Page 2 of Views
She can almost physically feel Steven’s relief. Which arouses a kind of defiance in her, which is why she adds: “But my parents are devout believers.”
“Really?”
“But they belong to a sect that is constantly losing followers. Although they once ruled half the world.”
Steven just stares.
“They’re communists,” Yasira explains.
At first Steven doesn’t know how to react, then he smiles uncertainly. It doesn’t look bad on him.
“But not you?”
“Me?” asks Yasira. “No. I’m... well, if you were to ask my daughter...” Oh, how cleverly and seemingly casually she placed this piece of information, which shouldn’t be dropped too early nor too late during a date, “... she would probably say that I’m a cynic.”
“You have a daughter?” Steven asks, surprised. “How nice.” He quickly added the last two words. His voice was a semitone higher.
“Yes, she’s at home with my husband. But don’t worry. We have an open relationship.” Yasira takes a beat. “Well, from my side anyway.” She takes a sip of wine. “Mehmet gets quite jealous. He once caught me on a date and beat the other guy to a pulp. He didn’t mean any harm. You know how Arabs are. Lots of temper, little self-control. He was sorry later.”
Steven’s face is absolutely hilarious. The fries he just shoved into his mouth almost fall out again.
Yasira grins. “That was a joke. Patrick and I have been divorced for ten years. Our daughter, Zara, is already sixteen.”
Steven laughs, relieved.
“That was a good one,” he says. “I’ll have to tell my wife when I get home.”
Yasira raises an eyebrow.
“Divorced for six years,” Steven reports. “Two children.”
No problem, Yasira thinks. At her age, everyone comes with baggage.
The two musicians take a break and immediately the place becomes significantly more pleasant. Steven also breathes a sigh of relief.
“Maybe next time we should meet at the Soft Rock Cafe,” he says.
“Or at the Cuddle Rock Cafe,” replies Yasira. Oops. Did she really just say that? Steven immediately looks all cuddly. She laughs. “If you’d said something that suggestive, I’d probably have gotten up and left straight away.”
She pushes the last bite of her Moving Mountains burger into her mouth. Since Zara forced her to become a vegetarian, choosing food in restaurants has become much easier. Yasira really sees this as an advantage. She used to have a hard time deciding. Now it’s always the veggie burger. Sometimes, when she’s eating out without her daughter, she secretly orders something with fish. Omega 3 and all. But as long as she doesn’t know whether this Steven could be someone she might introduce to her daughter, she prefers not to take any risks. She wouldn’t want him to potentially embarrass her at home. There would be trouble if he reported that Yasira had, as Zara puts it, “sank her teeth into a dead animal.” She can thankfully do without that discussion.
After dinner, Yasira briefly disappears to the restroom. She’s quite content. Certainly not a guy for the long haul. But also not a total disaster like the last two. One kept talking about his ex the whole time. The other still seriously lived with his mother. But with this Steven, she might be able to stave off loneliness for a while. She looks at herself in the mirror. She wears her black hair down for once, not in a tight ponytail as usual. Not bad for early forties. Early forties! Damn. A few years ago, when Zara was researching for a history presentation on the Middle Ages, she looked up from the book, utterly astonished, and said to her: “Mom! In the Middle Ages, you would be dead already!” Yasira can’t help but grin at the thought. Her reflection grins back. Really not bad for a nearly dead woman. This could be a nice evening. Soon they would talk about their hobbies. Bouldering, she’d say, and he’d go “What’s that?” and she’d say “It’s a fancy word for climbing.” And he’d say “Oh, really? You like climbing? I’ve been wanting to try that for ages. Maybe we could go climbing together sometime. Blah blah blah.”
And afterwards? His place or hers? Rather to his. It’s always a bit strange to have to introduce a new lover to your daughter. But it’s almost worse to be introduced to someone else’s children. “Hello kids! This is Yasira. For probably the next two to six months, she will occasionally sleep where mom used to sleep.” Ew. But maybe she’s lucky. Maybe Steven shares custody with his ex and has this week off. Always stay positive. In a good mood, she leaves the restroom.
But when she returns to the table, Steven is staring at his cell phone with a look on his face like it was September 11, 2001 and he had just turned on the news.
“What happened?” asks Yasira.
Steven looks up. He apparently needs a moment to remind himself that he is on a date.
“Nothing,” he says.
“Nothing?”
Steven shakes his head. “Nothing... important.”
“Then why are you looking like you’ve just read the announcement of doomsday?”
