The eerie glow from the candle at the dinner table made vivid shadows of Bridget and Vinny look like a puppet show on the stucco walls encompassing them. They sat in a secluded smoking section of Woky's Sushi Bar and Grille where it was quiet and nobody could disturb them. Bridget liked the Gadget Man but she still felt a little uneasy around him.
A long white table cloth draped over the table and Bridget kept her right hand in her pocket fondling her cellphone should an emergency break out. A young petite Asian woman with silky jet black hair made the long journey to their table in the back. She had a warming smile showing her pearly whites and Vinny deduced that she obviously didn't smoke. Her perfectly symmetrical eyebrows suggested that they had just been waxed.
“ Are you guys sure you're okay back here? It's kind of dark. Do you need more light?”
Bridget looked over at Vinny awaiting his response. “Oh, we're vampires,” Kidded Vinny, “ We like it dark.” He gave a mischievous smile showing his razor sharp shark teeth. The pretty Asian woman almost believed him when she saw him smile. She looked over at Bridget and smiled then handed them their menus.
“ Hey maybe we could start off with an aperitif.” Suggested Vinny.
“ Excuse me?” Asked the waitress.
Vinny wasn't surprised that she had no idea what he was talking about. “ A drink. What kind of beers you got? We're kind of thirsty.”
The Asian lady blinked a couple of times and then chuckled. “ Oh, we have Corona, Guiness, Amstel Light..”
Vinny cut her off. “ We'll both have a Corona thanks.”
She looked over at Bridget and she concurred by nodding her head. The waitress clapped her hand together and turned around abruptly eager to get away from the cloud of smoke Vinny was creating with his cigarette. The waitress scurried off and Vinny adjusted his eye patch like a proud war veteran. When he looked over at Bridget she quickly averted her eyes but he knew she was watching him.
“So I guess you want to know what happened to my eye?” He finally said.
Bridget was quick to respond. “ Oh, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to.” She said taking in a deep drag of her cigarette.
“ Oh, I don't mind talking about it. Happened while I was in prison. Some guy I squabbled with got me with a lock in a sock. A very common weapon used throughout the prison systems.”
Bridget honestly didn't care about Vinny's situation with his eye. With the heinous monsters she dated in the past, she was far from nit picky. She was just so impressed that a man who purportedly seemed to have his act together was interested in her. The age difference was not a problem either. “ Yeah, I watch the prison shows on television. It showed some toothbrushes with razor blades melted into them. How are the inmates able to make fire?”
Vinny grinned and put his cigarette out in the spotless ashtray. “ Batteries and bread ties usually. There's a lot of McGyvers in jail.”
The pretty Asian woman walked briskly towards them carrying two icy cold Coronas on a brown circular tray. Each one contained a luscious lime perched neatly on the tip of the bottles. She placed the beers in front of them and clicked her pen with great anticipation.
“ Are we ready to order?” She said in a chic voice. They had forgotten to look over the menus but Vinny quickly took over the situation. “ We'll both be having the Sushi and get us both a chicken breast salad with creamy Ranch dressing.”
Vinny had just scored big points with Bridget. She never had a date order her food for her but it was like Vinny read her mind. A chicken breast salad with Ranch dressing was one of her favorites.
The waitress tapped her pen on her note pad and smiled at Bridget. “ We don't have a chicken breast salad with Ranch but we have a chicken Ceasar salad which is almost the same thing.”
“ That will suffice.” He said concurring with Bridget who was smiling like a princess.
“ My name is Mia by the way. I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves.” Said the waitress.
“ We are.” Said Bridget placing her delicate hand over top of the Gadget Man's veiny unsuspecting hand. She was having a good time and falling right into Vinny's trap.
Just as Mia left to go fetch the food a swarthy looking couple in dressy clothes took a seat three tables away. This infuriated Vinny because he wanted the smoking section all to himself. Bridget assured him that it was okay and that the couple wouldn't be able to eavesdrop.
It almost felt like they were sitting at a campfire as they enjoyed the romantic evening and watched the candle flicker making their playful shadows contort on the wall.
The food came very quickly. Vinny knew that the Chinese cooks never lollygagged. Bridget watched Vinny dig into his salad and she decided to start off with her salad as well. Vinny had his salad gone before she even managed to get in 3 bites.
“ Where did you learn to eat like that?” She said halfheartedly.
Vinny looked at her salad as if he was debating whether or not to eat hers as well. “ The service. I was in the Marines. They only gave us 5 minutes to eat.”
Bridget lightly poked a piece of chicken with her fork and popped it into her mouth. “ Well, it's very impressive.” She said with a starry look in her eyes.
