Text conversations between friends can always border on the extreme
Hannah had met Michael, and was now discussing her potential relationship with him to her friend Natasha.
Natasha asked for his Instagram profile and after Hannah swung her his username, Natasha replied in a few minutes the following: “When you realise all he can offer you is a good dick and a couple free drinks every other weekend, let me know yeah”
“How can you tell that though? He was nice yesterday, we meeting next week” Hannah text her back
“I said let me know init. Trust me. Men are all the same. Especially those ones who wear silk shirts in a club with the open buttons. You’ll see.”
Natasha sent a screenshot of his Instagram page. The photo was Michael, sunglasses on forehead, wearing a white silk shirt which had the top 2 buttons undone showing his chest off, while he was leaning up against the bar with a champagne in his hand.
Hannah chuckled as she saw the text while sitting on her sofa
“I saw that,” she text back, “but that pic is from 2 years back. He grown now”
“Han” Natasha replied, “I’m tellingggg you, any man who has done that shit in a club never grows. But do you init”
“I’ll keep you updated” Hannah replied, inserting a smiley emoji to satisfy all sides
A week later Hannah met up with Michael and they went for dinner at Nando’s.
“Nando’s on first date? Is that how you move yeah?” Hannah asked as they entered the restaurant. She was wearing a low cut black dress and had her hair straightened so it covered just below her neck and with minimal make up on as well as a pair of flats, she felt overdressed for Nando’s but didn’t want to say so
Michael laughed, “You said you liked chicken init? I could’ve just took you to local bossman round my endz init”
They both laughed but Hannah wasn’t happy with this but decided to go along with it anyway. Her dad always told her to take a man’s word as it was, as going beyond that is just asking for trouble, he taught her that if a man is lying, he will reveal all when you aren’t trying to get that information as the truth always comes to light eventually. She had a flashback of him hammering the living room table when emphasising his point ‘Men say what they mean and mean what they say. A boy tickles your ears! Know the difference’
They sat down and had a courteous meal, splitting a sharing platter
Even when the food was consumed, Michael was still probing Hannah’s eating choice
“You’re the first person I know who has ever ordered anything less that ‘Hot’ for the sauce yano. Like who even eats Lemon & Herb, I hear the sauce and that but the actual seasoning.”
Hannah smiled and noticed his chubby cheeks. He was smiling back and when he did this, it gave him the slightest of dimples. She took his comment as gentle banter and replied
“I can’t eat that much spicy food. I don’t know why but I get these really bad break outs if I eat too much of it so I’m trying to look after my skin at the moment so I thought that just for today, I will eat the Lemon & Herb. I normally get the Extra hot annnddd throw on the Extra hot sauce. So, we got a problem or what?”
They both smiled at each other as Michael asked for cheesecake desserts.
After eating the cheesecakes and Michael paying, they left the restaurant.
Walking round the corner Michael, sweating from his forehead from the heat of his meal still, decided to take a risk
“My friend works at a hotel and can get us a room for tonight, if you want?”
They stopped at the crossing. Hannah looked him up and down, smiling and replied “I’d like that”
Michael put his hand out, she responded to the gesture and grabbed his as they crossed the road. By the time they had crossed the road, it had started to rain.
“Wear my jacket to cover your dress” Michael said as he took his coat off and handed to her
“Gentleman as well” Hannah replied
“Here, let me help”
Under the covers of the buildings surrounding them, Hannah turned around and Michael placed the coat on her, left arm then right, and then turned her around and kissed her, in the street under the lampposts. The world froze for both of them in that moment as their lips locked, electricity flowed through both of them and when Michael finally came away from her, he struggled to speak for a few moments.
“Wow” was all he could say as Hannah looked back at him, licking her lips before biting them
“How far is the hotel?” she asked
“5 minutes this way” he replied
They reached the hotel in 2 and a half
3 years later, a week before their wedding, Michael was staring at Hannah in their flat around his parents. She was attempting to entertain Michael’s parents and he had just finished washing up dinner.
“Han, we get married next week” he said
She stopped talking to Michael’s mum and looked at him, her face beaming with delight at his excitement
“I know… it’s crazy right?!”
“It is… can you tell that story again? I want to hear it again.”
“Which one’s that?” she replied
“You know, the night of the hotel, how you nearly never came…”
She laughed out loud and looked at Michael’s parents
“Really? But you’ve heard it at least 3 times”
“Come on. I want to laugh again, we get married next week”
“Fine,” she said, looking at Michael’s parents as she told it, “My friend Natasha called me an hour before I met you saying I shouldn’t and I’m making a massive mistake because guys like you are terrible”
“You hear that Mum? I was terrible,” Michael said as his mum laughed, “and she was judging me off of what again…?”
“Your Instagram page”
“And not just my Instagram page but….”
“That damn white silk shirt”
“The shirt I’m wearing right now you mean?”
“Exactly”
Hannah laughed
“You’re such an asshole Michael”
“But I love it… remind me what Natasha’s doing again. Mum, Dad, you’re going to love this”
“She just broke up with her latest boyfriend”
“And she told you not to date me….” They were all laughing at this point
“And I was close to doing it when you took me to Nando’s, remember!” Hannah intervened
“I remember Nando’s babe, you passed the test though and here we are”
“What test was that then, please tell me again Magic Mike”
“If you’d have turned down Nando’s I wouldn’t have wanted to date you again, I ain’t never told you that have I?”
They all laughed and Michael and Hannah had a quick look at the engagement rings on their fingers before carrying on their evening, celebrating their love