BY Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Left: Christopher Martin greets date Kayan before they took off for a thrilling movie experience at Carib. - Anthony Minott   Right: Chris and Kayan enjoy the movie 'Primeval' during their Win A Date at Carib 5 cinema, Cross Roads, on Wednesday, January 31. - Winston Sill

Christopher Martin drew his date close as the two enjoyed a movie at the Carib 5 cinema in Cross Roads Kingston.

Kayan Merritt, the public's choice for the win a date with the Rising Star, looked lovely as she arrived at the offices of the Gleaner company last Wednesday night to meet Chris.

As the duo set off to the theatre, they talked as Kayan laughed at humorous stories told by Chris and his manager 'Kingy'.

Kingy teased Chris about being quite the 'road runner', a driver that loves fast driving. Chris discussed how persons at school were interested in where he was taking his date.

When they arrived at Carib 5, they were greeted by Carib's manager Linda Paisley who led the couple to box office seats specially held for the occasion. The two watched a good first date movie, a horror flick Primeval, which happened to be Kayan's first choice.

As the crew entered the cinema, Chris was to soon to see he wasn't the only popular personality in the movie theatre. Craig from the trio, Voicemail, sat a few seats down from the couple. He later enquired, "Chris a yuh date dat? She's a lovely girl," he said.

Maggots eating

As the sight of maggots eating away at a dead body opened the movie, Kayan drew near to Chris teasing him that he jumped when the scarier scenes came on.

"Yuh think mi fraid? I'm just fixing my collar," Chris said. As the movie began, the two talked as Chris asked Kayan about her job, what she liked to do, among other things. After a while the movie got even more scary Kayan, shouted, "Oh Jesus Christ!" The two animatedly watched the movie as Craig and his two friends added their colourful commentary about the movie, eliciting much laughter from those in the cinema who could hear.

At the intermission, Kayan took out her camera to take pictures of Chris and herself. he says she plans to put them in a special scrapbook to mark the occasion.

She was also lucky enough to get pictures with Craig, two celebrity dates for the price for one.

Kayan said of the date with Chris, "most persons know Chris from Rising Stars, me too. I've seen him on TV, live. He always seemed like a nice guy. I just wanted a couple of hours to see him for myself. So far he's really friendly and down to earth," she said.

At the end of the day, both seemed to enjoy themselves. Chris said, "She's a nice girl, she's fun." After parting ways with a hug, the two left satisfied at the outcome of their date.
Left: Christopher Martin (centre) and his date, Kayan Merrit, were greeted by Carib 5's manager Linda Paisley for their movie at the cinema on Wednesday, January 31. - Winston Sill   Right: Chris opens the door for his date Kayan Merrit when they met at the Gleaner Company office. - Anthony Minott