Here with you

Fateful enounters

"Excuse me? They might ask you to leave soon. You're taking away the limelight from all the other men here," I say, trying to withstand my embarrassment. Why am I doing this again?

"I'm sorry, what?" he says with a polite chuckle, and I force down a wave of blush from my cheeks. I've had a terrible night anyways, so how does it even matter? At least this guy is good-looking enough to try cheesy lines on, unlike my blind date.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for my random comment. You see, when I'm with you, I can't think straight," I say, and this time I cringe at my terrible pickup lines. I screw my eyes shut and prepare to make an exit when he grabs my arm and makes me sit opposite him.

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not thinking very straight either." he jokes, this time with a rakish grin that has me swooning in seconds. I shake my head and order myself to focus. This date seems to be going better than the previous one, and there's no way I'll mess it up.

"Now that we've established that we're both very, very gay, how about we order some food and begin our date?" I ask, feeling more confident than I have in a really long time. He smiles gently this time and picks up the menu, scouring through the expensive items and squinting in the yellowish light of the café.

We order our food and hand the menu to the waiter, and the atmosphere soon fills with silence. Surprisingly, I don't find the silence awkward, and I think neither does he, in spite of the short time we've known each other.

"So," he says, finally breaking the silence, "What made you approach a good-looking stranger like me? Nobody is that brave until they have good reason to be."

"Ah, well." I chuckle, folding my hands neatly over the table, "I just had the worst blind date ever! That guy was the most horrendous human to ever grace the earth, and I was unfortunate enough to be his date. No manners at all. And so very rude and brash."

"That's funny," he says unexpectedly, and I freeze at his words. He seems to realize his mistake at the same time as I do, and he hastily waves his hands in the air to clear it. "Oh no, that's not what I meant. The fact that you had to go through this is obviously very sad."

I huff and nod my head, still not appeased at his callous remark. So he sighs and explains further.

"In fact, I had a blind date as well today, and it was bad enough to rival your own experience."

I gasp and place my hands over my mouth. After that recently harrowing experience, empathy overflows through me and spills from my lips. "Is that why you were sitting alone? Did it go so badly that he got up and left in between?"

"It was even worse than that," he said with a humorless chuckle. "You see, my blind date never showed up. I was ghosted by him."

This time I grab his hand and rub the knuckles soothingly. "I'm so sorry for what you went through. But I'm here now. I'll make up for your ghosting with the most wonderful date you could've ever asked for."

He smiles at me and nods. Confusion kept aside, we talk and enjoy our date for hours. I've never felt so content with anyone before, and I know with certainty that I want to continue seeing this man.

When the clock strikes twelve, we both decide to leave with deeply saddened hearts. We trudge to the door and stand reluctantly outside it.

"It was such a pleasure to meet you," he says, pulling out his phone. "Can I have your number? I do hope we can go for another date after this."

My heart flutters as I recite it to him.

"Alright, so then..." he laughs suddenly, a gruff laugh that sends heat all over me. "I can't believe we had a whole date without knowing each others' names! We must rectify that at once! My name is Adrian. What's yours?"

"Oh! That's the name of my other date as well!" I say with a short laugh. "My name is James. James Brown."

His eyes widen, and he almost drops his phone. "Wh.. what did you say?" I frown as he rapidly scrolls through his phone and shows me the screen. My eyes fly open as I see my dating profile, matched with his.

He laughs boisterously and clutches his stomach. "Looks like we had our original blind date after all."

~

Thanks for reading the story! If the ending was confusing, or if you didn't understand it, just comment inline here and I'll explain it for you