Here we are, after a not so long drive to the restaurant, were finally here. The parking lot was full and crowded as expected for this time of the weekend. Although, it did feel strange seeing some of these people walking around in such cold weather without jackets, I guess it is undeniable, every person in this city has already adapted to their surroundings just fine.
McSmiling restaurant is one of the common and fast-food restaurants within the city. Its exterior design is identical with its plastered of smile and yellow color scheme with its walls being decorated with various posters advertising new menu items or upcoming events. It was rather nostalgic to see my childhood memories flash before my eyes of how I remembered eating here when dad would bring me whenever he was free from work.
I had been coming here ever since I was a child until I grownup, forgetting about the place because its main attraction is children’s meals and the food tastes bland compared to the other fancy places that serve more adult-oriented dishes. Even though, we are here to reminisce my old times.
We exited our car and walked towards the front door, opening it to step inside the warm atmosphere of the McSmiling burger joint. It was quite crowded even on a Sunday evening, which meant most of the people who came here were probably children and families. We made our way through the crowd and sat down at the table near the window.
“So you do not mind…?” Claire blushed and looked away from me while her face turned bright red. “You know…” she muttered. Dad glanced over to us and smiled, “it is fine Claire, I already told you that I approved your date with my son.”
Claire quickly composed herself as she took a deep breath and continued. “Adam, we have been friends for years now,” she said looking me in the eye, trying to sound serious. “And while we do not interact with each other that much, I want to say that I had a crush since the day we met. And yes, Adam, I am sure that what we share right now is just friendship, but-“
She paused there and took another deep breath before continuing, “But I do feel like something more than that,” her words were sincere, even though they sounded awkward. She then placed both hands on the table, resting them on top of one another. Her cheeks flushed red again and she looked away from me. “I guess this would be a good time to tell you that we should get to know each other personally, Adam.”
She…she really liked me? I never thought that anyone would have a crush on someone mundane and boring like me. But the look in her eyes when she gazed at me made me believe that what she felt was real. “Claire,” I interrupted, “I do not know if I share these feelings like you have, but-“
“No, Adam,” she cut me off, “you do not need to answer anything. You can simply say no without hurting my feelings. This is all new for me too so I understand that it might be weird to hear or accept, but please give me a chance.”
Richard chimed in our conversation, “Adam, your dad told me that you were always such an introvert, and now, you have finally found yourself a girl that you could fall for,” he said with a smile on his face. He was probably excited about Claire’s news.
Dad huh, I did not know that he would tell him about m introvert nature. I was never interested in making friends, and I only socialize with people who are close to me. However, I do not mind having acquaintances as long as they are respectful enough to talk politely.
I sighed and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. After taking some moments to gather my thoughts together, I decided my answer carefully. “Claire,” I began, “lets try to start our date tomorrow. I want to see if we are compatible before committing to something like this.”
Her reaction was nothing short of shock. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened, while she stared at me with disbelief written all over her face. I knew that I had shocked her with my response because she started fidgeting and playing with the ends of her hair nervously after a few seconds before a sudden smile appeared on her face.
“You are joking, right?” She asked incredulously, “that would be wonderful! Tomorrow? I will pick you up from your home, okay? We can go out to watch some movies together in the theater.”
She appeared so happy, but there was also a hint of fear in her voice, unsure of what this date could lead into. “Sure,” I said with a warm smile on my face, “but I hope you do not mind going to one movie and then we call it night.”
“Oh no, I love movies!” Claire exclaimed happily, “I will ensure that I won’t forget our date,” she stood up. My dad then stared at her for a moment before asking where she was going, resulting in her smiling back and waving goodbye to us.
“You are leaving us?” Richard commented with confusion written all over his face, “how can you go home without us? You did not bring your car, did you?” He added.
Claire looked at him with confident eyes as she answered, “no, but I can take the bus or train. I am going to prepare for tomorrow and please do not take this the wrong guys, but I truly thanked you all for bringing even though we did not start eating until I decided to leave.”
I chuckled and nodded with a smile, “it is okay Claire, you can go ahead and prepare for tomorrow, we are fine here.”
She smiled and waved goodbye to us again as she started to walk away from the table while my father frowned at me. “You sure you want to see this girl again?” My dad asked seriously, “are you ready to take this relationship of yours and this girl serious? I am happy for you, but I want to know if you are really prepared to do so.”
I sighed and shook my head, “dad, you do not have to worry about anything, everything is under control. As I mentioned before, I will just start a date with her tomorrow, to know if we are compatible and such? Besides, it was nice seeing Claire again. We can always hang out with them in the future, right?”
My dad’s expression turned into relief as he nodded, “yes, I guess so. Just be careful with relationships, son,” he warned me, “you never know what could happen.”
“I shall keep that in mind, thanks for the advice dad.”
Richard stretched his arms, yawning in the process, “cool, can we start getting our food already?” He added with a tired voice, getting up from the seat and went towards the crowded line to get his food.
