Chocolate Cheesecake

Gwendolen Mair

Honey brushed her hair for the fiftieth time. She checked herself in the mirror and straightened her clothes - she'd lost track of how many times she done this.

"He is here!" a voice called with choppy sounding English.

"I'm coming! I'm almost ready!" she hollered back and looked herself over one last time before dashing down the stairs, nearly tripping over her too-high heels.

Honey loved heels, though she lacked the grace to wear them. Being one hundred percent Chinese, she had inherited the unfortunate trait of being dastardly short. Her mother was standing up very straight if she reached five feet flat, and her father wasn't much better. Therefore, Honey loved heels.

The petite girl stopped at the bottom of the stairs to catch her breath, not wanting to appear unladylike. This was her first ever date, after all.

Honey owed it to her heritage most of the time, but her parents were unusually strict, even for being Chinese. They fit the stereotype perfectly; overbearing, pushing her harder than she cared to be pushed, and although she was aware that not all Chinese parents were like this, several of her friends bemoaned the exact same problems.

Being that her parents had... unconventional views of just about everything, Honey had not been able to have a date before the age of seventeen. The only reason that this occasion had been arranged was because her mother realized that to have grandchildren, dating would probably have to be involved. This had initially sat well with Honey, as she had just the person in mind, however, her parents had quite a different idea of the perfect husband to be. Her idea had been six feet with blue eyes and messy blonde hair; Bobby Thistle, in other words. Her parents did not agree with that option, but had only one real requirement: being Chinese.

So now she was setting off on her first date, though not with the blonde by whom she had initially hoped to be courted. The walk to the front door was excruciating. Never before had the trip from the staircase to the front door seemed so treacherous. Being that she'd never been on a date, she was feeling very nervous. All sorts of horrible scenarios began floating into her brain; visions of boring lulls in conversation, or of him being appalled at her lack of manners, or what have you. Every disaster she thought was possible occurred to her, which only made her sweat and become more agitated. Honey thought that if she perspired any further, she and her date just might float away.

The young woman entered the front room where her parents sat interrogating her date. The young man took a small breath and smiled broadly, though it was somewhat more of a deranged smirk than an actual smile.

"Well, I'm ready," she said, forcing her eyes to remain on him. She was fighting a losing battle between her two instincts which were to either look at the cute boy or look at the floor.

"Shall we, then?" he asked politely, quietly excusing himself from her parents' conversation in perfect Chinese (which impressed them greatly, as Honey had never taken to the language). He stood up and came to her side, offering his arm, which she reluctantly took.

"Uh, yes," she felt the strange urge to call him sir. He seemed older for some reason.

Once again he spoke perfect Chinese, departing smoothly, and they were off. Honey sat down in the shiny red car when the door was opened for her.

"My parents... they said your name was Chun Li. Is that right?"

"Yes, my friends call me Chuck, though. And your name is Hui?"

"Everybody calls me Honey," she replied.

"A fitting name for a sweet flower of a woman," he spoke smoothly. She resisted the urge to laugh. That was so obviously meant to sweep her off her feet that it was amusing. She withheld the urge, however, not wanting to offend him.

"Where are we eating?"

"Orange Town Bakery, if that's all right."

"The cheesecake place?" she gasped. Her parents never let her eat sweets if they could help it.

"Yes, they're famous for their chocolate cheesecake," he smiled, proud of himself for picking a place she liked. "I think I may skip dinner to have a piece."

"Me too!" she cried, suddenly feeling much less nervous. They had a common interest: cheesecake! The rest of the car ride to the infamous Bakery was a comfortable silence. Neither felt a strong urge to speak, so they only sat quietly, enjoying the cool evening breeze coming in through the sunroof of his car.

Honey's thoughts began to wander. This seemed very nice. Chun, or Chuck, as he was apparently better known as, was no Bobby Thistle, but he was nice. She thought this might really be fun, despite her previous dread.

Really, she had been dreading. It was more than nervousness, it was a sort of painful anger at her parents for making her endure somebody that they deemed worthy - somebody, she thought, who would be unbearably dry and boring. But this was almost fun. She dared not voice that thought, lest it be jinxed, however.

"We're here," Chun Li opened the car door for her.

"Huh?" she looked up. "Oh! Already?"

He smiled and nodded, helping her out of the car. The two walked inside where they were greeted politely.

"Mr. Li, how nice to see you again!" the greeter said loudly. Chun's eyes focused on a pretty girl in another room briefly before he flushed scarlet and told the man to keep it down in a rather curt way. "Yes, of course, I'm terribly sorry," he hustled off to get their table ready.

"Do you know that girl?" Honey asked innocently. "She's pretty, isn't she?"

"Not as pretty as you," he said quickly. She noticed he had started to perspire as they were shown to their seats, not far from the lovely brunette he'd seen when they first entered.

"So... how old are you?" the young woman asked, trying to make conversation.

"Uh, eighteen," he seemed to be trying to hide behind his menu. "You're seventeen, right?"

"Right," she replied, poking idly at the lemon in her water. She was sure this was a high end restaurant, as she hadn't ordered any lemon water... "So... So... have you graduated?"

"No, I'm a senior," Chun said once again very quickly. He kept glancing toward the pretty girl who seemed to be dining with some girl friends. "And you?"

"Same here," she replied, frowning slightly. What was he doing acting like some sort of over-caffeinated secret agent?! "So do you know that girl?"

"No, she... she's just a girl at school."

