Her personal recommendation

Anthony and Rebecca were still at the little bakery, ready to have a bite to eat and something to drink. Anthony had just finished asking the older woman, who had greeted them upon entry and who he assumed was one of the owners, to help him with his plan for the conversation he wanted to have with Rebecca. The woman had responded with a smile before she happily agreed to helping, which started with pretending that their conversation had never taken place when Rebecca returned from her visit to the bathroom.

The lady, who according to her nametag was called 'Rose', directed the two of them to a table, before she went to grab them some menus. She then waited for them to make a choice as she gave them her personal recommendations. When she turned to Anthony during her explanation, she gave him a wink. This was a signal for him to pick that, as it would be involved in the execution of the plan they had agreed upon. Anthony fortunately was better at picking up the signs from this woman, than to those given to him by people his own age. He quickly interrupted Rebecca's scanning of the menu and said, "Uhm, how about we go along with her recommendations. I am sure she knows what pastries are good here and what would go best with the drinks we have chosen."

Rebecca appeared a bit confused at first but agreed as she closed up her menu. "Uh, yeah, sure. Why not.", she said with a smile on her face and handed her menu back to Rose. Rose of course wasted no time to play along and said, "Very well. Two strawberry cream cakes with vanilla ice cream, topped with fresh strawberries, coming right up." She flashed them another one of her soothing smiles, before she turned around and walked away to get their orders and to prepare what Anthony had asked of her.

Somehow Anthony, in his need to do something, and do it quick, had decided on something rather drastic. He had intended to just ask if she was willing to become his girlfriend but didn't quite know how to bring the matter up. So, he figured if he brought the topic up with something big, she would be able to accept the smaller thing, which was becoming his girlfriend, in order to justify a rejection of the bigger thing to herself. His que would come the moment Rebecca would realize the surprise prepared alongside her pre-dinner dessert.

Anthony was half listening to Rebecca filling the silence between them with ordinary chit-chat. She was looking around a bit nervously and talking about how she had never been there before, how she found the décor quite charming, how she was looking forward to how the strawberry pastry would taste. Anthony's mind was occupied with finding the right words to build up to the question he was about to ask, so he was absentmindedly responding to what Rebecca was saying. Agreeing to whatever that came out of her mouth, with words of agreement. Fortunately for him, Rebecca didn't notice too much as his responses had been appropriate reactions to what she had been saying. Other than finding him to be a bit curt in his words, she could find no fault. Whatever did slip through, was masked by Rebecca's own nervousness, which affected the quality of her own listening as well.

Their unintended ignoring of one another didn't last too long, as shortly after agreeing to help and taking their orders, Rose had returned with what she had promised. With her cheerful and kind voice she came to the table and as she lowered herself a bit and began placing things on the table, she said, "Here we go. A pot of tea, two cups and two strawberry cream cakes to go with it." Rebecca thanked her and so did Anthony, to which Rose responded with a "You are welcome. Please enjoy.", and another wink for Anthony. This let him know that the first part of his plan had been successful. The rest was all up to him.

He nervously looked at Rebecca, who seemed to be fully absorbed with the cake and was being silenced by it as she carefully looked at it from different angles. After he had witnessed her in dept observation of the cake, which looked amazing, Anthony continued to watch Rebecca's every move as she got ready to take her first bite. He was half holding his breath, while his eyes widened a bit from anticipation and nervousness, and his heart was beating like crazy. Rebecca's fork finally dug into the soft, sweet smelling, cake and she put it in her mouth, before she seemed to melt away. Her excitement growing even further from the high level it had started with, while Anthony's eyes remained focussed on Rebecca's plate and her reaction.