Quite Quitting

An Attempt at dating

I checked my face in my compact mirror for the fifth time, making sure my red lipstick didnt clash with my olive skin tone and green sundress. It thankfully didn't. I was so nervous. This was my first date in about 5 years, and I was afraid it showed. What would I even talk about? I only had about 3 topics under my belt, and 2 pertained to the weather.

The waiter at this fancy-ass restaurant checks on me for the 3rd time, using my empty water glass as an excuse. "Can I get a glass of wine? a chardonnay, please." I asked, giving the waiter an actual reason to come back.

Where the heck was this guy? Was I being stood up? My mind wandered into the worst-case scenario, almost all of them on this guy getting a glimpse of me and running the other way. Luckily that wasn't the case. Ben appeared as soon as the waiter dropped off my half-empty wine glass. He wore a plain white dress shirt and black pants, both slightly wrinkled. If I hadn't seen his picture on Instagram, I would have mistaken him for the staff here, who also wore the same colors. Thought, albeit the waiters looked slightly more put together. Besides his poor dressing sense, his light blonde hair looked like a mess, jumping from his head in random directions. On the other hand, his eyes were his best features, fierce and dark. A clumsy smile accompanied them, making his face look attractive in a slightly unconventional way.

"Charlotte?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah, Ben! Nice to meet you!" I got up to give him an awkward hug that lasted a few seconds too long, but I might have been at fault for that. It has been a while since I've hugged the opposite gender besides the occasional hugs Alex gave me when...well, whenever he felt like it. Shoot, I did not want to think about him right now.

When I finally let Ben out of my venus trap, we both took a seat, and I quickly took a sip of my wine, making the half-full glass almost empty.

"What kind of wine did you order?" He asked.

"Just a basic Chardonnay. Want to try?" Why did I ask that? Why would he want to do that? We just met. Why would he want your germs, Charlotte?

"Sure, it looks good!"

I slid my glass towards him, and he almost cleared my cup, leaving probably just the backwash. He then called over one of his brethren or our waiters and asked for 2 glasses of Chardonnay.

By the time I got to the bottom of this glass, I was feeling woozy. After having my breakfast stolen, I barely had time for lunch today. Alex needed me to review a statement he was sending to a tech magazine, so I only had a handful of peanuts and a bag of chips. Therefore, this wine was mixing fast with the small contents within my stomach.

"Your clothes?" I giggle, interrupting his explanation of why he was moving to Cali.

"What, you don't like it?"

"I like it," I badly lied. "but it just looks like the waiter's uniform,  and you didn't think to iron it?" I giggled some more. I needed food, pronto. I had been here for the last 20 mins and still didn't have time to order food.

"Sorry, living out of my suitcase. I wasn't supposed to return to New York after quitting my job in Chicago. However, the firm in Cali is still getting set up, so we are working from home, so I figured I would stop by and check out New York for a bit. Plus, my brother lives here. So I am living at his apartment for the next 3 weeks till the place I am leasing is ready," He explained, thankfully, while he tried to flag a waiter down again.

"So you're only here for 3 weeks?" I slurred, not fully listening to anything he was saying.

"No, I am moving to a monthly rental in Brooklyn after 3 weeks!"

"Brooklyn! That's where I live," I practically yelled.

"I remember you telling me. Where?"

"I don't give out my address on first dates. What if you're a stalker or something?"