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Author: Daniela Abriola
I really shouldn’t have let my best friend set me up on a blind date.
They never work out well. Not even in movies. If it can’t even work for fictional characters, why would it work for me?
I don’t mind that I’m single, but my friends do. Just because they all have someone, doesn’t mean I need someone.
Life doesn’t have to be like a Taylor Swift song, dancing with your soulmate in the kitchen with nothing but the light from a refrigerator. It isn’t my kind of life. I’m fine on my own.
But no one can shield themselves from Ava. When she sets her mind to something, she doesn’t stop till she gets what she wants.
‘Rhys,’ she said. ‘I just want you to be happy.’
I wish I could believe her. I’m sure, deep down, she does want that for me. But I know that she’s tired of organising couples’ events and having me tag along. Sure, she tells me she doesn’t mind, but her constant murmurs of ‘oh, Rhys, I guess you can come too,’ tell me otherwise.
So here I am, sitting at a table in a small restaurant downtown that’s way too classy to be something I can afford. The number of forks place across the table is enough to make me feel inferior to everyone here. Why would I I let my date pick this restaurant for me?
I don’t know what this mystery girl looks like at all. Ava was so excited that I had (reluctantly) agreed to go on a date with her ‘super-hot friend from yoga class’, that she forgot to mentionany actual details. Apparently, she is ‘just my type’, but I’m 21-years-old, and I’ve been single for all of them. I don’t even know what my type is. Ava was persistent, however.
‘You’ll like her, trust me.’
Something about that phrase made me not want to trust her. But I promised.
There’s no sign of this ‘super-hot yoga friend’, and it’s fine. I’m fine. I got here early anyway. But as the minutes tick by, the more restless I get. I feel the endless need to fidget– if my hands were occupied then my anxiety would be gone, or at the very least, I could ignore it for a while. Well, that’s what I tell myself when I accidentally knock the pepper shaker all over the table. I wipe my hands on my jeans, trying to rid myself of the pepper grounds covering my skin. I wonder if maybe I am overdressed, but as I watch a couple walk into the restaurant, I realise that maybe I’m not dressed up enough. Either way, it’s too late to change my clothes now.
A slim figure moves from the corner of my vision and sits down on the chair in front of me. Her eyes are captivating. They’re bright shade of emerald green. Jewels that seem so incomparable they make my heart skip a beat.
‘Hey,’ she says. ‘I’m Ashley.’
My phone screen lights up, alerting me that I’ve received a text. I check my phone discreetly.
From: Ava
How’s the date going?????????
Instinctively, I run my thumb across the silver ring on my middle finger, and I don’t stop until the cool metal band begins to settle me. Ava is desperate for this date to work. How can I tell her that Ashley is, despite first impressions, the most boring person I’ve ever met?
She spends the first ten minutes telling me about this ‘amazing’ juice cleanse she’s on. I don’t understand why she picked a restaurant for our date if she wasn’t going to eat anything, but I know better than to say anything.
In the next twenty minutes, she lectures me about the meat industry, telling me that I ‘really should go vegan’. There are a few choice words thrown in there – at one point she calls me a murderer for eating meat. Ashley spends so much time talking that I don’t get the chance to tell her I am, in fact, already vegan.
I can’t tell Ava that the date is worse than being on the Titanic. I’d rather be Jack, clinging on to that door for dear life, than have to listen to this girl tell me that ‘she doesn’t hate gay people’ she just wishes they ‘wouldn’t do it in front of her’. This would crush Ava. I mean, she is more invested in my love life than I am.
Ashley smiles. ‘This has been really fun.’
I try to keep a straight face. Fun for who?. This is the exact opposite of fun for me. But I don’t tell her that. Instead, I smile and nod my head.
‘Yeah.’
‘I’m just going to the bathroom,’ she says. I’m sure she also mentions something about freshly squeezed juice ‘going right through’ her, but at this point I’m too tired to care.
I must be more tired than I thought, because before I know it, she’s sitting across from me.
My first thought is, wow, that was fast. But when I see that it’s the waiter who seated me at my table, I stare at him questioningly.
‘I’m on my break right now. I thought you could use some saving,’ he says.
There’s no one else sitting at the table – it has to be me he’s talking to. But his words still catch me off guard.
‘Me?’
He pauses for a moment. ‘Yes, you.’
‘Oh, I- uh, um,’ I stutter.
Yep, good one Rhys. That’s exactly how normal people speak.
‘It looked that bad?’ I ask. It sure felt bad.
‘I’ve seen many bad dates in my life, and that looked like one of them.’
He flashes me a smile, and oh. I realise that he’s gorgeous. He’s tall, with the softest brown eyes I’ve ever seen, and his hair is dark brown, with a sheen like parquetry flooring. That comparison isn’t entirely fair, actually. Parquetry flooring doesn’t move like this guy’s hair does, brushing softly around his face as he speaks. I’m trying not to stare, but honestly. He’s the most handsome guy I’ve ever seen.
‘Oh,’ I say. Oh? That’s the best you could come up with? Idiot.
He’s so hot, and my hands are sweating like never before.
It’s not a big deal. It’s fine.
Except it is. It’s a disaster, actually. Or possibly an epic shit-storm of a disaster, because how am I meant to tell Ava that I am more attracted to the waiter who had to explain what the different forks at my table were for, than I am her friend.
I haven’t considered that I might be gay, but I definitely couldn’t deny that sitting across from me is the hottest person I’ve ever seen. The more I think about it, the more the word gay makes sense to me.
‘Leon,’ he says, and I jump a little. I forgot that he’s still sitting in front of me. But he is, with his hand extended out for me to shake.
I wonder if shaking hands is something that people still do, but then Leon laughs, and I realise I’ve said this out loud.
Shit.
‘I’m Rhys,’ I awkwardly mumble.
‘You’re an interesting guy, Rhys,’ Leon smiles again.
Usually, I’d be a little offended by that. But the way he says it…it’s nothing less than endearing. Then he quickly looks me up and down. ‘And very good looking.’
There’s no doubt in my mind that this is inappropriate. This is his place of work, and my date will come back from the bathroom any minute now. But that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t feel my legs anymore, and my brain is not thinking in coherent sentences. He’s flirting with me, and I know for a fact that I’m grinning from ear to ear.
Maybe Leon senses that I’m having a hard time responding, because he doesn’t wait for me to make a complete fool of myself.
‘Well, Rhys,’ he says, stopping mid speech as his eyes travel to the bathrooms across the restaurant. Great. Ashley is walking back to the table.
In a matter of seconds, Leon pulls his notepad out from his apron and scrawls something down. ‘If your date is as bad as I think it is, you should call me. Hopefully, I can show you a better date than she did.’
Leon hands me the piece of paper with his number on it, and for the first time, I understand what all those Taylor Swift songs were about.
Featured image courtesy of Markus Spiske via Unsplash.
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