"Do you like her?" she asked uncomfortably, stabbing her lemon with a spoon, causing the juice to bubble up, making an odd squeaking sound.

"Huh? Oh, no... no..." he put down his menu, still looking nervous. "I think I'll get the cheecolate chocake."

"What?"

"The Chocolate Cheesecake," he repeated slowly, as if she didn't understand. Honey frowned more deeply and killed her lemon. "Let's order now," he waved the waiter down.

"Two glasses of sparkling grape juice and two chocolate cheesecakes."

"But I didn't say what I wanted," she pouted as the waiter walked off. She had been hoping to try their beef casserole.

"Oh... well, that's okay," he said quickly as the waiter reappeared with the grape juice. She felt a little silly drinking juice out of a goblet, even if it was sparkling. Still, it tasted good, so she could forgive his inconsiderate ordering.

"What kind of music do you like?" she asked.

"Classical..." he mumbled vaguely, staring at the table. "Rap, a bit of old rock."

"Like Metallica?" she asked. "I love old Metallica."

"Yeah, something like that," he replied. Honey sighed and straightened her lacy white shirt - brand new. She felt bad that she'd wasted the first time shirt wear on such this abysmal date. She'd had hope that it would be fun, but he seemed intent on hiding from whoever that girl across the room was. His looking at the table and peering from behind a menu made conversation difficult.

There was a very awkward sort of silence for a while longer and then the Cheesecake came. It was beautiful. Three layers of different colored cake was covered in a thick, chocolate cream cheese outside, topped with a drizzle of strawberry sauce, and garnished with caramel and chocolate. She was ready to dig in.

Unfortunately, at just that moment, the mysterious brunette from across the room glanced over, did a double take, and then stood up. Honey groaned audibly when she stormed over to their table. This was possibly the most monstrous date in all of history. She knew that something dreadful was about to happen.

"Chuck, what are you doing here? Who is this?" she leveled a thumb rudely in Honey's face. Honey sunk into her seat in embarrassment.

"I can explain, Teresa," he stood up quickly, knocking the table and sending the half-empty goblet tumbling onto Honey and all over her brand new shirt. The young woman gasped at the cold liquid running down her front, enraged and mortified all at once. "This is Honey, she's just a..."

"I don't care, it's over!" she stomped away, sending a truly evil glare directly at the soaked young woman.

"Wait, Teresa!" he cried, running after her. Stupidly, he didn't notice that his belt had snagged wthe lacy tablecloth as he passed, and in doing that, dragged the cloth right off the table and onto Honey, both cheesecake pieces and all. She shrieked in surprise and stared between the retreating back of her date and her now ruined shirt. How had this happened?! It had started out so nicely!

The urge to set her head down and weep suddenly overcame her, and she started to do just that. It was like a smorgasbord of humiliation; a buffet of embarrassment. Fate had taken a little of everything, and then proceeded to drop it right on her head! She banged that head softly on the table.

"Don't cry," an accented voice said. The voice sounded distinctly female. It was high and a bit scratchy, as if it had been used all day in a loud way. The accent hinted that she was from New Jersey. "No use crying over that jerk."

"It was my first date..." she sobbed pathetically.

"That's a bummer," the woman who was obviously a waitress said sympathetically as she cleared the fallen dishes and wiped girl down. "It's just one of those things."

"This is the worst thing that's ever happened!" she wailed.

"Your date splitting and spilling some stuff on you?" she asked. "You should be thankful that's the worst! Some of the days I've had, boy..."

"What could be worse?"

"Lots," she said gently, sitting down across from the sullen teen. "But the way I see it, life's like chocolate cheesecake."

Honey raised an eyebrow in a perplexed sort of manner.

"You start out with lots of stuff, flour, sugar, lemon juice, milk, eggs, chocolate..." she pointed at the different bits of cake on the tablecloth. "And you have to use things like flour, though you wouldn't know by tasting it that it has flour in it, because you wouldn't count just that as the only ingredient. And eggs, they're pretty gross raw, not to even mention the lemon juice. Yuck!"

"I'm not following," the girl wiped her eyes, looking more confused than upset now.

"Just wait, you'll see. Now if you take all those yucky things and put in a few good things, like sugar and chocolate, then you get a cheesecake. The point is, the cheesecake is mostly made up of the yucky stuff. Without all the flour and eggs and lemons, you wouldn't get the cheesecake. You'd be really missing out. It's the nasty stuff that makes it have texture - gives it character. Don't you know that without the lemon juice, the cake would be too sweet and you'd get sick of it?"

"I..."

"See, life's like cheesecake. The good stuff's good, but the bad stuff makes it interesting. The bad stuff makes it cheesecake."

The woman stood up and began to walk away.

"Wait, what's your name?" the girl asked.

"It's Meg," she replied.

"Who are you?" the young woman questioned.

Meg smiled enigmatically and turned. "Just a servant."

She tossed something to Honey and the deserted woman caught it, looking down. It was a bill, and stamped over it, was the word "paid". "Huh?" she glanced up, and when she looked, Meg was gone.

Honey got up and wandered slowly to the sidewalk to catch a cab. It had been a disgrace to the term date, but she had learned a strange lesson. She was thankful for Meg, who had apparently paid her bill and given her some great instruction for how to deal with the crap rained on her in life. It was helpful--already helping, in fact, for as she caught a cab and rode home, she thought of how much fun it would be to relay this story to her friends—and to rub it in her parents' faces for about the next five years.