c h a p t e r  t e n .
(part two)

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Love is a curious thing. Perhaps it is most curious in its duality, and how the word can mean one thing to one person and something entirely different━opposite, even━to another. Some might say that love is everything, others that it is nothing. Either would be correct, but both are wrong.

                So how does one define love?

                Is it a feeling? An emotion? An old-fashioned notion, or a prelude to the joys of heaven? All of the above, although not one of them is the answer on its own.

                For Chen, the idea of falling in love was two things; an escape, and a premonition. In one way it was an escape from the chaos that was his brain at every moment of his existence. The very first time that he had laid eyes upon Wendy, he felt the raging tempest within his mind settle into his subconscious. He didn’t feel the need to observe her every facet as he mentally composed a paragraph about her; her appearance, her voice, her personality, her mannerisms. As if she was a character in one of his books whom he had to introduce properly. The memories of his parents and their relationship that had been doomed from the start didn’t even cross Chen’s mind when he considered that he might want to date this barista at The Roost. He had started to question the things that he didn’t want.

                As for Wendy, the idea of falling in love was also two things, but for her, those two things were adventure and discovery. She had always been the simple type. Wake up with the sun, make coffee, eat breakfast, work, eat lunch, work some more, maybe walk around town or go to the library, eat dinner, study, go to bed. And she had always been perfectly content with that. For years, she floated along amongst her routine current of life. From the first moment that she laid eyes upon Chen, however, she felt something new within her━a sense of curiosity for the ‘outside’ world, a thirst for journeys to far-off lands, an overwhelming desire to find out what else life could possibly have in store for her. She had started to question the things that she wanted.

                Neither Chen nor Wendy knew what love was, but no one really does. Because of the immense magnitude of the word, both of their personal definitions were perfectly acceptable.

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Dinner was fantastic but the conversation over dinner was far better. The monetary due was horrendous, but what had transpired between Chen and Wendy as a result of the two spending their evening at the restaurant made it all well worth it.

                After leaving the restaurant, Chen drove to the university’s theatre building. He and his date had excellent seats in the middle of the fifth row from the front. Just like back at the restaurant, Wendy sat in silent admiration like a young child━she was in awe of the theatre; its modest grandeur and the atmosphere with its autumnal decorations and people (technical workers, ushers, stagehands, patrons and guest alike) all dressed up in season-appropriate formalwear.

                Chen just watched her. Her unassuming nature fascinated him. She fascinated him.

                All of the other women who had ever been in his life were nothing like Wendy. His mother was soft spoken and timid in nature, his stepsister was the complete opposite. The girls he had dated in high school and college (none of those relationships had lasted more than a few weeks) were all mostly the same; pretty, smart and kind enough but not at all aware that ‘dark and brooding’ often meant ‘unusual and complicated’ as well.

                Somehow, Wendy didn’t seem to find him unusual or complicated. She treated him like he was a ‘normal’ person, even after she caught him staring off into space when a sudden abstract concept had come to his mind and he had gone off into a reverie to ponder it. Even after he mentioned that he had once ghostwritten a softcore a novel as a last resort attempt to make enough money to pay his rent (she had made a disapproving facial expression,