Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 152 - 149: Making Up for Regrets

"The wallet isn’t ready, but the ticket holder is," Bao Bao replied with a smile.

"Ticket holder? For what? Are you planning to strut around town with a handful of cash, inviting us out for a meal?

No matter how flashy you are, it won’t matter in Melbourne; the crime rate is low, nobody will rob you, and you’ll end up disappointed," Yan Yan didn’t understand, but that was just the way she talked to Bao Bao. ƒreewebɳovel.com

"Actually, I really might do that, or maybe I should just toss out the two tickets in the holder—the tickets to your school’s graduation ceremony this year—to avoid drawing too much attention," Bao Bao intentionally slowed down his speech far more than usual.

"Ah! What did you say? You have tickets? Really! Bao Ka, where did you get them? Why didn’t you say something sooner? I was just out on the streets asking everyone about it," Yan Yan’s words conveyed more surprise and complaint than gratitude.

"Just now, someone came to the restaurant wanting to add a lunch reservation, saying her father was getting his doctorate today and wanted to take her mother out to celebrate.

Turns out they just flew in from Norway today and couldn’t find a suitable restaurant.

So I asked if her father was from RMIT.

And that was that," Bao Bao had just gotten the tickets and didn’t intentionally keep them from Yan Yan (note 1).

At that moment, Yan Yan really wanted to say, "No matter how good things are, nothing beats Mei Bao," but she swallowed the words before they came out. The person who most often said that was no longer there; Yan Yan didn’t want to evoke emotions in Bao Bao by bringing up the past.

"So that’s how it is. Thinking about it seriously, it’s definitely my fault.

How could I not think of you, Bao Ka, first when it comes to getting tickets in Melbourne?

Tell me, how could I be so dense to go asking around without checking with you first?" Bao Bao’s ability to make restaurant reservations and acquire tickets to popular shows was like a god-level skill that Yan Yan admired from a distance.

"Yeah, you make a good point; remember to think of me first next time; you’re about to head to Italy anyway, and you won’t have much time left to give me orders. I’ll soon be breaking free from the darkness, stepping into a bright new life," Bao Bao said nonchalantly, but his heart felt a bit heavy.

Having "lived together" with Yan Yan for so long, now that she had moved back to her own home, Bao Bao missed having someone around for occasional bickering—it was an adjustment.

Once Yan Yan was in Italy, Bao Bao would probably truly feel like he was living on his own.

For that reason, after Yan Yan moved out, she would visit Bao Bao’s restaurant for meals every now and then.

Bao Bao, too, would often visit Yan Yan’s home to see if they needed help or to enjoy a meal prepared by Yan Dabang, so their encounters were fairly frequent.

To prevent Bao Bao from feeling lonely after she’d left, Yan Yan had mentioned many times in front of both him and her parents that once she was in Italy, Bao Bao should come over for meals more often.

Yan Yan told Bao Bao to look after her parents, who were new to Melbourne, and she told her parents to look after Bao Bao, who would be on his own in the city.

Because life for both Bao Bao and the Yan family would be a bit more boring without Yan Yan around.

"What time will you be done in the morning? What time do we need to head to the stadium in the afternoon?

If you’ve already got everything arranged and there’s plenty of time, you could also bring everyone over to my place for coffee.

We are open as usual for lunch.

After the lunchtime rush, I’ll have the manager close the shop and set up the preparations.

After your graduation ceremony tonight, we can come back here for food and to have a party," Bao Bao was asking about the specific schedule of Yan Yan’s graduation ceremony today.

"Before the party this evening, are you going to serve dishes one by one, or have you prepared a buffet?" Yan Yan asked Bao Bao.

If Bao Bao had prepared a buffet for the party, then it certainly wouldn’t be a true reflection of the new chef’s culinary skills. No matter how tasty a buffet is, how good can it be?

For a top-notch foodie, the cooking time of each dish, the timing of serving, and the serving temperature are all crucial.

And these are not within the control of a buffet.

"Of course, I’ll serve the dishes one by one. I wouldn’t dare cut corners for your classmate Yan Xiaoyan’s graduation party," Bao Bao said with an overly shocked tone.

"Ha ha, I was going to say to you, if it were a buffet this evening, then we shouldn’t choose a different restaurant for lunch. Your cafe would be the most suitable.

Now that you’ve said this, let’s not go there for lunch and keep it as a little surprise for everyone.

We’ll just take a few photos and that’s it.

For the afternoon, we can start entering at three-thirty, but there’s no need to go so early. Anytime before four-thirty works," Yan Yan told Bao Bao the specific schedule over the phone.

"In that case, nothing could be better. At noon, you and your family’s school hunk can make up for last time’s regret," Bao Bao told Yan Yan about the lunch arrangement.

"What regret?" Yan Yan didn’t quite understand how the conversation moved from the restaurant to regrets.

"The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, of course. The reservation I snatched for you last time never panned out, did it?" Bao Bao had definitely expended a great deal of useless effort on that previous reservation.

"Ah, although deep down in my heart, I really want to do it, eloping with my boyfriend to a ’Candlelight Lunch’ on my graduation day seems a bit inappropriate, doesn’t it?" Yan Yan knew that spots at the tramcar restaurant were hard to reserve, whether Bao Bao secured them by finding a cancellation or through outright robbery, having a spot for two was impressive enough.

"You’re overthinking it. Today, you likely won’t have any chance to elope.

Even if it’s the tramcar restaurant, it’s a public place, not suited for excessive displays of affection.

I’m well aware of how many people from your family are coming to the graduation. I made a reservation last month for two four-seater tables. (note1)

It’s just that the tramcar restaurant’s lunchtime is from one to three, with no possibility to start earlier or later.

I only found out your ceremony starts in the afternoon when I was borrowing tickets for you.

I was worried that finishing at three might be too late, and we’d have to switch to lunch at my place instead.

But if you say we can go over around four-thirty, then there definitely won’t be a problem," Bao Bao never planned on treating Yan Yan to a meal on a catch-as-catch-can basis on her graduation day.

.........

note1:

Learning is a lifelong endeavor, and this has been embraced early on in developed countries. Whether at the University of Melbourne or RMIT, one often sees elderly students on campus.

It’s not such a rare occurrence for a daughter to attend her father’s graduation ceremony.

note2:

The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant has six rows of seats in a single carriage, with a narrow aisle running down the middle. On one side of the aisle are two-seater tables, on the other are four-seater tables, and a whole carriage can accommodate up to 36 diners.

The restaurant can operate up to three interconnected but independently functioning carriages, which means up to 108 people.

The "number of carriages" put into service is determined by the reservations.