“So…what do you do for work?”

“…not much.”

“Like…boring work?” Sam asked before instant regret struck him on the head, “No! I mean…ordinary work? But like not in a bad way…”

“Um…I wouldn’t say so.” Belle looked down at the swirling fluid in the cup, and her eyes became fixated on it.

There was another bout of silence, and Sam took a sip of his own drink. When they walked in, they certainly looked like a pair of lovebirds, but those birds have long since passed away after a few failed attempts at getting the conversation going.

“What about…you?” Belle was the next to attempt to break the silence, and Sam looked away from his own drink and met her gaze like the polite young man he is.

“Mine’s definitely boring, which is why I hoped yours would be exciting…” Sam sighed, “You know how you sometimes might feel trapped in life, not going anywhere and also having nowhere to go. Spinning your wheels and grinding in place?”

Belle’s eyes widened slightly when Sam hid behind his hands, “Sorry…I don’t want to turn this into a therapy session if that’s even how it works.”

“I totally get that.” Belle nodded intently, and her blonde and black hair bobbled up and down with the movements, “What do you do outside of work?”

“The most normal things ever.” Sam chuckles, “I work out to stay somewhat healthy, and I play video games.”

“Oh! I like video games.” Belle smiled, “They are a big time sink though, but you can go wherever you want from home!”

“Do you play any?” Sam’s eyes lit up, and a shared interest finally came within his reach.

“Not anymore…” Belle shook her head, “It’s been so long…”

“What do you spend your time on then?” Sam asked with a hint of pain in his voice, the topics of conversation slipping out of his grasp.

“I travel around, and I visit different places…” Belle looked into Sam’s eyes, and their gaze met. Her mouth opened, but she hesitated before closing them once again.

“Like…all the time? What do you do on a weeknight?” Sam continued, trying to draw more out of her, but she seemed content to let the conversation die right there.

How the hell do people even do this? Sam wondered. First dates are awkward, difficult, and just straight-up draining for the soul, and despite his best efforts, this was still far worse than the interview he had to do to get his shitty job. The conversations should flow like the water! There should be an equal exchange of information, and…

Are they just not meant to be? Is this how it is? Is it him? Is it all his fault? Should he reinstall the annoying dating apps again? Maybe get drunk?

Sam hesitated, his mind strolling over to yet another pre-meditated topic that they could talk about, yet at that moment, that one thing on his mind overcome all else.

“Why…would you ask me to be your boyfriend if…” Sam said, finally generating a phrase that he considered as appropriate, “I am not super handsome, or rich, or super interesting or funny. I am inexperienced with love, I don’t know how first dates are supposed to go, and I feel like I am boring here by being here…”

“Do you?” Belle looked at him, “I don’t feel bored!”

“But I thought we are supposed to be getting to know each other during the first date, or…do something fun…”

“Do you want to do something?” Belle asked suddenly, and she reached her hand out to him, “Go somewhere? I can take you. Wanna come?”

“Damn right I do.” Sam rose up, downing his drink and taking Belle’s hands, “I need to redeem myself...so where are we going?”

A series of glowing lines pulsated from under Belle’s jacket, and a surge of warmth filled her fingertips before a gust of wind wrapped around their bodies as a dark orb abruptly materialized in front of the two of them. The orb started at the size of a table tennis ball floating in between him and her before rapidly expanding to about two meters in radius. It swept forward, warping both Sam and Belle away from the coffee shop until he found floating himself in the infinite abyss of space all of a sudden.

“When you said go somewhere, this wasn't what I expected...” Sam sighed when Belle’s body froze before she waved her hands around in a panic, "was my conversation skill so bad that you had to drug my drink…?"

“No no no no! This is real! It’s all real!” Belle said, pinching Wu on the cheek as he squealed in pain, “ Sorry! I am sorry! I got too excited that we can go somewhere, I didn’t even tell you what’s going on…”

“So it was that bad, huh?” Sam closed his eyes and let a tear of both pain and embarrassment drift away.

“You will get better.” Belle giggled, “We are out in space. Well, where do you think we are?”

Sam glanced down, and the size of the earth was so small that it felt unreal. Far out in the distance in the other direction were the grey outlines of the moon. With a squeeze of his hand, Belle gracefully floated around Sam, leading him to spin gently as he watched the clouds of stars and constellations rotate about him.

“We are in Earth's orbit…but how?” Sam asked, “Are you alien? Here to abduct me? Conduct experiments? Are teleportation technologies possible?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No, no, no, and yes.” Belle said, closing into Sam as he picked up her other hand and examined the gloating lines that pulsed with golden energy. It was the same kind of energy that initiated the teleportation just now.

