Save the Date

20

Back at my flat, I felt calmer then I began to get ready for my date. Once I had found an outfit to wear I began to get excited. Maybe there could be something between me and Chris. He was very good looking and we definitely had some kind of chemistry. It was the electricity that I felt around Luca which clouded my head. We had arranged to meet at a garden nursery that had a tea room not too far from where I lived. We had agreed to meet at 15:00 but I was so nervous that I ended up being early. I waited in my car and scrolled through my social media. I giggled at various memes and liked a couple of comments when 'People You May Know' rolled onto my screen. My heart caught in my throat. There he was in the profile picture for Mercury Photography. This must have been Luca's company's name. I rolled the name around my mouth for a while before I clicked on it. This was not what I needed. Not now, not before my date! A knocking at my window, sent my phone flying out of my hand. I clutched at my heart and saw Chris's face smiling broadly, his blue eyes twinkling. I unlocked the door and opened it. "Hey good looking," He said keeping my door open for me while I retrieved my phone from the passenger side floor. "Hey there," I said guiltily. This couldn't have been more awkward. As I got out of the car I knew that I couldn't very well stalk Luca's business page on my date, no matter how much I wanted to. I had to have some decorum. "Whoa! What the heck happened to your face?" Chris said without subtlety as I got out of the car. He came in closer inspecting my nose. Instinctively, I took a step back from him, groaning internally. The makeup was still on but the sun's position made the blue underneath visible. I didn't know how I was going to explain this at work. "I had a small accident last night. My friend kinda slammed me into a car door." He looked at me like the makeup girls had: distrustful of my explanation. "She was drunk," I added lamely as though that explained everything. "Sounds like my kinda party" he hooted. "So, coffee? A little tamer than Friday night or last night it seems." He half chuckled, not probing further into my afflicted nose situation. It annoyed me that he didn't care but I let it slide. We made our way to the tea room and ordered something to drink. The waitress kept looking between him and me. I was certain she thought that he had attacked me. Chris however was oblivious. We began rehashing the evening that we had spent together which broke the ice a little but I soon realised that every story Chris told involved him and his friends being "super wasted" and then doing the most random and crazy things. It felt like I was back at university and I couldn't help feeling just a little bored listening to story after story of drunken disasters. Maybe Friday night was so much fun because I had been as buzzed as he was. That small spark I had once felt fizzled out the more he spoke. My mind began to wander back to Luca's work page. I was itching to scroll through my phone. I kept a straight face as I listened to a story where he and his friends had gone to Spain where they had (once again) drank way too much and got into a fistfight at one of the bars and then ended the night by jumping off the balcony of their hotel room into the pool. "It was SICK! We were like twelve stories up!" I had to get out of there, the sooner the better.