Disclaimer: Don't own them, but I wish I did!
Chapter Three
My Stupid Mouth
The air was filled with the smells of the different food being cooked in the restaurant. Rowen took in the air, and sighed out loud. Mina looked over at him from the bench they were sitting on and smiled. They had talked for about five minutes after they sat down to wait for their table, but now a silence had floated over them. Rowen looked down at his watch as they continued to wait for their table. They had been waiting for almost fifteen minutes, and he was beginning to feel the lining of his stomach disappear as it digested itself.
"Are you hungry?" Mina asked with a grin as he placed his hands behind his head and sat back.
"Oh, but yes." He answered as he watched the hostess escort one couple to a table, "I could have swore that we came in before they did."
Mina propped her elbows up on her knees, and perched her chin on top of her hands. Rowen watched her carefully, afraid that he had once again said something wrong.
"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.
She nodded, and brushed her skirt flat as she sat back up and looked him in the eyes, "I didn't think that they would be this busy tonight."
"It is a Saturday. Everywhere is busy on a Saturday night."
Rowen inwardly groaned as he saw her eyes divert from his to the floor. He wanted to smack himself in the forehead and take back what he said. 'That's definitely a strike'. He thought to himself as he noticed the hostess walk over to them.
He followed beside of Mina until they were shown a table by the window overlooking the street outside. Rowen pulled out a chair for Mina and carefully waited for her to grab it before pushing it in.
'I wouldn't want her to fall again.' He thought to himself with a chuckle.
As he took his seat, Mina had seemed to forget his comment earlier. She smiled at him as they were handed their menus and asked about their drinks.
As they waited for the waitress to return with their drinks, Mina asked, "Are you from Toyama?"
Rowen nodded, "Yeah, I've lived here all of my life."
"Really?"
Rowen furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her suspiciously, "Why do you ask?"
"I haven't seen that many people around Toyama with blue hair and blue eyes. It definitely makes you seem like a foreigner."
'Just keep the smile on your face, and nod, dude.' He instructed himself as he nodded and smiled.
"Are they natural?" she asked smartly as she took a drink from the water glass that had just arrived, "It just seems like a way of drawing unwanted attention to yourself, is all."
Rowen stared at her for a minute in shock at her rudeness, then answered, "Yes they are. Are yours?"
She almost spit out the water in her mouth as he asked the question, "Are my what?" she whispered.
Rowen smiled menacingly at her for a minute and decided to make her feel a little uncomfortable for the moment since she had started it, "What do you think I'm asking about?"
She took in a deep breath, and eyed him suspiciously. They stared each other down for a moment or two until she lowered her gaze towards her chest. Rowen raised his eyebrows and asked, "Well?"
She looked back up at him with a glare on her face and put her hand on the table. He watched as she folded her hand up to point at her breasts. Rowen faked surprise as he held up his hand to his mouth, and inhaled sharply.
"Mina! I don't know what you're talking about! I was asking about your eye color!" he whispered furtively.
Her eyes got wide as Rowen calmly took a drink from his own glass and looked away from her to hide the smile on his face. Hey, she started it after all. And besides, if she couldn't take a joke, then he didn't want to be around her anyway. He looked over at her from the corner of his eye, and saw that she was smiling and shaking her head.
"Yes, Rowen, my eye color is real." She said as she looked down at her hands still pointing towards herself. She quickly withdrew her hand, and placed it back in her lap as the waitress came by for their orders.
"What soup would you like to have with your salad, miss? We have won-ton and egg drop soup today."
Rowen watched her as she made her decision. 'Please don't say egg drop soup', he pleaded to himself as he watched her make up her mind.
"I'll have the egg drop soup, please." She said as the waitress nodded and wrote it down on her pad of paper.
Rowen moaned quietly as she turned to him and took his order. As the waitress walked away, Mina gave Rowen a questioning look, "Did you groan when I ordered that soup, Rowen?"
Rowen cleared his throat as he looked out the window, "It's nothing."
"It doesn't make you sick, does it?" she asked, almost afraid that she had done something wrong.
"Oh no, nothing like that. It's just…" he cut himself off before he crossed the point of no return. He had this conversation about egg drop soup with Sage once before, and had decided that it would be a bad idea to discuss it with his date.
But he knew that he had gone to far when Mina reached across the table and grabbed his hands and pleaded him with those big green eyes, "You can tell me."
Rowen removed a hand from hers and covered his face, "mit mels ike eat."
Mina sat back in her chair and stared at him for a moment, "What did you say?"
Rowen wanted to cry. He knew that this would be his last strike, and boy was it going to be a big one. So long, social life. Rowen has once again come knocking on the door of dating, and it was about to be shut firmly in his face.
He took in a shaky breath and removed his hands, "It smells like sweat."
He looked over at her with his eyes pleading her not to over-react, but the moment he uttered those four words, he saw the thoughts going through her head.
"So, in essence, if I eat it, then I like to eat sweat? Is that what you're saying!" she whispered snidely across the table.
Game over, dude. Please try again.
Rowen tried to cut into her tirade a few times to explain his little quirks with soup, but she would hear nothing of it. Rowen buried his head in his hands, as he wanted to sob like a baby. He began to pull his wallet out of his pocket as she continued on her rant.
"You ordered rice! Does that mean that you like to eat maggots!"
Rowen grimaced as that one passed across the table. A few of the other patrons had also hear her comment, and stared at the couple for a moment. He began to pull some money out as she wadded up the napkin in her lap and slung it on the table.
"I can't believe this! I let the comment slide about my boobs, but now! I'm being told that I like to eat sweat because I like egg drop soup! Of all the nerve of you, you little arrogant prick!"
"I didn't say anything about your chest, Mina. You brought that up. And if you think that I was asking if they were real or not, that sounds like a self-conscious issue to me, so don't unload all of your psychological issues on me."
And that was when the sting of the evening finally set in. She whirled a hand across his cheek so fast, he felt his eyes spinning like a slot machines' reels. He watched as she stormed out of the restaurant, slipping in and out of her heels. She tore out the doors, shoving her stuff in her car, and squealing tires to burn it out of there.
Rowen watched calmly as all of the chaos ensued around him. He lifted up his glass and held it to his cheek as he took in a breath and sighed aloud. He honestly didn't know why he was surprised that this happened. If anything, it should have happened way earlier in the evening. He looked down at his watch as he noticed the time. He smiled happily to himself as he realized that this was the longest date that he had ever been on! Usually, it was twenty minutes, and then this erupted.
"Sir, here's your food."
Rowen looked up and saw the waitress with the food hovering over him.
"Where did your lady friend go?" she asked as she set down his food.
"Oh, she got an important call and had to leave", he answered as she set down the forbidden soup on the other side of the table.
"Could you do me a huge favor?" Rowen asked as he eyed the bowl suspiciously.
"Sure. What?" she asked as she handed him his food.
"Could you take the soup away? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth."