Blind Date

Having heard his name called, Edwin stepped forward and picked up his beverage from the counter. He brought it up to his face and even through the protective spill cover, he could feel the heat radiate upon his upper lip. Not thinking it through, he blew down upon the beverage instead of sipping.

He realized what he had done as his gut tensed up as he glanced about at everyone nearby to see if they had caught him in his folly. Nobody had seemed to notice.

He hated blind dates.

Edwin walked over to the condiments counter and grabbed a couple of napkins before making his way to the seating area. He found an empty two chaired table seat that afforded him a good view of the entrance and parking lot.

Pulling out the chair, he cringed again as it scrapped across the tile floor in a grating sound. Several patrons lifted their heads to glance in the direction of the annoyance, to which he gave his best endearing smile and said, “Sorry.”

His mind contemplated his moving to another table and went about moving one table further down the length of the wall. This time he put his drink down onto the table and elected to lift his chair back instead of dragging it.

Feeling confident over his small victory, he plopped himself down into his seat.

He allowed himself to exhale. It was deeper than he realized as that too seemed to cause those around him to glance once more in his direction. He gave another smile, more forced this time, and said, “Sorry.”

He reached into his fleece blue jackets breast pocket and pulled out his mobile device. He placed it upon counter before him after noticing that he didn’t have any blinking lights telling him of some update. He prayed she didn’t flake on him. Edwin felt a tickle starting in the back of his throat and brought his coffee up to his mouth as he remembered it might be too hot still. His hand felt the warmth seeping through the cardboard carrying ring and held off long enough to catch a new notification flash on his device.

He put his coffee down and reached for the device. With his free hand, he reached for one of his napkins and fumbled bringing it before his mouth to cover his cough.

Flicking the unlock pattern he saw that he had received a new text message from Janelle. His mind feared this was it, she would flake on him.

He hated blind dates.

Edwin decided right then and there and if she did flake he was going to find some way at getting back at his coworker Charlotte for setting him up for another disaster. The last person he had tried dating, he had met online through an app. That had been one of the strangest dates he had ever experienced. Cotton candy was now, and forever more, ruined for him.

His device flashed again and that brought him back into the moment. He clicked on the small icon and read the message.

[Are you still planning on meeting me?]

The second message said [I don’t need a person who plays games]

Placing his coffee down again he fumbled out his reply [Yeah i’ll be there. I’m not the type to place games]

Place? He cursed his typo. Stupid dude, stupid. [I meant PLAY games]

He stared at his phone and awaited a response. Time ticked by and after what seemed like a minute he glanced away from his phone and glanced towards the parking lot again to take stock of the vehicles already there.

He was early. Far too early. They had agreed to meet in not for another half hour but Edwin hated being late. He also wanted to get a feel for her and see if she raised the hairs on the back of his neck. Yes, it was a game but the last chick had ruined cotton candy for him. It had taken him these past six months trying to come to terms with that. Was it game if it was out of a need of self-preservation? Was it game if it didn’t affect her, that is presuming she was normal-ish? He didn’t think so. He missed cotton candy.