36 Tales of a Real Life Romance - Chapter 21

Four dates, almost four months and lots of analysing of texts later, it seemed that Hands and I were finally in a...dare I say it?...relationship.

I couldn't be a hundred percent sure having not been in one for a while, but it certainly resembled one. For starters it was automatically assumed that we'd see each other every weekend. Then all the relationshippy things started happening. You know the things I mean...


The First Argument

Hands and I had got into a routine of taking it in turns to plan our dates. Number five was down to me and I decided that we'd go for dinner in my favourite place in Manchester. The only problem was that we couldn't get booked in until 9.30. I phoned Hands to check that he was ok with that, stressing that I loved the restaurant and it would be worth the wait. He confirmed that it was fine.

Until twenty minutes later he texted to say that he was going to look into other options.

'What?!' Is what I thought.

Firstly what was he doing trying to muscle in on my turn for date arranging? Away and cut someone else's grass.

Plus, what part of 'I hope you're ok with eating late cause it's my favourite restaurant' did he not understand?

I couldn't believe our first argument was about an eating venue. To be fair, Hands didn't actually know that we were having an argument. I didn't tell him. I just seethed internally until he called a while later to say that I was to ignore his last text and we'd stick to the plans that I'd made.

I asked why he'd even thought about making alternative arrangements. Turned out his friend Kev wasn't a fan of the restaurant and reckoned that we should go somewhere else.

Which was weird cause I wasn't aware that I'd invited Kev on the date. Was Kev's opinion of the date that I'd arranged to my favourite place relevant? Hands obviously thought so.

I decided to pretend Hands hadn't said anything. It was far too soon for argument number two...


The First Time You Cook For Each Other

Or rather Hands cooked for me. He did have amends to make for the last rendezvous after all. Plus I didn't want to cook for him. I liked him too much to risk killing him.

Even if I had been contemplating being a brave soldier and making him my speciality dish, crisp butty Thai curry, I lost all confidence after seeing the effort the Hands put in to making dinner for me. The actual cooking, the way he'd set the table and he'd even emailed me a menu that morning.

Starter

Pan seared scallops on a tomato, olive and herb salsa
Accompanied by a 2009 Chardonnay

Main

Moroccan lamb served with tzatziki and sliced pitta
Accompanied by a 2008 Shiraz

Dessert

Me

It was all as good as it sounded. The dessert was my favourite. Things were back on track. Any arguments (what argument?) were forgotten. It was time for the next Relationship step. It was time to meet the parents...