As Hans Kernumees fetched a couple of glasses of dry red wine, Maia Laaning settled herself in sitting upright on the bed with her back resting against the wall. The bed had no headboard congruent with the sparseness of Hans living quarters. He returned and after handing Maia her glass of wine he settled to sit on the bed next to her.
Maia started the conversation of their afterglow by saying, "That sure was a blast, Hans! You seemed to know exactly what I wanted without me telling you. I guess that goes hand in glove with your minimal seduction ploy. How did you know I would react positively to your blatant almost command to come here and have sex? Of course you didn't exactly say that, but it was obviously implied. As far as I was aware we did not really flirt during the brief time that we were in the bar. I don't think I put out any signals that would indicate that I would go to bed with you just upon a direct request to do so. Do I have a reputation of being a slut that emboldened you to make your sudden proposal for sex seemingly without any advance warning?"
Hans answered, "No as far as I'm aware you have no such deplorable reputation I'm. I believe you are universally admired here in Estonia. I certainly liked you before we met tonight. Now of course I love you. Actually, I fell in love with you during the time we were in the bar and that prompted me to almost demand that you come here."
Maia was certainly nonplussed by that answer, "Love you say? You really don't know me. I mean sure you're aware of my public known facts about me, and some of it are not true anyway. But you are not really aware of my true personality. Certainly not long enough to genuinely be aware that you would be in love with me. Infatuation yes, but that's as far it goes."
Hans replied, "You've heard no doubt the phrase: "Love at first sight!" Do you believe it occurs or can occur?"
Maia was taken aback by such an innocuous rebuttal question. She blushed as she was well aware that only the previous night, she had footed the drinking tab so as to ensure that she would have the opportunity to hook up with Kalev Kõrvits. And this evening she had meekly succumbed without any protest or resistance whatsoever to an entreaty for sex with Hans Kernumees. At least she was spot on with her presumably feminine intuition in that sex with both of them was hot! In her mindset, she believed that she was merely seeking an ephemeral sexual thrill based on her opinion that they were simply acceptable as a sex partner.
That might be true in the case of Kalev Kõrvits. She was certainly willing to go out with him on another date, but she did not sense that a long term affair was what she craved for. On the other hand with Hans Kernumees, she was not thinking of a one night stand but instead she was contemplating fucking him for one thousand nights. Of course, her subconscious mind protested that this idea sprung from her erotic dream, which she had periodically been dreaming whereby she mimicked the Scheherazade fable. Hans Kernumees sure was the spitting image of the sultan Selim whom she had envisioned. Still, that was an excuse to cover her strong infatuation she felt towards him. Or then again was it infatuation or was it true love?
With such thoughts swirling around in her brain, and to clear up her confusion. Maia opted to answer in a non committal, intellectual way, "I believe that love at first sight is a personal experience whereby a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been described by poets and critics since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was said of the Roman god Cupid that when he pierces one's heart with one of his love arrows the victim is filled with uncontrollable desire and lust towards the person one is in contact with. Whether it figuratively occurs in real life or not who's to say? I would merely say it is possible."
Hans snorted, "I suppose that is the precise technical description a nerd would respond to my question."
"You're calling me a nerd?"
"Well, your public bio suggests that you were at the top of your high school class. Or is that part of what you alluded to as mistakes in the public information about you?
"No, that part is accurate. I did indeed receive the highest grades throughout my high school years. Nevertheless, and not to impugn anything derogatory of the term 'nerd'* but I'm sure you would concede that my physical appearance is not that of the stereotypical image one would envision of a female 'nerd." (*air quotes)
Ignoring Maia's implied disdainful description of a female nerd, Hans went on to say, "In any case as I indicated to you, like every other Estonian I was naturally aware of your existence, and I also knew that you are a student here at the University of Tartu. Since we are students in different faculties, I didn't think we would personally meet, and so I thought no more of the matter.
"When Juhan and I entered the tavern, we immediately spotted you and your friend, Riina Mölder, is it?"
Noting that Hans might not have been certain of Riina's name, Maia was prompted to say, "Yes that's her name, and you would be sure of it, had you paid any attention."
Hans continued, "Yes well, I urged Juhan to make the approach to see if you two would be willing to have us join you, with the caveat to him that should we be successful that you would be my interest. He was OK with that as he seemed to have liked your friend better."
Maia retorted, "That's Riina in case you had already forgotten. So what would have you have done had we refused? Were you already in love with me? Would you have been devastated?"