Dad turned his head at me and smiled like usual, “son, what do you want? There are burgers, fries, pizza, hot dogs, and sandwiches here. Whatever your heart desires, I am sure there is something for everyone,” Sol said with a warm smile.
Oh boy, there are sure a substantial amount of things that I want to pick. I stared back at him, trying to conceive a good answer, “one burger with no pickles, large fries and average soda,” I finally answered.
He got up, heading to the crowded line that leads to the counter tables of the employers taking the customers meals as I watched them from afar. My dad ordered two burgers for himself along with three sandwiches while Richard bought one sandwich. It took them some time to wait until our orders were served by the workers behind their counters, but it was all worth the effort as Richard and my dad returned to our table with a tray full of food.
I immediately grabbed one of the trays with my order on the table, “finally, some good old American food,” I muttered sarcastically, looking at my tray. “So many options here,” I commented, scanning through each of the choices available for me to choose from. “It is going to be hard deciding which to pick.”
“Just shut up and eat already Adam,” Richard jokingly replied, sitting down next to me with his own tray as we began eating our food together. We ate in silence, just munching away at our burgers and sandwiches as we chat about random things such as work, sports, television shows, movies, music, hobbies and other trivial topics. I found myself enjoying the company of my dad and friend despite being an introvert.
After finishing our meals, Richard stood up, “hey man, you want to go get some ice cream or something?” He asked, turning towards me with a cheerful smile.
Ice cream, seriously? What does he think, that we are still children? Well, it will not hurt to try some dessert after this meal of ours. Besides, I am sure there is already a public ice cream machine around here, so why not?
Richard and I went to find the public ice cream machine while dad stayed back at our table to finish up his last sandwich. The two of us found an ice cream vending machine. There were a few people taking turns using the vending machine. After their done, Richard took his turn to buy ordinary vanilla ice cream with cone for himself, standing beside him waiting patiently.
He looked over at me, smiling with served ice cream cone in one hand, “how about you, what flavor do you want?” He inquired.
“I would like to have chocolate,” I replied, trying to sound convincing.
Richard laughed, “come on man, don’t tell me that you are really going to eat your ice cream with that emotionless face of yours?” He teased me as I just remained silent without replying to his question. He placed the serving of ice cream attached to a plastic spoon in a paper cup, giving it to me, “here you go.”
With no further words, I went back to my table followed by Richard, where dad is patiently sitting down waiting for us. I sat down across from him, holding my cup of ice cream, “want it?” I asked him.
“Thank you son but I am full already,” he answered. We both had a laugh at that. Dad and I chatted with each other while we waited for Richard. “So what do you think” My father asks me.
“Well…” I started, “nothing surprising about re-visiting my childhood restaurant. It has been pretty nostalgic actually,” I said.
Dad smiled, “that is good to hear son. And it looks like they still use the same machines here too,” he remarked with a nod regarding the old vending machines.
“This place never changes,” I said, taking a bite of the ice cream with my plastic spoon. Its chocolate flavor was quite nice and refreshing after my meal. The coldness of the ice cream felt pleasant against my tongue while also feeling somewhat comforting. I am glad that I decided to get this.
“That’s true. Everything remains the same here as it did years ago,” dad agreed, “except for some minor details,” through his eyes I could see he had something else on mind. “Like the way they serve their ice cream.”
I looked up at him, “what do you mean?” I asked.
He continued, “the reason they kept the old ice cream vending machines without upgrading them is because they were more economical than purchasing new ones,” he said.
“I see,” I answered in realization. “So they are just keeping these old popular ice cream vending machines, pretty smart,” I added.
My father nodded, “they want to keep their customers coming back by giving the best quality service, which includes providing the same taste as it was before.” He paused for a moment, “but why does that remind me of something?”
“Reminds me of you what, dad?” My voice echoed between us, curiously plastered on my face.
“It reminds me of an autistic boy from my past,” he answered while reminiscing, “someone who I tried to save but failed as my patient committed prior from giving him his favorite ice cream as a gift after I parted ways with his parents,” his voice became solemn and melancholic.
I furrowed my brows, “then what happened?”
He sighed in sadness, “he died shortly after giving him his ice cream. I..I did not know that he was allergic to chocolate,” tears began rolling down his cheeks. “Dad,” I exclaimed, “you cannot blame yourself for this,” I went over him and gently patted him on the back, “you did not know.”
He sniffled, “and yet…it haunts me everyday…”
We stayed like that for a while until we both got our emotions under control again. “Dad,” I started once he was ready to continue, “did you ever try to discover how he died?
A grim sad smile appeared on his face, “yes, I did and when I learnt about his death, the memory of that poor boy will always be in my mind,” he said, wiping away his tears, looking at me with worry, “I do not want to lose you too,” I gave him a reassuring hug.
“You won’t,” I said into his ear, “because if there is one thing I learned in life is that no matter what happens, I will survive, and I will get stronger because I have you with me,” I smiled confidently.
