8 A date

When Eira woke up the next morning she saw that she was in her bedroom. She yawned and went to bathroom to change into comfortable clothes because she was still wearing the dress from the night before.

She sleepily walked to her bathroom and brushed her teeth. Then she went down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Since her father died she had to cook for herself and every time she did, she had to pull herself together not to cry. After the funeral she went into her father´s room and looked through his belongings. She found a lot of his recipe books were he had written everything what he learned and what he had experimented with. One of her favorite dishes, beef noodle soup, was also in it. Every time she studied his notes she could feel his presence as if he was still there standing behind her and watching her. Today she decided to cook her favorite dish again. She got all her ingredients and started cooking.

Suddenly the door bell rang. Wondering who it could be, she walked to the front door and found John standing in front of her.

"Good Morning." He greeted her and walked past her into the living room. She closed the door and walked to him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought you would like to eat something. I bought you breakfast." He held a bag up and showed it to her.

"Oh thank you but you didn´t have to. I was just cooking breakfast. If you like you can eat with me." She didn´t want to just let John hanging since he thought of her and brought her breakfast.

"Well if that is the case I will take your offer. I put this in your fridge then and come help you cooking."

John confidently walked into the kitchen and abruptly stopped in his track.

Before him lay dozent of single noodle strands. Perfectly cut and ready to cook. At the other side of the big kitchen table lay in a orderly manner the different ingredients and toppings for the soup.

John was truly amazed.

"Wow, it looks here like in a master chef kitchen. I didn´t know you could make noodles this good", he exclaimed.

Eira blushed and smiled.

"Did you forget? My dad became famous because of his noodles first. Of course as his daughter I should at least manage to make some decent noodles." She laughed.

"True. I truly feel honored to taste your noodles." John also laughed.

Eira cooked the noodles while John was setting the table.

When John got to taste the soup his eyes widened again.

"Wow. This is so good. They are exactly like the ones from your dad." He hungrily slurped the noodles.

Eira smiled satisfied. "Slow down. I don´t want you to choke."

"Eira I was worried about you but I think I don´t have to. You are strong and you´ve inherited your fathers cooking genes. You and your company will keep going. I am sure."

And after some contemplation he added, "If your father is the emperor of noodles you should be Queen of Noodles. There is no one who could surpass you."

After eating and cleaning up John suggested them to go out. Eira went to her room to change her clothes. While she was changing he went to look around the house.

When Eira was ready the left with John´s car.

"So where are we going?" Eira asked?

John just winked at her and answered mysteriously, "You´ll see. Just wait a little bit. We are almost there."

Eira nodded and looked outside the window to see where they were going.

They arrived at an amusement park. Eira´s eyes lit up. She turned aroung to John and looked at him excitedly.

"You took me to an amusement park?"

"Yes I did." He grinned.

"Do you think I am a ten year old?" She asked again and tried to look coldly at him.

John was taken aback seeing her excitement vanish in a blink of a second and was replaced with an indifferent look. Or did he just mistook her expression earlier?

"Uhm I thought you would like it. If you don´t we can go somewhere else." He looked at her waiting for her answer.

Suddenly her indifferent expression vanished and a big smile appeared again.

"Pahahaha just kidding. I love it. I just wanted to see how you react when I act like my business self." She laughed out loud and pulled John to the amusement park.

They had a fun time. Despite John´s imagination Eira didn´t go to the more "girly" rides like he expected. She didn´t even give the merry go round a single glance. Instead she went to all the roller coaster the park had. After fifth ride he leaned tiredly against a wall. He didn´t think Eira would be this energetic and... an adrenalin junkie. He was nauseous and just wanted to lie down somewhere on the ground. He was wondering why he had to let these rides torture him.

Eira saw him leaning like a defeated man against the wall and stopped in her tracks. She originally wanted to go to the next roller coaster but seeing John this tired to the point where he is almost puking stopped her. So she suggested to call it a day for now and go somewhere to eat. John happily agreed and drove them to the next destination.

They arrived at a big building that looked like a palace but modernized. John opened the door for her and let her out.

She looked astonishingly at the building but tried to hide her amazement. The building was glittering in the sunlight like it came straight out of a fairytale. John let her inside and they went with the elevator to the roof top.

When they arrived, the door went open and at the far end of the roof a string quartet started to play a slow song. Before them was a dinner table set up with some roses and candles.

The sun was just setting and shone everything in golden light.

John led Eira to her seat and pulled out a chair for her. She sat down and he took a seat across from her. A waiter walked to them and gave them something to drink.

"Good evening. I have here the wine ready that you ordered. The food is coming shortly." Then he excused himself and walked off.

Eira looked questioning at John.

"Why do you look at me like that?" He asked amused.

"Did you plan for us to come here?" She asked back.

"Yeah I did. I didn´t plan for us to come this early but luckily everything was already ready. What do you think? Do you like it?"

"It´s nice. I didn´t expect this." Eira was hesitant to answer his question directly. This atmosphere was just too... romantic. Too romantic to her liking.

Soon their entry came and after it was the main dish. Eira and John held a light conversation while enjoying their food. Then the dessert finally came. The waiter bought a big chocolate ball and put it in front of Eira. She looked confused at John.

"Am I supposed to break this open?"

He nodded and gave her a small hammer. She took it and gave the chocolate ball a wack. It broke open. She slowly put the broken chocolate shards away and inside on a small biscuit cake was a diamond ring placed on it.

Eira looked at John and it dawned on her what was going to happen.