Admittedly, he didn't really think that she had wanted to go back. Vitali wouldn't have minded if Mariya had instead elected to stay in the USSR. He would certainly have preferred it if she would have, though he hadn't actually come out straight and said this.<br/><br/>Actually he seemed to be ignoring his emotions, but honestly he thought of her sort of like family. He wasn't in love with her in the romantic sense. Rather, he missed her because he had considered her to really kind of be his sister.<br/><br/>Vitali had grown up as an only child, which might have helped to explain some of these emotions.<br/><br/>Really it hadn't taken too long to get their food, but the service here was actually usually quite poor. The only reason that they had stepped it up is because they felt that embarrassing a national hero on what they had incorrectly perceived as a date would be bad for the place. As a result, they got their food out relatively fast.<br/><br/>Looking down slowly, he ended up smiling at the plates that were set out in front of them.<br/><br/>"Well, what do you think of it?" Vitali apparently had hoped to impress her with what had been served to them.<br/><br/>"Sure we can find a place right away after this. Why don't I rent a room for you?" Naturally Vitali lived on the launch facility, which meant he wasn't going to be allowed to take her back home for the time being. "Should I take good care of you even after you have promised to provide me with torment?"<br/><br/>The irony of her two statements had not been lost on him. Honestly, he had thought that stringing them together like that was something of a joke.<br/><br/>Nevertheless, he had soon felt that she would have perhaps liked to see a number of different places. He just wasn't sure of which. This far out in the Kazakh steppes wasn't exactly the most exciting place to be for most people.<br/><br/>That didn't stop him from thinking of at least a few things for them to do, however. He could always have found something he was sure.