Dessert First

"Are you ready to order?"

Jill looked at Matt and decided to test him. He smiled and gestured for her to go first.

"Yes, thank you. I'd like the crème brûlée to start please and then the lamb."

Matt's head jerked up from the menu, while the waiter looked at her, quizzically.

Jill raised her eyebrow. She liked Matt. This was their third date. He was steady but sometimes, she thought, you just had to submit to your whims. She wasn't sure how easily he could do this.

"Matt? What about you?"

The waiter turned his attention to Matt.

"Um, er, I'm not sure. I mean, I was sure but now, I've been thrown really." Matt stopped his bumbling and looked at the waiter. "Would you mind giving me a minute more? Sorry."

The waiter nodded briefly and left the table.

Matt looked at Jill, his surprise showing on his face.

"I wish you'd told me that you were going to do that!"

"Do what?" Jill said, disingenuously.

"That! You know! Ordering differently!"

"Why? Why should I have told you?" Jill asked. She had a feeling that she knew where this was going.

"Because...because..." Matt scrambled for the words. "Because it's unconventional."

"Does that mean that you like all things conventional?"

Matt detected something in the challenge and thought quickly about his response. Yes, he did like things to be straightforward, but he wasn't averse to something unorthodox now and again. He wasn't prone to impulsive behaviour though. He didn't mind surprises but they unsteadied him though, he acknowledged, they also caused him a frisson of excitement. However, he wasn't compulsively driven to "go rogue" and he wasn't sure if he wanted a life that was too unpredictable. First, crème brûlée as a starter and then what? "Darling, I've booked for us to do a tandem skydive!" Snails for dinner on toast. Neil the plumber around for a soirée?

Did he like her enough her to put conventionality on the back burner?

"Well?"

He decided.

"Look, Jill, I like you but..."

The preposition did it. She got up and Matt did not protest and she was glad that she had a crème brûlée in the fridge.

***

366 words

Have you ever ordered dessert first?

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