Eye contact was briefly broken in order to order food, but it was back with renewed intensity. There was no conversation as we ate. I glanced up to see Patty give me a meaningful thumbs up, from her side of the café counter. I wasn't ready to call it a victory yet, but prospects were definitely looking up.
The truck ride to Ted's place was also rather silent. Trent just gazed out the open window at the passing scenery. I sensed that he was almost angry about something. I thought back to when I had been a young man. I think I knew what the source of his frustration was. He'd had his future all planned out, but now things were changing on him. He glanced at me and then away and I sensed and unasked question.
"Go ahead and ask it." I said.
He glanced back at me, "Are you trying to set me up with your granddaughter?"
Now there was a question. How to best answer it and remain truthful?
"Do you like her?"
"I don't know yet."
"Well then you have my permission to find out."
His frustration seemed to only go up a notch, with that cryptic answer. He didn't know it yet, but he was already committed to seeing where the road he was embarked on would lead.
"Can I give you some advice that was given to me once?"
He was silent for a while.
"Okay what is it?" He asked his tone reluctantly curious to hear what I had to say.
"Whatever you do don't have sex with her."
"What?" He exploded with in shocked surprise.
So I started to repeat myself, but he waived me to silence.
"I heard what you said!"
More silence followed.
"Why?"
I gave him a reproving look, "Well for two reasons. The first and primary reason being that you shouldn't be doing anything that requires two rings before you have two rings."
He flushed a little and I let that sink in for a while.
"That aside why not?" He asked.
Now that was a sad statement of intent. What a fallen world we lived in.
"The second reason being, that if you give into her, you'll be little better in her eyes than all her other conquests have been. Be the man, stay in control and make her come to you or else she'll come to dominate you and you'll lose whatever self respect you have for yourself."
Trent was shaking his head, "But I don't want to get married yet!"
I nodded, "I know the place you're in right now. You just got out of a very structured environment, where all your decisions were made for you. Now you're out on your own and it's as if you landed down stranded on an alien planet. Somehow you have to go from living dangerously and killing people to taking out the trash and peaceful nature walks in the park. It's not easy."