[Runesmith]

As it turned out, we both arrived at the restaurant a bit early, but they were able to seat us immediately. Amy appeared shy, unsure and nervous. To let her feel at ease, I let Amy order the food, and her choice was great - steamed river fish, lobster tails, roasted duck... and roasted pigeon. (If you like "food porn", let me know and I'll post the pics). I wanted to order a bottle of Riesling, but unfortunately the disgusting Australian variety was all they had. So I gave in an ordered a not-so-bad Australian Cabernet, which paired well with the seafood.

During the dinner, I kept the conversation completely off sexual topics, instead letting her talk about her work, her family and her life in general. This relaxed her and during the dinner, with some help of the wine, of course, she became less tense, and more animated. Prior to dinner and during dinner I didn't discuss anything about what would follow the dinner.

After I settled the bill, we walked out of the restaurant and I hailed a cab. I let her get in first, and got in myself, and gave the driver the hotel address card. Amy didn't object to the destination.

When we got to the hotel, I took her to the lobby bar, which was aptly named "The Piano Bar" - there was always a guy playing the gleaming grand piano in the center of the bar, and the ceiling was designed to provide the perfect acoustics.

I ordered a German Riesling (finally), and we sat down at the lounge, facing each other across a low table. She was nervous again, chewing the end of a lock of hair falling across her face, and fidgeting with her glasses. So I kept talking about non-sexual topics, telling her tales of my travels and adventures. She started laughing when I told her about the time I bit in to what I thought was a boiled quail egg from a Vietnamese hotpot in Danang, that actually turned out to be a rabbit testicle. The bottle was two thirds of the way gone when I felt that she was ready for the next step.