“ Yeah, it impresses my mom all the time.” He said pushing his empty salad plate to the side and furtively glancing at his Sushi with disgust. He had never ate Sushi in his life. He slid a bowl of soy sauce in front of him and picked up a spoon. Bridget watched with great fascination as Vinny dipped his spoon in the soy sauce and began eating it like it was soup. He took a couple slurps of the soy sauce then slammed the spoon down on the table nearly causing Bridget to jump out of her seat.
“ This soup is horrible!” He said angrily.
Bridget cupped her hands over her mouth and giggled. “ That's not soup silly that's soy sauce for your sushi!” She said sliding the sushi towards him.
Vinny's face turned flush red with a sheepish look. He pointed towards a dish of yellow mustard. “ Well then what's this stuff for?”
Bridget couldn't tell if he was just trying to play a joke but suddenly realized he was serious. “ That's wasabe sauce. They're both meant for your sushi to be dipped in.”
Vinny was starting to feel really stupid but Bridget remained cool and collected. Then she winced from deducing what had just happened.
"You never ate sushi before have you?"
"No" Confessed Vinny lowering his head in shame. Vinny looked around to see if anyone was listening in. He weighed his options and decided to just come clean.
"I read an article in Men's Health magazine about dating. The article said that a woman is more inclined to accept a dinner date that is very specific verses just being asked out to dinner. Sushi was the only thing that popped into mind" He said dipping some sushi in the wasabe sauce and then inspecting it carefully.
Bridget snorted out a laugh then looked at him skeptically to see if he was serious. He was."Awe that's so sweet!" She said softly,"But seriously though. Those dating tips are to be taken with a grain of salt. It's always best just to be yourself. Women hate it when guys try to put on a show."
Mia swung by just to make sure everything was alright. For a minute Vinny wondered what it would be like to hook up with an Asian woman. They seemed so much more submissive than white girls.
Bridget finished her salad and then Vinny watched her personal demonstration of how to properly eat sushi. Then the inevitable finally happened. Vinny had a hankering for another Corona. A few minutes later another one. Which eventually turned into another one yet. The Gadget Man didn't even realize it but he was getting drunk. He ended up telling Bridget Jones the story from way back when. At least she was starting to look like the real Bridget Jones.
Vinny was telling her about the part when he was at the Terrance Middle School parking lot in the back of a police car and an angry mob set his car on fire. Bridget yawned because Vinny had been droning on and on for quite sometime when she suddenly realized something. Vinny was becoming a garrulous person and it was working on her nerves! Then the witty Bridget came up with an idea as Vinny continued to chatter up a storm. Bridget stretched her arm under the table as far as she could and squeezed Vinny's leg as hard as she could.
The Gadget Man let out a yelp and kicked his leg at her and missed. Bridget giggled as she watched Vinny become disgruntled and look around the room to see if anyone had just witnessed what happened. Bridget was going to die. Maybe even right here and right now.
The other couple several tables away paid no attention to them and seemed to be indulged in a conversation of their own. Vinny glowered at Bridget but she went right on giggling and didn't feel the least bit threatened.
"What'd you do that for?" He asked in a harsh tone of voice.
She looked at him with sparkles in her eyes and cute little dimples on her cheeks. "You were talking too much silly." She said handing him a napkin because he had accidentally spilled some beer on himself while trying to kick her underneath the table.
The Gadget Man's perplexed look lingered a bit and then he let out a momentarily shark tooth smile. The animosity he had towards her vanished into thin air. Bridget had just passed stage 3. Mettle. And she sure had plenty of it.
Vinny looked at his wristwatch which read 11:30pm. While he did so,Bridget noticed the bite marks on his wrist from when Sparky had attacked him. Something seemed mysterious about the Gadget Man and she wondered if he was holding something back. Probably a lot.
Vinny rose from his chair and placed a 20 dollar bill on the table. Bridget grabbed it thinking it was supposed to go towards the bill.
"Did you want me to go up and pay?" She asked.
Vinny pulled on his trousers hitching them up a bit and did a quick look around."No. That's the tip. I'll take care of the bill." He said reaching in his pocket and pulling out a huge wad of hundred dollar bills.
Bridget's eyes looked like they were bulging out of her head when she saw all the money in Vinny's hand. She grabbed her bright orange plastic purse and followed Vinny over to the cash register where he was already helping himself to a complimentary toothpick. Had Vinny robbed a bank? Bridget relinquished the thought and decided that maybe it was just an inheritance from a lost loved one. She was used to paying at least half if not the full bill on first dates. Vinny paid the bill then they wended out into the airy night with Bridget Jones tagging along hanging onto Vinny's back pocket.
As they walked out to his truck the Gadget Man suddenly stopped dead in his tracks like he had stumbled across a dead body. A pang of trepidation engulfed his body like a wave crashing down on him. Up ahead parked right next to his truck was a cruiser with a vigilant police officer sitting in the driver's seat watching his every move. There was no doubt about it. The notorious Bridget Jones had set him up! If I don't know my next move how will they?