Chapter 5 - Falling in love is very curious pt 3

As I was saying, she started telling me that she'd like to go have a little coffee with me for breakfast. And obviously, I wanted to go too. But like I mentioned, she worked in the afternoons and evenings, and I worked during the day, so it just wasn't possible. So we agreed to go to a restobar. I invited her to a fancy place, in a touristy part of my country, very popular, where lots of people go to hang out, sightsee, take pictures, and all that. It wasn't a cheap place. And it was funny because I didn't go pick her up. Maybe I should have, not just out of chivalry, but because I wanted our first meeting to feel like a scene from a novel, from a movie. That the first time we saw each other face to face would be directly at the restobar. A strong first impression. Not in a taxi, not during the ride. Besides, at that time I didn't have my own vehicle. I suggested we meet directly at the restobar, and she said yes. But she didn't show up. I arrived right on time, and she didn't come. Fifteen minutes passed, twenty, thirty. I started texting her: "Hey, what happened? Did you stand me up? Why aren't you here?" People were giving me weird looks, the waiters, the bartenders, like, "That guy's just wasting his time alone." I felt watched. I joked with her, teased her. She texted back quickly, saying she was on her way, that she was getting ready, to please forgive her. An hour passed. I texted her saying I was about to leave, that it had been too long. But she insisted I wait, said she was just about to leave. I believed her. At that point, you don't meet someone with suspicion. You don't think, "She's lying" or "This is a scam." You just want to get to know someone for real. Now that I know her, I think maybe she saw someone else before coming. Who knows. I can't be sure because I wasn't there. I kept joking with her. I told her I was really about to go because I'd been waiting too long. In the end, she asked me to wait. So I waited. She arrived an hour and twenty minutes, maybe an hour and a half later. Way too long. But I still wanted to meet her. We had been talking for a while already. Before she got there, she had asked me to order her a drink to calm her nerves a little. I was nervous too. Remember, it had been four years without dating anyone. I was totally out of practice when it came to love. I had just been studying and training. Finally, she arrived. And yes, she was very beautiful. I told her. I said she looked lovely, really charming. Because she was. She still is. And like it usually happens when you meet someone for the first time, the nerves kick in. You don't know how to talk, you feel a bit shy, you want to break the ice. I used her being late as the way in. As soon as she arrived, I joked, "An hour and a half! You might as well have stood me up." She laughed. That helped. I told her she looked great. She told me the same.