile of appreciation. I was glad he wasn't going to pry because I wasn't ready to share. It made me happy that he didn't want to cross or step into my bubble and make me uncomfortable.

Just as we were wrapping up our conversation, the waitress brought our food and placed it on the table before us. "Enjoy," She said with a sweet smile before leaving to take care of the other customers she needed to tend to. I take my fork and pick up a mouth's full of noodles and start to chow down happily. I was starving since I had barely eaten at all today and the popcorn wasn't really filling.

Jason let out a chuckle when he looked up at me devouring my food and smiled. "Glad you're enjoying your food, Olivia." I looked up at him with an innocent look with my cheeks packed with food and one singular noodle dangling from my lips and blushed. I wasn't expecting him to watch me eat or pay attention to how I ate. It made me embarrassed when I realize how childish I was acting in such a nice restaurant.

"I'm sorry," I say with a mouthful before swallowing my food and put my hand over my mouth. "I barely ate anything today so I was starving," I added once my mouth wasn't stuffed full of food and I could talk properly. He shook his head and let out a deep chuckle which made my cheeks flush even more.

"No need to apologize, you're enjoying your food. I'm glad you're eating a lot, you need your energy." He replied before taking a large amount of food and stuffed his mouth as well and I let out a snort from the look on his face with his cheeks packed with food. He smiled from my amusement and finished his food before putting his fork down and wiped off his face with his napkin.

I had finished slightly after him and sat in my seat satisfied. I held my stomach and closed my eyes. I had probably eaten too much but my tummy was happy and that's all that mattered. "Looks like your full. You did well, that was a large plate of chow mein." He complimented almost as if he was a parent congratulating a child for eating all their food. It put me off at first when I thought about it but somehow it's comforting. It reminded me of one of the things I didn't want to say cause it was too personal.

The waitress came around and looked at both of us with her hands clasped together. "All finished? I'll take those plates for you and I'll come with the check. Together or split?" She asked and Jason lifted his hand which had his credit card in between two fingers and mouthed one. She took his card and the plates away while Jason and I waited for her to return.

"What are your plans for after college?" He asked seemingly quite interested in his posture of leaning slightly closer to the table from what I noticed.

"Uh well, I want to get my masters in professional creative writing to become an author. I love reading and writing so I thought why not. I hope to have finished my first book after I get my masters to then look for a publishing company to help me publish it. But I don't know how to get that far yet so I'm taking my time." I explained while I thought about my future which wasn't fully thought out but it was what I had so far and that was enough for me.

"That's a good goal to have. To do something your passionate about." I nodded in agreement before she came back with the receipt and his card. "Thank you for coming hope to see you both soon!" She said before giving a small bow and walked off.

I got out of my seat and turned to Jason, "Thanks for dinner and the choker. I had a wonderful night." Jason looked at me and kissed the top of my head. "I'm glad you liked it." He responded as we walked out of the restaurant.

Once the brisk air hit my skin, I shuddered from the breeze. I wrapped my arms around myself. Jason took his blazer off and put it over my shoulders and made sure it stayed on by buttoning the first front button. "Thank you," I replied with a small smile tugging at my lips from his gracious offer. "Don't want you getting a cold." He responded and wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked back to campus which wasn't too far.

"Olivia, I had a wonderful night and I hope to have another one just as great as this one soon. My family is having a banquet in a week and I was hoping you would be my date for that evening. The details of it I'll explain later since I don't want you arriving and having too many questions about what you might encounter. But my mother would be a pain in my side if I came unaccompanied. What do you say?" He offered and waited patiently for my response.

I thought for a moment from his proposal and wondered who his family was when he said it was a banquet and not a party. Banquets are much nicer than parties so it threw me off from him announcing it. I was curious as to what his social status was if he was somewhat rich or millionaire rich. I guess I would find out soon enough.

"Sure I can go, I just don't know if I have anything nice enough for a banquet," I replied as I pictured my closet and tried to remember if I had a dress or a nice outfit to wear.

"Don't worry about that. I can take you shopping if you need to get nicer clothes." He replied seemingly unphased by mentioning shopping let alone getting something expensive for me to wear which surprised me. I was curious for the coming week if this was how he usually lived.