The following Friday night David arrived at college in a navy three-piece Trent Nathan suit with a bouquet of long-stemmed roses wrapped in white tissue paper and organza wire ribbon. Because he was slightly on the early side of punctual, Ash had to leave him in the foyer with Belle while she rushed upstairs, dumped the flowers and struggled with her dress. She put on her jewellery amid curses and fumbling fingers, and rummaged through the bottom of her wardrobe for her favourite Diana Ferrari black sandals with padded insoles. Attired to her satisfaction, she presented herself before Elise and Allie for inspection, and, at their approving nods, calmly descended the main stairs in her wine-red chiffon drape-front dress (mother-of-pearl Cue Design linen jacket under one arm) pausing at the bottom to make a suitable impression on her date.
Five minutes was all it took for Belle to extract from David all she needed to know about his job, family background, hobbies and interests. When he paid Ash some very flattering compliments about her appearance, the sincerity of his tone caused Belle to give Ash the thumbs-up behind his back as he came forward kiss Ash's cheek.
"Have a lovely dinner!" Belle called after them as David opened the passenger door of his silver Ford Mustang coupé and helped Ash inside. Ash waved - first at Belle, then at Elise and Allie who were peeping through the landing window. David started the engine and they were off.
He took her to an Italian restaurant called "30 Something" on the 31st floor of the Hotel Inter-Continental. It boasted 270 degree views of the harbour framed by sweeping drapes of taffeta from the ceiling to floor. He had taken great precautions to make reservations beforehand and they were early enough to be the first guests to be admitted and seated at the best possible table for the best possible view of the sunset over entrées of herb bread, bruschetta and antipasto. For mains he had smoked salmon and she, a lasagne with seven different kinds of mushrooms. He told her about his job at KPMG as a consultant, sailing on the harbour on Wednesday nights, and the summer he backpacked around Europe. She talked about studying in Australia, living in college and her career ambitions. For dessert they shared ricotta cheese cake and coconut and toasted almond chocolate torte sprinkled with icing sugar. They concluded the meal with iced chocolate, and sat talking for a long time until they noticed that most of the other patrons had left and the maître d' was sending discreet glances their way. David called for the bill and settled it with his American Express card. He helped Ash into her jacket and drove her back to college. The clock struck midnight as she was getting out of the car. He bid her a friendly goodnight, asked to see her again next week, and drove away with a wave, leaving her to climb the stairs to her room, a small and silly smile playing around her untarnished lipstick.
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