Dinner and a call out
Getting ready for our second date however was a little stressful. Our first one had clear boundaries, I was just her plus one but this one had romantic overtones. She had dropped hints on Wednesday night that those lines had shifted when she confessed she was the curious kind.
"I'm fluid," she admitted, "which is a new way of saying bisexual but up until now I haven't had sex with a woman so all bets are off."
I dithered over several dresses before eventually discarding the lot and opting for jeans and one of the pussybow blouses Danita had given me. It had a flowery pattern on a light pink background and the buttons were covered by a placket. I left the collar button and the top two buttons undone and let the ties hang free as well. A pair of heels completed the outfit but I took a change of clothes with me as well just in case there was a call out. I looked quite nice I thought when I surveyed myself in the mirror but I was outshone by Lamara. She'd chosen a white, off-the-shoulder dress with a flared skirt and a matching cream wrap and four inch heels in black leather to match the black belt that cinched her waist.
"Nice," she looked me up and down, "I see my auntie's clothes went to a good home, mum will be pleased," she closed the door behind her, "I assume we're taking your car or is that forbidden?"
"It's my car," I replied, "we have our own cars at work."
"I know," she pinched my arm playfully, "I was just winding you up, let's hit the road."
Because I didn't want to jinx the night I didn't tell her about the situation with Serbian Steve and she didn't ask either. We talked more about her holiday. She loved the train ride to Paris and the café atmosphere. I came out with a comment comparing our public transport to Europe's and she agreed wholeheartedly.
"It's a different culture altogether, it's actually accountable to the public."
"Now that's a novel idea," I commented.
Grattan Street, Carlton has a chequered history. It has that inner suburban feel with terrace houses in between restaurants and cafés, but the street has seen its fair share of murders and other crimes and so I was naturally on the alert for trouble. I have a good memory when it comes to faces and names and I recognised at least two men with criminal connections, one dealer and his bodyguard. I didn't tell her that though for obvious reason and thankfully, she didn't ask.
"I've been thinking of learning Mandarin," she squinted at the menu, "but it's finding the time."
"It looks hard," I stared at my menu.
"Be harder than Russian, that's for sure," she signalled a waitress, "nine hundred characters in their alphabet," she smiled as the waitress approached.
"I'll have the number sixty nine," she grinned.
Item 69 was stir fried king prawns, cashew nuts and a sweet and sour sauce, she added egg-fried rice and glanced at me.
"The same," I replied.
"You like prawns?" Lamara asked me.
"Just trying to blend in," I flicked at my hair, "so, you speak Russian?"
"I'm learning Russian at the moment," she replied, "but I speak French, Spanish, Italian and mum taught me Swedish when I was growing up so I'm a bit of a polyglot I guess. It makes a nice change from waiting for a guy to call me."
"I only speak English," I ran a hand through my hair.
"So, how many siblings do you have?"
"Two, a sister and a brother, my brother lives with his girlfriend out in Warburton and my sister is in North Ringwood. Mum lives in Croydon and her boyfriend lives in Bayswater, they get on like a house on fire but only because they don't live in the same house."
"Sounds like an equitable arrangement indeed," she glanced at me, "what's your sister like?"
"Amanda is highly strung, she's bipolar but we had problems getting her to stay on medication, she had a couple of suicide attempts that were half hearted but after the last one she fell under the spell of her nurse, David. He goes to one of those happy clappy churches and to cut a long story short she started going along as well, they got married a couple of years ago."
"And is she still on medication?"
"She's on it and off it, mum worries about her because David seems to think all she needs is prayer and the power of the holy spirit."
"I've seen a bit of that in the past," she mused.
We moved onto other subjects over dinner. She talked more about travelling, she'd been overseas a few times and even lived in London for six months after she graduated. It was where she'd met her husband, a man she described as pleasant enough, a perfect gentleman but in the end the spark had died when she brought him back to Australia.
"Boris had this quaint idea of how a woman should be and I thought I could change him once he had a ring on his finger. Big mistake, he interpreted that as a licence to reproduce. We were married for eighteen months before I finally decided that I wanted to focus on my career and that killed the relationship," she smiled.
"He wanted to go to marriage counselling, I disagreed and he left, he's married now to someone else and I have no regrets, I actually get on well with his wife to be honest but I was so glad to get rid of him, I like my own space."
"So you're not into commitment."
"It's not that, I'm the oldest child but mum has always been clear that my life is my own, I know she'd love me to give her grandkids and maybe I might go the IVF route but it's not a priority for me to be honest. Besides, she's got three with Yolanda and Ron and Gisette has one child from a previous marriage."
"Sam seems like a decent guy," I ventured.
"Absolutely," she raised her glass in salute, "Sam's a lovely man. He kind of reminds me of our dad when he was younger and less stressed out, he's so easygoing it's almost obscene."
"He certainly seemed that way at the barbie."
"I heard about that," she smiled slyly, "consider that an informal family introduction."
Eventually however, we had to make a move. My phone still hadn't rung and on the way back I commented that perhaps it might be a quiet night for a change.
"Don't say that," she slapped my leg playfully, "you'll jinx yourself."
We pulled into her driveway a little later and she fell silent as she stared at the house. We could hear Milo barking from inside.