“So it is some sort of a technology.” Sam leaned in close and examined Belle’s hands before backing away and staring straight at her face. By all accounts, she looks human. An extraordinarily attractive one at that. At the same time, despite floating in space, he’s still feeling a firm pressure under his feet “You with any governments? This is some sort of…simulated gravity?”

“No and yes.”

“You are not going to tell me the truth right away, are you?” Sam sighed when Belle smiled and shook her head.

“If you want to go back, I will let you.” She placed both hands around Sam’s face and leaned in close, “But if you choose to stay with me, then we can go on dates all over the galaxy. Go to places you never thought possible, never thought existed, and…much much more…”

“And in time, you are going to tell me everything?” Sam asked as Belle lowered her head and her bangs draped over her beautiful eyes.

“In time, I will.” Belle’s hands were warm, and the pressure around Sam’s face increased slightly before she relaxed and looked at him squarely in the eye, “I understand if you don’t trust me, and I understand if you are scared, but-”

“I am fine.” Sam placed his hands over Belle’s as she smiled with relief, “Please don’t send me back to that cafe. Their coffee sucks. You said we are going to go and do something, right? Then let’s get going.”

“Yes!” Belle threw both hands overhead, and accidentally launched Sam overhead like a rag-doll before a few droplets of coffee made their way back up the digestive tract, “Where we are going…their food’s going to blow your mind.”

To put things in perspective, it’s only been a few days since Sam met Belle right outside a temple that’s closed at night. They went on a first date at a cafe thanks to Sam’s suggestion, and it sucked. In fact, it sucked so bad that Belle literally had to show off her physics-defying technology and take them to a ‘jump point’ located above geostationary orbit over the Earth so they can ride along the galactic highway and get the hell out of there.

She said that he will get better, but for real though? Is she gonna take them to a whole new universe next time? He was literally asking about what she does after work when she can do this?!

After god knows how long of travel and with Sam pondering everything about his existence, and his dating game, they have arrived. As the paths formed by stars rapidly moving past them at blinding speed finally started to dissolve, replaced by a series of blinking dots and the local star fields settling down and moving far slower than ever before, Sam found himself floating among a forest of generally slow rotating asteroids orbiting about a yellow gas giant around an unrecognizable red dwarf. As he looked up, if up even has any functional meaning in space, he can spot planet-sized vortices on the surface of the gas giant with bouts of lightning coming from within.

So much has happened in that short span of time. His entire worldview was thrown into the garbage, and everything he’d ever known from watching physics documentaries turned out to be ancient blabbers to Belle. Well, at the very least, he got to hold hands with someone pretty.

“You are doing great.” Belle said encouragingly before she handed a trio of pills to Sam, “The red pill is for processing languages universally, the blue pill is for the headache you will feel soon after the first ride on the highway.”

“And what does the yellow pill do?” Sam asked, taking the first two and tossing it into his mouth before Belle sent him a spherical water container that contained a small opening with water waiting within and ready to eject into his mouth.

“It’s candy.” Belle smiled, “To make you think I am not a bad girlfriend.”

“I mean.” Sam looked around and pointed at a pair of slow-moving asteroids that crashed into one another and shattered into millions of pieces before those rocky shards disintegrated upon contact with the shields of the floating structures all around him, “If I say that you are, will you leave me here?”

“No.” Belle shook her head.

“Good.” Sam squeezed her hand, “Because I gotta go to work on Monday.”

Belle looked at him seriously for a moment before she cracked and laughed as she hopped forward toward the space stations right in front of them. Sam was dragged along, though his mind was still fixated on how exactly gravity worked around her/ Had he figured all of this out, then he wouldn't have become a physics graduate that ended up with a corporate consultancy job.

By the time they finally made it to the front side of the space station, he spotted a glowing sign that are built into a large shiny metal sheet. Dozens of puncture holes filled the sign, an indication of asteroid damage. The writing on it was unsurprisingly alien, but the texts seemed to wiggle and dance before it stretched to a childish scribble version of English words. But once Sam read the name, it was actually rather ironic; an inappropriately chosen font for an appropriately named establishment.

“So when you say blow your mind…” Sam pressed his lips together, and he looked to Belle who was more excited than ever.

“That was the joke!” Belle nodded with energy shooting out from her eyes, “Out of the unlimited number of chain restaurants all over the galaxy, this is the rising star! New establishments are popping up everywhere!”

“I…don’t even know to respond to that…” Sam sighed.

“See, my joke is as bad as your first date!” Belle waved his hands back and forth, “We are meant for each other!”

“Thanks…”

“Trust me!” Belle guided him forward, “This is going to be the best time of your life! I haven’t heard a single bad review about Blow Your Mind Kitchen on the Net yet!”