Finally, she spoke up. I had just been about to ask her what was wrong.

“Bette… what’s that about me getting a regular menu card and not a special one?”

I smiled brightly. “I come here a lot. This is the place where I take most of my dates – before I met you, that is. Anyway, taking girls on dates I very much fun, but my wallet doesn’t think so. I’ve known Guiseppe for quite some time. He made an adapted menu card – only the cheapest dishes are on it, the prices indicated lead the girls to believe they’re eating more expensively then they actually are. I always pay the bill and there are so many people who take that as an excuse to order expensive things. You’ve got the normal card, so you get to see the real prizes and I want you to be not bothered about that at all. Order anything you want to eat, I haven’t dated in quite some time so I’ve got lots and lots of money for you,” I winked at her.

“I don’t even know how I should feel about that,” Tina laughed. “I mean, isn’t it kind of rude to give them a different card? Why date them if you aren’t even prepared to spend some money on them?”

“Because I was in it for the fun – I rarely if not never developed real feelings. This is different, though. That’s why I got you the normal card.”

“I guess I should feel honored then?”

I smirked. “I guess.”

Antonio, the waiter and Guiseppes son, was quicker than his father to see that we had decided. He took our orders – a medium lasagna for me and the biggest spaghetti bolognaise there was for Tina – and we heard him tell the cook he’d better make sure it was damn good.

Tina and I talked about everything and nothing. There wasn’t that much difference with the talks we used to have – it was as playful, but also as honest. We slightly brushed the Eric-subject, but decided that we didn’t want this evening to be about him.

Our food came and I was amazed at the speed with which Tina ate the spaghetti. I was so astounded I forgot to eat and she was done when I still had to start. I came to my senses and quickly ate it, but had to stop when I had eaten most of it. I saw Tina’s eager look and new what she wanted. I handed her the last of my lasagna and took her empty bowl. She smiled widely and attacked. I wondered where the hell that food went – she wasn’t even fat. I made a guess at great metabolism and thought that I’d do my best to help her keep that nice only-a-little-bit-chubby stomach of hers.