‘Shall I order the bill then?’ he asked, finally breaking the silent gaze competition.
Mary blinked out of her daze before nodding. ‘Sure.’
Thomas lifted a hand to signal the waiter for the bill.
‘But I’m getting this,’ Mary added, already reaching for her handbag.
‘What do you mean – you’re getting this?’
‘C’mon,’ Mary countered. ‘You took me to the opening night of a great exhibition and sent me an amazing gift.’
This time, it looked like it was Thomas who was observing Mary’s expressions and micro-expressions.
‘Plus,’ she continued. ‘It’s the least I can do after the way I acted earlier.’
Thomas sat back on his chair and crossed one leg over the other before resting his hands on his thighs. ‘I hear what you’re saying, and it’s appreciated.’ He bit his bottom lip. ‘But hear me out here, OK?’
Mary’s eyes widened at Thomas, but the look in them wasn’t a surprised one. In fact, she looked back at him in the same way that a mother would look back at her child when she already knew that the kid was about to hit her with some bullshit.
‘I try to be as… modern as I can be, but when it comes to certain things, I’ll admit that I am one hundred percent old school. And this is certainly one of them.’
Mary looked around, as if confused. ‘This what? Dinner?’
‘First datedinner,’ Thomas corrected her, and the way in which he clearly held back his smile told Mary that he knew that he was getting ahead of himself right then. ‘I invited you out, Mary,’ he explained. ‘I was the one who suggested,and convinced you, to come to a restaurant with me.’ This time, he looked back at her with puppy eyes. ‘Please, for the sake of my silly male pride… and I know it’s silly – let me get this one and you can get the next one, if you like.’
Mary pursed her lips and twisted them to one side – a smile hidden somewhere between them.
Once again, Thomas read her like an open book. ‘You noticed that I said “next one”, didn’t you?’
Mary nodded. ‘I did. Very smooth. Subliminally putting forward the suggestion that there will be a second time.’
Thomas replied with a shy smile. ‘Honestly, I’m really hoping that there will be… dinner, drinks, cinema, coffee, whatever, really. For me, it’s been a great night. I really enjoyed your company.’
The waiter came back to them and placed the bill on their table, directly in front of Thomas.
‘Plastic OK?’ Thomas asked.
‘Of course, sir. Let me just go get the machine.’
As the waiter turned and walked away, Thomas reached for his wallet and selected a credit card from the many he had before placing it inside the bill booklet.
‘I haven’t agreed that it’s OK for you to pay this bill yet,’ Mary said, nodding at the booklet.
‘Seriously, Mary, it’s my pleasure. Please, let me get it.’
Mary poked the inside of her left cheek with her tongue. ‘How about we split it then? That’s fair, isn’t it?’
Thomas, once again, sat back on his chair. He looked one hundred percent relaxed. ‘You really want to go Dutch? On the very first night out?’
‘Why not?’
Thomas scratched the underside of his chin. ‘Well, one of the reasons, like I explained, would be that by allowing me to pay for ourfirst-everdinner, you’d be doing my silly male pride a huge favor, which would be much appreciated, but a second reason, which is even more important, is that…’ He took a moment, his eyes darting away from Mary before darting back to her. ‘I come from a very superstitious family… just something I grew up with – I can tell you some crazy stories later, if you like – anyway, I don’t really believe most of it, to be honest, but a few selected superstitions, so far, for me, have proven to be true.’
‘Is that right?’ Mary sounded like she was buying none of it.
‘I’m being serious,’ Thomas carried on. ‘And one of those few is – never go Dutch on a first date. That’s one hundred percent bad luck.’
‘So, we’re fine then,’ Mary replied, matter-of-factly. ‘Because this isn’t really a date.’