They climbed down taking another route, which brought them out from the other end of the park. This route took them from between the forest area, which was heavily fortified to prevent animal attacks.
This route took was between the two closed-off parts of the forest. There was a small natural alcove by one of the smaller streams where they rested.
He thoughtfully asked her to rest and drink some water while he plucked some black plums to eat.
“Thank you” Rosaline realized she had thanked him quite a bit today. He seemed very tolerant of everything she said or asked. ‘Is he always this good-tempered?’
“Penny for your thoughts?” William interrupted her musings for the first time.
She smiled “Just wondering what to eat for lunch. I’m starving.”
Neither of them knew at this time that he would pull her back from her daydreams countless times in the future and she would always talk about food when asked. This would later go on to be one of their private jokes.
They rested for a while enjoying the plums. William asked her what she would like to eat, and she replied indifferently “Whatever”.
For reasons unbeknownst to her, Rosaline wanted to know what he would do with that.
He brought her to a small cafe named Apextro. He had been there years before with a few friends and had quite liked all the food they had tried, hence he thought it should be a safe option.
Apextro was designed in a way that made the maximum utilization of the limited space, without making it look gaudy or cheap. Both sides of the cafe had glass walls which made everyone in the cafe feel like they were sitting by the window. One side was the forest, while the other faced the road. They had kitchens on both sides. There were 4 different doors, to avoid disturbance as much as possible.
Being an architecture engineer himself, William liked it for the very minimalistic design but felt something was wrong. As soon as Rosaline entered, she began scanning the cafe, subconsciously nodding in appreciation, but frowned soon after. She glanced at William who was looking at her with interest. Looking at the expression on each other’s faces, they were both stunned and then surprised.
They sat at a table overlooking the park and spoke at the same time.
“What is your major?” William asked.
“What did you study?” Rosaline queried.
They were both stunned at a moment before Rosaline giggled. Different from her usual carefree laughter, it still had William spellbound.
“I got a Ph. D. in Architecture and Software design.” William snapped out of his daze and asked. “What about you?”
“Masters in Interior Designs and basic Architecture.” Rosaline smiled.
“You are smart.”
“Was that supposed to be a compliment or are you looking down on my Masters from your double Ph. D.?” Rosaline joked.
William, not expecting a joke, was stunned. He quickly caught up and retorted right away.
“Maybe a little bit of both.”
“Oh really?”
“Of course, I did get my double Ph. D. by 20,” William smirked which made Rosy pout.
“I was actually quite proud of my double Masters before you said that.” “How mean!”
William clicked his tongue. “You sure are smart.” “Threw it in my face right away.”
“Hahaha” “You caught on quickly enough.”