Explain Yourself!

 

After Christina and Ivan's fallout, Christina did not trust me completely.  I do not blame her; the scene at Mario's party was still fresh in our minds.  I wanted to get closer to her but the memory of that incident erected a fence between us.  It was a see-through fence, not one of those made of some sort of impenetrable material.

During the first weeks of 1992, one early evening at the pub, Christina was looking affected by something.  I assumed the reason for her mood was not Ivan because the two of them seemed friendly enough but not involved unless they were keeping their relationship real hush.  I seized the moment to address her directly with an exploratory question when everyone left to get their next round.

"What is going on Christina?  You seem a little off.  Is everything ok?"

"I am having some difficult days... I'll be ok." - and wearing one of those soft smiles she concluded - "Thanks for asking".

"Boyfriend problems?"

"No, no boyfriend; that is all I need now!"  - I smiled back and did not ask anything else.

The evening developed slow and a little boring and the regulars started to drop off early.  When everyone was starting to leave I found the opportunity to talk to Christina again.

"Have you had dinner yet?"

"No, not yet"

"I know of a nice Vietnamese restaurant near where I live, Saigon.  The food is decent. Would you like to go with me? My treat!"

"That would be nice".

We packed up and left for the restaurant.  On the way, in her car, I did not want to talk about what was bothering her so we talked about light things, food, our favorite dishes the fact that she was half Hungarian, and for that reason Hungarian dishes were on the top of her list.  I knew nothing about Hungarian food hence I let her talk and limited myself to the occasional question about the dish she was explaining to me.

At the restaurant, the dinner was very pleasant.  We shared the dishes we ordered.  During the meal, it came the time to talk about me, how I got my degree in Cuba, my dreams as a scientist, and the place where I grew up.

It was a sweet night.  I felt that she was warming up to me but also felt her reservations and I did not push her in any way.  After dinner, she thanked me for the meal and we shook hands goodbye.  Lovely.

At the restaurant, they gave me a discount coupon to encourage me to come again.  That coupon became a souvenir for that night and I have it somewhere.  I know it is here in the house, haunting some drawer with its magic powers.

After that night we started to seek each other out to go for lunch or coffee at the cafeteria or the food court at SFU.  The food at SFU is nothing to write home about, but sharing that time with Christina was sweet.  We were always in the company of others, but it is amazing how others can become white noise and I could only hear Christina.

Things were going great between us; however, Christina was keeping her guard with me.  We went to many places in Vancouver, including the beach; all of Christina's favorite places; but we were always accompanied by one of Christina's best friends in those days.  I won't mention her name but if she reads this post she would know it is only her.  She is also a nice person I remember fondly.

One evening we were walking the three of us at the beach in Vancouver and her friend walked ahead just a few feet, and it was enough for magic to happen; accidentally my hand found Christina's hand and for a fraction of a second we held hands.  When she realized what had just happened she pull her hand away as if pulling her hand out of the fire and looked at me with an expression worth a million stars -"Bad boy! Stop that!"

She was not mad.  I wanted to connect...  but her friend was always there!

Not long after that evening, I asked Christina to go out with me again. She said yes.  I was expecting her friend but that night her friend was not there.

The magic of that night reaches today.  I will keep the details to myself alone, but you can see that it worked well between us and every corner of the city is acquainted with our mist.

However, do not think for a second that the event at Mario's house was swept under the carpet with a kiss; oh, no! After we felt that our relationship was growing strong Christina made me account for that night!

"Why did you do that awful thing to Ivan?"

"Oh!"

"I was worried that the two of you were going to have problems!"

"It was a joke! He told me that he was not married."

"Jose, that was a bad joke!"

"Yes, you are right.  Actually, I apologized to Ivan the next day and he took it well.  He seemed ok after I told him that I was sorry."

"You apologized to him and not to me? I was in the middle of that!"

"Yes, you are right.  In my defense; I thought that Ivan was going to tell you that I was kidding, that I was drunk or something.  He never did, didn't he?"

 "No; that was strange.  He behaved really weird and that made me worry about the two of you".

"I am sorry Christina, but when I saw him behave like that, I thought, just let him finish things on his own...  do not help him fix things up!"

"Not funny; I still do not trust you!"

"I love you!"

"and I love you too!"