Finding the Fun Side of a Piece of Cardboard

Iced Cheeseburger

Over the next few weeks Roman and I got much closer. We would text every day and he'd help me with some of my cases and we'd go out every week. Soon I was calling him my boyfriend. One day we were having afternoon coffee at a cafe on a Thursday and we were planning another date. The conversation quickly veered away from that as I asked him, "What do you want to do?"

"Why not wine tasting or we could go to Del Posto?"

"No no, it's my turn to treat you! We've just got to pick something out. Let's do something fun! Like ice skating or something I don't know." I said, giggling.

"Hm... I haven't gone in years. I normally don't do things that are considered 'fun' in the general sense. I never really have."

"What? What did you do as a kid then?"

"Schoolwork"

"Geez Roman, you've always been a workaholic?"

"Well I certainly didn't want to be doing schoolwork all the time. My parents just pressured me to. They always needed everything about me to be perfect. Perfect grades, perfect appearance, perfect skills, it seemed that even when I was little they needed me to build the perfect skill set and activities for college applications. Mother also had me in etiquette classes my entire childhood. It was just always everything had to be perfect no matter how painful or time consuming or stressful the process was, all that mattered was the outcome. So I never had time for such 'fun' activities. I was too busy studying or practicing something or training for something."

Suddenly I felt so bad for him. Honestly before that I was the slightest bit envious, but now I just wanted to hug him and make it all better. "I'm so sorry you didn't get to do fun things! Why don't we do them together? You can try lots of new fun stuff with me and we can make a list of all the fun stuff we do! How's that sound?"

"Actually very nice and appealing, but what would we do first?"

"How about ice skating? We should get some food first though. Let's get something cheap and fast though."

"Cheap? Fast?"

"Yeah like pizza or a burger or something"

"That doesn't sound very healthy."

"So? I mean we're going ice skating anyway that's like exercise if that's what you're worried about."

"No, I'm not worried it's just not what I'm used to..."

"Well um, you've had a burger before haven't you?"

"I believe so but I can't say I remember ever eating one."

"WAT?! We're getting burgers and going ice skating then!"

He agreed and when the day came I freaked out about what to wear. I had to look casual but cute but hot. I must've tried on 15 different outfits before I decided on a hoodie and floral embroidered jeans. I was so excited to see Roman that I was shaking while I was waiting for him to meet me at the burger place. When I did see him I just about passed out! He looked so fucking hot oh my gawd, he somehow made hot girl fall look less 'try too hard' and more cute and simple. I tried not to stare at him too hard when we went to our table. I quickly picked out what I wanted but Roman just looked absolutely confused while looking at that menu. "What do you want, Roman?" I asked.

"I've got no clue... I had no idea there were so many ways to make a hamburger..."

"Well it's simple, what do you want on it? Cheese? Bacon? Tomatoes?"

"I don't know, you pick."

When it was time to order I got him just a regular classic burger in case he was picky. We talked for a little about ice skating before our food came. "So have you been ice skating before?" I asked him.

"Yes. I took lessons for years but once I turned 11 my mother decided it got in the way of the extra piano lessons and practice she was making me do so she had me do something else instead."

"Oh, okay. I've been but every time I go I fall all over the place!"

Then we got our food. I quickly started eating but Roman just stared at his burger. "Is something wrong? Why aren't you eating?" I asked.

"I don't know. I just never really had a burger before. I don't know if I'll like it."

"Well you'll have to try it to know. Just take a bite!"

"It looks... messy"

"Of course it's messy, it's a burger! Just grab it in both hands and take a big ass bite, that's the only way to eat a burger"

He held it and still looked at it, uneasy. After what seemed like an eternity he finally took a pathetically small but adequate bite. He made a skeptical face. "What's wrong? You don't like it?" I asked.

"This is the best thing i've ever tasted in my life." He said with a straight face.

"Yay! I'm glad you like it!!" I cheered. "Why aren't you eating it still though?"

"It just seems like it's missing something..." He said.

"Oh I know! Ketchup." After I put ketchup on his burger for him he happily ate but only finished half. Pathetic but I guess it's expected for someone so thin to eat like a bird.

Then we went skating. When we got there we got our skates and as we were putting them on he laced mine for me because apparently I wasn't doing it the right way. It was cute though it reminded me of Cinderella. As soon as we got on the ice I fell on my ass. I giggled and Roman helped me up but he only ever flashed his half-smile. As we went around on the ice it was just him skating perfectly and me falling and clinging onto the side for my life. After a while of that finally he held my hand and pulled me off the wall. It was so cute I wanted to scream. With him helping me I got a few minutes of not-falling. It was pretty romantic for those few minutes... until I fell. I fell so hard that because I was holding Roman's hand he went tumbling too. I quickly got up and apologized thinking he was mad that I made him fall. But, when I looked at him he was laying on the ice—laughing! He had the cutest ugliest laugh I'd ever heard in my life and soon I was laughing at his laugh! When he realized I was laughing at him his face got red as a tomato out of embarrassment and he covered his face with both hands, still laughing. I helped him up and out of all the excitement we actually kissed! We skated for a bit longer and when we were both too tired to keep going he invited me to his place. I was nervous to go but I went anyway and almost died. It was so nice like a fucking museum. Everything was so goddam organized and matched it was soooooo weird. "Do you like-have OCD or are you just a weirdo? I asked.

"No, I don't have OCD I just like for things to be clean."

"Sooo if I just started throwing stuff everywhere you wouldn't start freaking out?"

"No, but I would be irritated if you messied my things."

"Fair enough."