Out came the cheesy one liner designed to impress, “Hi, You are Rachel right? I think you are very sweet.”
Girl looks up, ready to give a retort , i.e. “I don’t talk to strangers or my mom tells me not to talk to people with cheesy one liners.” Then she sees Boy, who thankfully, looked quite cute, with his flushed cheeks coupled with his shy smile. She thus decided to spare him the rejection, on account on him being the cutest guy who had approached her in school that year. After all, Girl was sick of cheesy one liners from guys who had built a thick skin after enduring countless rejections from other girls.
Mustering up her best deadpan expression, Girl waited for Boy to say the next thing. Boy then said “So how was was Comms paper, you must have aced it since you left the lecture theatre so early.” They then spent the next couple 10 minutes chatting, until she spotted her friends.
She can’t really recall if she gave him her number then but she recalled the familiar sight of him walking past her classroom purposefully each time she attended the weekly business comm lessons. The next time she met him was when she was babysitting her 3 year old brother in the school cafeteria, while her mum had to run some errands. He approached her to say hi, accompanied by two of his friends, who only made him seem like the more attractive catch, as his friends sprouted the usual cheesy remarks.
So you will know, that’s what they say.
Maybe that’s just nonsense from romance novels that will always describe that doe-eyed cliche about listening to your heart when you meet Mr Right for the first time. Yeah right…at 17, your brain probably can’t be trusted to make a rational decision about Mr Right.
Well we went out eventually and I remember that the first date was a Michael Bolton concert. I sang along waving the light stick enthusiastically to “How am I supposed to live without you,’ the cheesiest song Bolton did of all time. But it was my first music concert so I guess I was swept away by the euphoria of live music.
After the concert, he brought me to a playground at Marina, where we spent the next 2 hours chatting. In a moment of spontaneity, I leaned close and I kissed him (gasp!) Just because I wanted to test if he was the one. Thanks to those same romance novels that I was so fond of reading at that time, I wanted to test what was written about how one will just know when your lips meet for the first time. Would sparks fly? Would heartbeat quicken? I just had to know. But Zilch, no sparks, no quickened heart beat after the kiss. On the way home in the cab he asked, “So I will see you again?” My response, “We will see about that.”
Well, I did go out with him again after that first date. I don’t know what made me go out with him again but I suspect it was because he was good company, interesting to chat with and had a great sense of humor.
Our date in Sentosa as a couple
But even after having gone out with him for a year, I still wasn’t sure if he was Mr. Exactly Right. As the years started to fly by, 3, 5, 7 years…the brain did what it usually does, over think things, make comparisons, along with all sorts of other nonsense…about the potential permanency of the relationship.
But I think the heart probably knew.
Wedding 29th November 2004
So the romance novels are right after all, what is written about the heart. The heart ruled in the end and what the heart knows over time mattered so much more.
Till this day, he still thinks I kissed him on our first date because he was such a charmer….
Being given 2 packets of Caramel Corn, wearing his favorite Spidey T-shirt and on his way to Tennis class. These things made him smile that afternoon.
