“Half the way to ….” She queried, puzzling over the reference, then her head jerked up, looking into his face searchingly as she blushed slightly.

 “You, you are presumptuous!” She declared, but there was a twinkle in her eyes and a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth that Jason duly noted.

She was not entirely averse to this style of approach, it appeared to Jason, given the twinkle in her eyes and the slight upturning of the corners of her mouth. He was doing better with her than any girl he had ever attempted to chat up in the last three years!

He swapped back to Mandarin.

“”When the enemy gives you an opening, be swift as a hare, and he will be unable to withstand you.” He bowed and then reverted to English. “I can but try, lovely lady. I would truly like to buy you lunch if I may.”

She studied him for a few moments with a crease between her eyes as she considered him. Would she really agree to have lunch with him?

Finally, she asked. “Sun Tzu?”

He was a little surprised by her question, not realizing she was still thinking about the quote. And, of course, his lunch invitation was being simply ignored. That was more the normal response girls gave him. Oh well, so be it, but he decided for one last try and bowed again.

 “Very good. Have you had lunch yet?”

He waved his arm back the way he had come from in the direction of where the food court lay.

She looked annoyed for a second, presumably at his persistence, but found something in his face and smiled.

“No. I was just heading there, in fact.”

He bowed again and then held out his arm with the elbow held out from his body and crooked in the fashion of a medieval prince, inviting her to rest her hand on the back of his hand.

“May I accompany you?” He smiled at her.

This time she surprised him and started to laugh, then obviously recalled his earlier boldness and stifled it. She reached up and placed her hand on his arm.

“Very well. I know I am going to regret this, but your boldness deserves some reward.”

She gave him a quick smile before looking resolutely forward as she accompanied him as they promenaded down the corridor doing their best to imitate a medieval monarch and his lady, the two heavies forming the entourage. Ha! He thought to himself. Boldness actually paid off. Interesting. And even stranger was the manner in which people tended to get out of their way. Weird.

The food on offer was the typical range available at cons. Jason wondered if perhaps the same vendors traveled around the country, inflicting the same, well, not atrocious, but certainly very ordinary, fare on geeks from coast to coast at the highly inflated prices that all such events seemed to require. She didn’t appear overly keen on trying the so-called Chinese food on offer. After a period of unexcited perusal of the various foodstuffs available, they settled on two Caesar salad wraps. Jason went with a latte, feeling the need for caffeine, while his companion settled for an orange juice.