The 20 Dates Challenge

Twenty-Four - Date Number Nine

Date Number Nine

Alex and I are sitting at a table outside Max Brenner at Southbank. He pulls a very crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

‘Nine,’ he reads, ‘write a story together, outside at a café, and ask strangers when you get stuck.’

‘We’re going to write a story?’ I laugh.

‘Yep,’ he pulls a notebook and pen from his bag, ‘let’s start. What is the story gonna be about?’

‘How about we make it about the Challenge?’ I suggest.

He thinks about it for a moment, then smiles and nods.

‘That could work,’ he laughs, scribbling down a note in his book, ‘characters?’

‘Well, the guy should be Alex and the girl should be Savannah,’ I say.

‘Really? Can’t you be a bit more imaginative?’

‘You come up with something,’ I say.

‘Fine, his name is Luke and her name is Leia.’

‘And you think I have no imagination.’

‘Fine, let’s ask someone.’

And before I can stop him, he’s turned around to the couple behind him.

‘Excuse me,’ he says to the man.

They guy turns around and raises an eyebrow at Alex.

‘I was just wondering if I could have your name?’ Alex asks, raising his own eyebrow.

‘Corey,’ the man laughs.

‘And the name of your beautiful girl here?’ Alex says, pointing the pen at the girl sitting across from Corey.

‘Ria,’ Corey replies.

‘Thank you so much, you’ve been a great help,’ Alex turns back to me, ‘Corey and Ria. What do you think?’

‘I like it,’ I say.

‘So, there needs to be a complication,’ he says, sticking the pen in his mouth.

‘Oh, I have an idea.’

‘Go.’

‘Corey wants Ria to be his partner for the challenge, but Ria is already doing the challenge with someone else,’ I say.

He scribbles it down.

‘I like it,’ he says.

‘How should it start?’

‘I have no idea,’ he laughs, ‘I suck at English stuff.’

‘How about it starts with Corey thinking about how much it sucks for Ria to be going out with another guy,’ I say.

He smiles and scribbles it down.

‘And then he should try talking her into going out with him instead. Only make it like he’s trying to convince her it’s just as friends for the challenge.’

He continues to write.

‘And then she should agree. And Ria’s boyfriend finds out and starts a fight with Corey.’

‘Good, good,’ he laughs, ‘anything else?’

I think for a minute.

‘Nope, that’s all I got.’

A waitress places a hot chocolate and a choc-banana pizza down in front of each of us and we dig in. The food is absolutely amazing.

‘We should get back to the story,’ he laughs when the plate is empty of everything but crumbs.

I take the notebook from him.

‘You’ve written nothing,’ I laugh.

I stare down at the picture of scribbles. My name is scrawled over the sheet, as well as his name. I smile to myself. In amongst the curls and swirls are little bits of other words, The 20 Dates Challenge, climbing trees, that poor book store, wocka wocka, and so much more.

‘I think we failed this date,’ he says, ‘I got a little distracted. We may need to repeat this date next weekend.’

‘No,’ I say quickly, ‘this works.’

‘How?’

‘The challenge was to write a story, right?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Technically, this is a story. It’s our story,’ I smile shyly.

He reaches over and takes the book from my hands. He scans the page and smiles.

‘You’re right,’ he says.

‘I always am,’ I laugh.

He takes a photo of the page, and then photos of us and the restaurant.

‘Date number nine complete,’ he laughs.