Fly or Die?

fly or die

Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Blue, his name is Blue, he gave a shot way back* We went to Nando's. It was June's pick - she said, it must be some where not too formal, not too casual, not too romantic, not too expensive, not too whatever-whatever. Anyway, I said, fine, as long as you feel comfortable. June, Matt and I were sipping our ice lemon teas. Blue was late. Minus 10 points, I checked mentally. June was fidgety. "Oi, relax lah?" I say, "Your bopping up and down is giving me motion sickness." "Can we eat yet? I'm hungry," Matt whines. Trust a man to always think about his stomach. "What if he chickened out?" June asks, her brows knitted. "No, he'll be here," I say, wondering where in the world did I get the confidence to vouch for him. Perhaps I just thought that no man would turn down a date with this beautiful woman seated in front of me. June was in a pink-T, low waist jeans. A light dash of blusher and lipstick was all she needed to look like cotton candy - sweet enough to eat. No sooner had I said that he appears, a little out of breath. "Sorry, my dear," he apologises, pressing his cheek against hers, "couldn't find parking." Lame excuse, I thought, couldn't you have come here 2 hours earlier? I dock off another 5 points. June introduces us. And the guys go off to order. "See!" I say. "Gawd, I need a puff." "Woman," I whisper, "think of it this way. It's a pitch and he is pitching to you. For once, you're the client. Just sit back and enjoy the storyboards, ok?" June laughs. She seems to buy the analogy and surprisingly, calms down. We steal glances at the guys at the counter. They are chatting excitedly and when they brought the food back, we found out that they were locked in an in depth debate on why the Alien should win instead of the Predator (or is it the other way round? I don't remember and I don't care.) None of us has seen the movie, so it's all speculation - like how men would sit around before a big game, nurse their beers and tell you why Liverpool should win instead of Arsenal or Man-U or one of those teams with fancy anthems and hooligans. I look at them and say, boys, are you all dense? Of course, the humans win. But the Aliens will leave one unhatched egg and the Predator will drop a sample of his DNA in some forsaken forest so that Hollywood can spawn a Part 2 of this sorry movie. (Sorry, AVP fans! That's just a woman's take on the movie. And no! I will not watch the movie.) Minus 20 points. I was going to deduct them till I saw June's face. She was beaming and laughing at his not funny comments. Did he slip some thing into her drink? I thought. Finally, after 3 kicks under the table, Matt wises up. He skillfully diverts the attention to June and Blue. And when he decides to, Matt can be a real smoothie. He probes Blue - his job, background, family, interests - and sing praises of June. Smooth Operator earns 20 brownie points. Three hours later, we have an amused June. And Matt has a date to watch AVP with Blue. Huh? What the-? "So, how's it?" I ask June as I walked her to her car. "I had a good time." "Ooh. Are you swimming in love already?" "No ... it was just ... it was just wonderful to be on a date again, you know what I mean?" She looks at me in a way that makes me want to hug her and make all the bad things in her past go away, "Anyway, I have 4 others to check out," she winks. "Thanks again." She slips into her car. I walk back to Matt and slip my hand into his. "So did he score?" he asks. "Nope, but you sure did." We laugh. I was just glad that June was blue no more. *A spoofed line from Pete Teo's song Blue. Pencil chewed at 10:24:00 am //
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