Ice Cream

Chapter Seven

Stay still, my beating heart! Why hasn't thou decided to trouble me thus? I placed a hand over my heart, ordering it to maintain it's calm in a Shakespeare kind of language. But that particular area of my body chose to defy my order as its beating sped up erratically. I tried so hard to keep my cool as I walked up to him. He hung up as I reached him and smiled again, making my insides feel like jelly. Why did he affect me this way?

"I hope you had a great day?" was his question as he touched my elbow—sending an electric and foreign kind of shock down my spine—to lead me to the passenger side of his ride. I studied the car, hoping I could recognize it but failing to do so, before entering and fastening my seatbelt while waiting for him to walk over to his side of the car. Through the windshield, I reviewed his appearance, noting that he had heeded my advice and dressed casually. His jean jacket matched mine in that one who saw us would think we were a couple displaying affection by wearing matching clothes. He ultimately got into the car, fastened his seatbelt and looked at me. I felt my cheeks go hot just by his mere gaze.

"So..." He said, still staring at me.

"So...?" I repeated, mine in form of a question, having no idea what he was going to say.

"I'm waiting for you to give me the direction of where we're to dine tonight. It's your treat, remember?" I mentally threw myself out the window. Of course he didn't know where we were going, that was why he didn't start the car. But silly me thought otherwise.

"Oh, sorry! It's not far from here. Just go straight till I tell you where to turn." I answered as he turned on the ignition and the car roared to life. This car was truly luxury in it's priciest form. It was a convertible and the interior part was more like a living room than a car. Everything from the dashboard to the buttons, brakes, steering wheel to the backseats screamed lots of money. I clasped my purse in fear that if I touched anything, it would break and I would owe him a debt I'd spend the rest of my life trying to pay.

"Are you okay this way or do you want the car roofless?" he was asking if I wanted the roof folded out. That sounded more appealing but would be rather enjoyable in the daytime, preferably noon when the sun was out and one wanted the afternoon air blowing one's hair and the music from the car adding more effect that would give this different definition of inner peace and joy.

"This is fine. Probably next time." he turned to face me after hearing my comment and I looked away and groaned, realising what I had said. 'Probably next time'? That insinuated I wanted us to hang out again. Could this be counted as being flirty. Sheesh!

We rode silently, only making conversation when he wanted to know where to turn to on the busy streets of the city. I directed him as coolly as I could until we got to our destination then I asked him to park the car so we could alight. He seemed puzzled as the area was pretty loud and full of people especially roadside sellers. There! You see? I knew he had never experienced something like this so bringing him here was a good idea, wasn't it?

We unlighted the car and I asked him to join me in crossing the road so we could head to our dinner spot. Judging from the look of things, I was right. He had never been to this part of the City before. He kept looking around like a tourist in a foreign land.

"You've never been here before, have you?" I asked out of the blue. He shook his head, still feeding his eyes with the environment.

"It's a great place. Come on, you're gonna love it." Instinctively, I grabbed his hand and pulled him—doing well to ignore the little butterflies in my tummy—across the street to join a queue of people waiting to order their favorite Hunchos. Hunchos, a popular dish in this part of town was a thickly rolled dough which was baked and customers decided what toppings to add to it. Be it; sauce and sliced grilled chicken, sauce and fried plantain, sauce and baked potatoes with grilled fish, sauce or mayonnaise and vegetables for vegans. Basically, you could have it with anything. It reminded me of pizza but the difference was these toppings weren't baked with the dough. Only the dough was baked!