Making Friends

There's a hotel just down the street from our apartment that has what looks to be a pretty popular restaurant with a terrace. I walk past it every day, and each time I think to myself "I should really try
that place out sometime".
Well sometime ended up being 5 months later. It was our usual Tuesday night dinner with Matt, and we invited
Rebecca, Sylvain, Sarah and Tyrie as well. We all met at Jin Gua after
work and I hopped on the back of Matt's bike (which was the first time
I've been on a bicycle in almost 10 years). We tore off down the street
giggling like girls and arrived at the restaurant well ahead of
everyone else. While we waited, we help our waitress move more chairs
around our table to accommodate everyone.
We ordered a round of drinks as well as a course of standard dishes - we decided to play it safe this week!

The food had only just started to arrive and we had hardly touched our drinks when another round arrived. After a moment of confusion, the server told us that a table of businessmen had ordered the drinks for
us. A minute later, one of them came to the table, fruitlessly trying
to communicate with us, but the word "friend" was used very frequently.
Every 30 seconds he'd raise his glass, say something incredibly
meaningful and we'd all throw back a glass of beer while yelling
"Friends!".
He eventually made his way back to his table, and we dug into our food. Once I had my fill, I grabbed a couple bottles and
headed over to our generous new acquaintances. In no time it was a
scene of back slapping, laughing, answering inquiries and participating
in deep conversation.
Did I understand a word of it? No.
Did it matter? No.
A few minutes later I gestured for the guys to come over, and in no time
at all, both tables had merged, more drinks were ordered and we were
all trying to piece together each party's questions and responses.
The guy I spent most of the time talking to (who's moniker was "Boss"),
ended up being the owner of the hotel. He had the waitress bring us
each a 6-pack of a popular and surprisingly pricey grape drink as the
night began to wind down. Matt collected for the bill and headed inside
to pay. He was intercepted by one of the guys in the lobby who wouldn't
let him pay.
"Boss" casually informed us that the tab for seven of us was covered and invited us to join them in the near future.

Ah, the joys of being sociable!

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