Kathy glanced at her boyfriend who was sitting across the table. He was staring at her with unfaltering eyes. The general mood of their night out seemed wrong and uncomfortable for Kathy. The couple had been together for over three years, since Kathy was in her second year of senior high school and he had been in his third. In those three years, they had experienced joyous times and an occasional period of melancholy, but never had the mood on their dates been this tense and awkward. In the time they had been together, they had always been easy going and had no trouble whipping up a conversation.

Kathy dropped her eyes from his and stared down at the menu on the table. Pretending to leaf through the menu, she cleared her throat and asked him what he wanted to eat. When he didn’t reply, she glanced back at his face. To her surprise, his eyes were still locked on hers. Kathy smiled a fake smile and asked again.

“Are you admiring my face? I put on a different style of makeup today.”

As if he had not heard her, he answered her question with a question of his own. His question caught Kathy by surprise.

“Do you love me Kathy? Do you still love me as much as you did when we first met? A year ago, you would’ve said whatever was on your mind, without thought to the consequences. You were easy going and didn’t have a care in the world. Just then, you were trying to start a conversation with a sensible question, as if you are afraid that I will learn something about you that you don’t want me to know. So answer me Kathy. Do you still love me?”

Kathy’s lips parted slightly. Caught off guard by his barrage of questions, her reply was nervous and she stumbled over some words.

“W-why would you even ask that? Of course I still l-love you. I’m just a bit nervous tonight, that’s all. I haven’t seen you for 2 months, since you started studying in the States.”

Her boyfriend held her gaze for several more seconds and looked down at his own menu, his expression clearly showing his discontent at her answer.

“Alright Cat, I’ll believe you. To answer the question you asked earlier, how would you feel about having some steamed trout with lime juice and garlic?”