A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Ella's POV

"Well?" I prompted Tul when he remained silent and didn't show any reaction to my remarks.

He continued to lick away at his ice cream in the cone, looking intently at it as if he could find the answers there.

"Okay," I said getting up from my chair. "I better go..."

"Wait!" he said, grabbing my wrist. "Stay. Please."

I sat back in my chair, staring at him expectantly.

"Come with me to Max's house this evening," he begged.

"Why?" I asked.

"Mook is planning to bring Max dinner later this evening," he said, looking straight ahead of him, his eyes looking thoughtful as if he was planning something of great importance.

"Are you planning to crash an evening for two?" I asked teasingly.

"Yes," he replied.

"What???" I asked, feeling greatly shocked. "Why???"

I had never seen this side of Tul before. I mean what rudeness, what great audacity. This wasn't the Tul I knew or had an impression of.

"I'm thinking of having some fun with the two love birds," he said, a naughty gleam now entering his eyes that had been looking very serious just a few minutes ago.

"Let's not do it," I said, feeling anxious now.

"Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk," he started to tease, making flapping wings motions with his arms.

"Fine," I said, giving in to his crazy idea.

"We're not gonna arrive empty handed of course," he said. "I will be bringing assorted seafood pad thai and boerenkool stamppot."

"What is that?" I asked, never before hearing such a dish. It surely was a foreign dish.

"The pad thai?" he asked. "It is a delicious noodle dish..."

"Stop it," I said, in no mood for being teased. "I meant the second dish that you just mentioned.

"Oh, the boerenkool stamppot," he said.  "It is a dish from the Netherlands that is so easy to make. It consists of mashed potatoes and strips of kale. Both are cooked in a mixture of garlic, shallots, milk and butter and on top of it are slices of fried sausages."

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

"I just ate and you're making me feel hungry again," I complained, imagining the delicious dish. "If only for that dish from the Netherlands, it's a go for me."

"You will take care of the drinks," he announced.

"Okay," I said, "I see no problem with that. Wine or beer?"

He raised his eyebrows at me. "No choice of soda or fruit juice?"

"If we're going to Max's place to create mischief, we might as well do it to the hilt." I said, getting deeper and deeper into his crazy idea.

"Beer then," he decided. "Bring a whole twenty four case of Heineken."

"Why are you suddenly into Dutch stuff?" I asked, getting curious.

"I lived in Amsterdam for a few months," he replied.

"What did you do there?" I asked and I could tell that he was expecting me to ask that question and he seemed prepared to answer it.

"My ex-girlfriend asked me to follow her there," he said, suddenly looking pensive as if travelling back in time to that period.

"How long ago was this?" I asked. "And was she of Thai ethnicity or was she Dutch?"

"She's part Dutch and part Thai," he replied. "Her father was Dutch and her mother was a Thai businesswoman who owned a restaurant, the only Thai restaurant in the city and my ex-girlfriend and I helped her to run it. That was almost two years ago."

"And then what happened?" I asked when he stopped telling his story.

"She met a tall blonde blue eyed very good looking Dutch guy," he said, his eyes darkening with remembered pain. "I packed my bags and flew back here the moment I found out that she had been dating him."

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that," I said, walking over behind him and giving him a sympathetic back hug.

A/N: Chapter 23 will follow immediately after this because I'm not comfortable having a chapter with the number 22 for too long. 22 when added individually equals 4 and for me number 4 is not an auspicious number. Yeah, I'm silly that way.