Here is one reason why I pay a hefty cell phone bill every month without flinching despite being a freelancer without a fixed monthly income.

All-you-can-eat chocolat fondu with mon homme on a grey, wet and chilly Sunday evening – très romantique. Eli had a great time smearing melted chocolate across my face while I whimpered, “Why are you so mean to me?” And we never trusted the other to feed us again, not!

Funny story: I was sitting at the table looking at the menu when Eli walks in, looks at me, I smile at him enthusiastically and he smiles back. He takes his time to roll up the umbrella, all the while the two of us are smiling at each other. Perhaps a tad too eager with our smiles because out of the corner of my eye, I saw a waiter looking back between the two of us with many speech bubbles above his head.

Scenario I: Blind date. Both relieved the other party did not use fake photos.

Scenario II: Old friends with interest but no action.

Actual scenario: We had overestimated the social activity of Vancouverites on a rainy Sunday evening. You would think Vancouverites would pour onto the streets on rainy days as they would for Pride Parade, after all rain and Pride, nothing out of the extraordinary here. Being a woman, my head thinks about a million things surrounding an activity. Naturally, I fret about where to park right smack in the middle of busy downtown shopping street. I ask Eli to pull into the first spot I see, which isn’t too bad – just ten meters away from the café.

But why park ten meters away when there is a spot right in front of the café? It was waiting for us. So while I took a seat at our table, Eli moved the car. The waiter with the many speech bubbles had missed watching us walk in together and only caught the over-enthusiastic silent exchange between two people madly in love with the other.

SO MUCH FUN!

This would not have been such an easy find without the very handy mobile Google Map app that performed an immaculate and swift search of “fondue”, beating the time it took us to decipher our food cravings while leaving the gym and getting to the highway.