"No, not allergic to anything." Marinette felt a little self-conscious. She hoped that her date wouldn't be disappointed in her social skills. She had gone out a few times with guys in the past few years but she somehow either compared them to Chat or Adrien and there were very few second dates. Not tonight. No comparing tonight. No Adrien, no Chat, just the man in front of her. Focus on him.
"So, Nino says you're studying business?" Marinette felt that was a safe subject to start with.
"I thought Alya set you up on this?" The voice sounded a little surprised.
"Well Alya is a friend, but really, sometimes you just can't be with Alya without Nino." she explained.
There was a chuckle across from her. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Know one, know the other."
Marinette felt something strange when he chuckled. She couldn't quite place it but it felt familiar. Before she could ask her question again, a server cleared their throat and said that the first course was being placed before them. Marinette ran her fingertips across the table in front of her and felt the edge of the plate. She said thank you to the server and the voice across from her also said thank you.
"Well, shall we try the first course?" She asked.
"Let's, then we can get to know each other. Maybe start of with some of our general basics in school and advance from there," he chuckled.
Marinette gingerly felt around the plate for the food. She found little rolls of deep fried pastries with a small bowl of what she thought might be dipping sauce. She dipped the roll and tried it.
"Oh my, this is good." She mumbled around the food. It was like a crisp spring roll filled with savoury beef and veggies. The dip was tangy and just a little spicy. It had hints of ginger and dill.
"MMMmmmmmMMMMmmmm" was the only thing that she could hear across from her.
She giggled, "Like them that much?"
"This is incredible," came the voice of her date. Marinette was delighted that he was enjoying the food so she had another roll herself. After a moment though, the mmmming started to sound like purring. How weird, she thought.
"Whoops" he said, and the almost purring stopped. "Sorry, one of my rolls rolled away." There was the sound of his hands feeling around the table top. Marinette checked to see if it was on the table around her.
"I think I have it." She said. Her fingers had brushed against a spring roll that was on the table beside her plate and she picked it up and held it out to him with her right hand. "Oh, umm. Ha ha. How awkward. I'm holding it out to you but, can't hand it to you."
"No problem." He replied. Marinette soon felt his right hand on her left arm on the table, his fingers searching for her hand.
A slight shiver went up her back. "Uh, it's in the other hand." She started to move the spring roll towards his hand on her arm.
"Ok." He had brought up his other hand and felt for her other arm. He quickly found it and traced the fingers of his left hand up to where the spring roll was. Unfortunately he squeezed the spring roll a little too tight while taking it from her and it spilled on her fingers. "Oh no, I'm sorry."
"It's fine." Marinette quickly pulled her right hand from his grasp and licked her fingers. He still had his hand on her left arm and he moved his fingers down to let them rest lightly on the back of her hand. She could hear him munching on the spring roll he had taken from her. She was so glad he couldn't see her right now, her face felt like it had gone up in flames.
He released her arm, then said, "So, you had asked about what I'm studying. I'm mainly into business studies. My father wants me to take over the company some day. So mainly how to run a business, accounting, human resources, media relations and other stuff."
Despite her jangled nerves the voice was so familiar to Marinette. She asked, "Other stuff? What kind of other stuff?"
He chuckled and said, "I don't want to get too personal right now. We are supposed to be keeping this light and fluffy between us until we decide if we want to know each other better."
Marinette giggled and finished her last roll. "Well then, I guess I'll just imagine that the other stuff you're studying is pole dancing and jazz hands."
"Mewouch," the voice chuckled. "What must you think of me? I'll have to try to live up to your imagination then."
Marinette felt the blood drain from her face and then come rushing back. She knew that voice. She leaned as far over the table as she could risk and said in a harsh whisper, "Chat Noir? Is that you?