Misadventures of Blind Dating

Jackie sat at her window waiting for Jerome to arrive. She'd never met him before, but she'd heard a lot of good things about him. She was more than a little nervous. After all, first dates are hard enough without adding the pressure of it being a blind date.

After about half an hour, Jerome arrived, right on time. He came to the door, introduced himself, walked her to the car, and even opened her door. Things were going well, and Jackie chided herself for ever believing this was a bad idea. After a few minutes of idle chit-chat, Jerome asked Jackie her opinions on religion. As soon as she began to speak, she could tell that they wouldn't agree on anything related to that topic. She began to get agitated by him. He nodded his head to everything she said, but she could tell that he wasn't really agreeing with her. Finally, after she finished speaking, he said, "Well, let's not talk about that anymore. We don't want it to ruin our relationship." He never gave his opinions on the subject, which made her very angry. Angrier still was the comment about "their relationship." How could they have one? They'd just met!

Jerome then steered the conversation to food. He told me he knew how much I loved German food and told me he was taking me to a German restaurant. He told Jackie that he'd just spent a month in Europe and that Germany was, by far, his favorite. He then informed her that he'd eaten at this restaurant several times since his return.

While catering to her stomach in no way made up for his earlier ambush, it did serve as a way of extending the white flag. They talked about his different experiences abroad until they reached the restaurant, where, they found out, that it had been closed for the past nine months. It was easy to see the embarrassment on Jerome's face. If Jackie had had a camera, she would have taken a picture to show her friends. She would have agreed to chalk it up to bad luck and go home, but he was insistent. There was another great place just down the road.

As they pulled into the parking lot, it began to thunder, and Jackie wondered why she hadn't before noticed the clouds in the sky. She probably would have taken it as a warning and stayed home. She wasn't superstitious, but she did like to make excuses to get out of doing unpleasant things. This date, so far, was a very unpleasant thing. As they crossed the parking lot, it began to sprinkle. Small droplets of water landed on Jackie's face and in her hair. She thought to herself, "This date is about to get really bad. I can feel it."

After they ordered their food, Jerome asked Jackie if she minded him calling his grandmother. "With the weather like it is, I want to check up on her." Jackie thought it was sweet and told him to go ahead. She didn't know he was going to carry on an entire date long conversation with her. The food arrived and he was still on the phone. She waited for about twenty minutes for him to hang up. Her parents had always told her it was polite to wait on everyone before beginning a meal. When she was almost finished eating, Jerome finally hung up and joined her. Eager to catch up, he began devouring his food. Jackie had to look away; it was making her sick. He actually managed to finish eating before her.

After paying the check, they left. It was raining very violently. It was almost hard to see the car. Jerome told Jackie to wait in the door and he'd bring the car to her. She was glad because she really didn't want her hair to get wet. When she got in the car he informed her that his mother was now at work, and he needed to retrieve some safety goggles from the backseat of her car. He pulled up to her work place and drove through the parking lot twice looking for he car. He took the keys and ran through he rain to the car and then struggled to get the door unlocked.

Finally he got the goggles and raced back to the warmth of his own car. He was soaked through and shivering. All of a sudden he begins to shake off just like a dog. Water went everywhere, including Jackie's once perfect hair. Jerome laughed maniacally and then told Jackie he needed to get to work himself. He took her home and asked her to go out with him again. She told him that she was busy, and she went inside before he had the chance to object. It was her first and last blind date.