So after the night, I got over my initial nervousness (not many guys can make me feel that, clear sign he's someone special!) and I started being cool with myself and the joy of getting to know him. So we started to know each other through casual conversation, he returned my external, sometimes we talked about One Piece or the final exam and mundane things in our life.
One night, I was driving back home for my Master class and to play with my nephew and niece. Suddenly he sms me the usual I hate 'buat ape tu?' sms. That was the first time he sent me that kind of sms and that's also the first time I felt happy receiving that kind of sms. The fact that each will cost me 50 cents faded, I was overwhelm by the gesture he did to me at that time, the fact that he took the time and trouble to send me the message.
I told him that I was going home to see my nephew and niece and he was surprised to find out that I was already an aunt. It was a short sms moment as he wanted me to be careful on the road. But in my heart, I knew this moment has started something, it was telling me that he also wanted to get to know me better that both of us are ready to get to next phase of our friendship.
I found myself wanting to get closer to him but I didn't want to be too obvious, I need to play the game well, I didn't want to crowd him or turned him off by being too aggressive. My mind was reeling at that time, what can I do to have a good time together but not being too forward? The answer came easy to me. A get together lunch! I figured that way I can kill two birds with one stone, One: I can get a hang out time with him like I hoped and Two: I would be able to demonstrate my cooking skill because I always believe a way through a man's heart is by his stomach.I hosted a lunch hour with him and my colleagues and as usual, I made my sure-kill menu, Bolognaise! And thank goodness, he loved it! Afterwards, he sent me another sms, thanking me for the trouble that I had preparing lunch. I felt a knot in my stomach that has nothing to do with the food I had just eaten when I received it.
The next week, he asked me for a favor. He wanted to send an article for conference or for publishing(see, I did forget!) and he asked me to review it for grammar errors. I was ok with it and in fact I flattered because out of all English lecturer available around him (let's see, there was me, Reiko, Azu, Julie, Pipa, Piqa...) he picked me! He wanted me, not the others!! Other reason that made me flattered was he recognized me as a competent English lecturer,a pride that I hold dear in my heart. Because in my life right now, aside from marrying him, English has always been the only thing that I feel I have done right in my life. It's my treasure, my gift and my talent. See, I'm not skilled somewhere else, I'm suck at Maths, I'm a terrible housekeeper and I can't draw at all! English is all I got!
What I found out during the checking was with him, it's easy to be honest. Before we start, he asked whether there are a lot to go through in his paper and was it really bad in term of language and grammar. Being Malay, we are taught to be kind and 'berlapik' in our comments and usually I will answer like 'not really' or 'they're ok' if someone asked me that question. But when he asked me that question, I can tell that he can handle the brutal truth so I answered honestly that it's quite bad and there's a lot to go through. I can see his face was dropped a little, but we got over it and went through the checking.
When we went through the checking, I was surprised of how open minded and honest he was with me too. I think he did feel a bit embarrassed because as a full fledged lecturer, there were some errors that he felt he should not have committed but for the benefit of learning, I can see that he put his ego aside, so that he can learn. Another trait that made me become more attracted to him.
During the third lunch, I've forgotten that he was thinner back then.
Continued in part 4...
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