It wasn't a surprise to her when he showed up early. Although she'd gotten to the park much earlier than the appointed time, she hid herself in a spot where she could see the park without being seen, and so she noted that he showed up about 10 minutes early, as she'd expected he would. That left him with some time to wait nervously, and her with some time to watch how he acted when he thought no one was watching. He alternated between sitting on the same bench where he'd been when she first talked to him, and walking around nervously, not walking far from the spot but far enough that it looked like he was going somewhere without being sure of where he was going, a lost little boy who needed to find his way.
She was just the person to show him.
She emerged when his back was turned, quickly sneaking up on him so that when he finally turned around, he found that she was right next to him, and that he'd been completely unaware of her presence there until now. He was so startled that he jumped and let out a small sound of surprise. It wasn't clear how much of his surprise came from her sudden appearance directly behind him (now in front of him) and how much of it came from the fact that she had a video camcorder that she was pointing at him.
As before, the meeting was so awkward that both of them just looked at each other for a long moment before saying anything. They had different motives for waiting, of course: he was waiting because he couldn't think of anything sensible to say and was hoping to have her rescue him by starting the conversation, while she was waiting because she wanted to give him a chance to say something that she could use to trip him up with.
Finally, she simply said "Hi" and waved at him.
"Hi," he said, waving back, staring at the camera. "Do you usually film the people you talk to?"
"Not usually, but this is a special occasion," she said.
"What's the occasion?"
"It's our first date, of course, silly! I wanted to be able to remember the occasion with a video."
"Oh. That's okay."
"What do you mean, that's okay?" she asked, her smile fading and her expression becoming a bit concerned. "Of course it's okay."
"I just mean, I wanted to let you know that I'm okay with it, that I don't have a problem with it."
"Why would you have a problem with it?" she asked, letting a faint hint of anger come into her voice.
"Well, you know, some people might be uncomfortable with having you film them without their consent."
"Would you like to know the reason I brought a camera?" she asked, somehow sounding both playful and dangerous at the same time.
"Well, yes."
"That's good, because I'm not going to tell you. Instead, I'll tell you that I will decide what's okay and what isn't. I will always be the one to tell you what is okay and what is not okay, what you're willing to agree with and what you aren't. Is that clear?"
Roger paused for just a moment, dumbfounded. No one had ever spoken to him this way in his life. Not anyone. And now a near-total stranger was doing it to him. It was crazy. Any reasonable person should have immediately said no and walked away.
Then why did he decide to agree with her?
"Yes, I understand," he said. Instinctively, he softened and stopped trying to resist, for fear of making her more angry.
"Good, I'm glad you like it," she said, her smile returning. "You look really dumb when you're confused."
"I do? But... Um..."
"But what?" she asked patiently.
Roger hesitated. He really had no idea what to say to something like this. Then he became aware that in his confusion, he probably looked more dumb the more he thought about his response, and her camera was filming his stupid, confused expression, so to try and regain some ground, he felt the need to say the first thing that came into his head without thinking about it.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, realizing that this wasn't a very assertive thing to say.
