After finishing my salad and the calamari, we decided to share an artisan cheese plate complete with pickled fruit, bread and spiced honey. As Oscar thought about my burning question, we talked about school and how we each thought we were doing. It was hard to narrow down who might have the best chance at gaining the title of sommelier, but we each felt that someone other than ourselves was doing better. I, Jeff; and Oscar, Billy.

For dinner I had a seared black cod and Oscar had a fire roasted whole fresh fish. Both were served with some local vegetables and some appropriate sides and spices to bring out the flavours in the fish.
We continued to talk about our current "Tour of Italy" and when w had finished our last bite, I ordered another bottle of wine. Staying with white, I ordered a Sauvignon Blanc from the Malborough region of New Zealand.

Oscar began by saying that the question I proposed was one that could result in a number of answers from a number of people. "What works for some, may not work for others", he proclaimed. "But from where I sit, I would say that you have to keep the relationship interesting...each and every day."

We continued to talk for hours while looking over the expanse that is Lake Ontario. Like my question, the answer that I was looking for seemed as far away as the stretch of the water that I could see from the floor to ceiling glass in the restaurant. Indeed, there was some truth in the answer that Oscar gave. For a relationship to stay alive, a couple cannot grow stagnant. I vowed to do what I could to keep things interesting, and considered this to be one of the tenants that I would work from in keeping our relationship strong, and improving it.

I also decided that evening that I would confide in Jeff, Billy, and Andrew. Perhaps they would each have an answer that I could consider a tenant and add each one to a repertoire that would become the five ways to making a relationship last forever. At the right time, I would confide in the other three.