This was the short story that inspired me to write A Girl's Guide to Fairy Tales. It's a Cinderella tale with a twist. It's amazing to see how my writing style changed over the course of a year. Enjoy x
I stared at Olivia in disbelief as I read the poster. ‘You said speed date, not impede date. I’ve spent most of my life in the dark about men...how will a blindfold help me?’
‘It’s not that bad I promise,’ she said at great speed. ‘Besides, it’s the latest thing and I know loads of people who’ve done it. You should face your fears Kate. You know it’s the only way to overcome them.’
All Olivia was missing was a white jacket and a clipboard. ‘Thanks Freud, but this is just too much for me. That,’ I said brandishing a claw like fist, ‘that is what my nightmares are made of!’
I forced myself to look at the poster again.
‘Come on Kate, love is nothing to be scared of?’
On hearing the unmentionable word, my chest sank. I swallowed hard. ‘But it’s a blind date,” I said tripping over my words as they fell from my dry mouth. ‘You don’t find love on a blind date.’
Olivia rubbed my arm encouragingly with the same vigour as you would a pet dog. ‘You won’t find love at all if you don’t stop closing yourself off to absolutely everyone you meet. You need a fresh attitude.’
‘The only fresh thing in my life at the moments is the lavender plug-in I bought two weeks ago and even that’s run out despite promising to last eighty days, so what chance do I have with romance?’
‘Oh you’re such a cynic. Besides forget the lavender as that only enhances sleep. We need something that awakens the woman in you.’
‘And a blind date at Romeo’s Restaurant promises to do just that does it?’ Although I longed for my very own Prince Charming, not even my personal Fairy Godmother could bibbydee bobbydee boo me a man who would want me just the way I was with my uncoordinated limbs, untameable hair and my obsessive need for tidiness and order. So if I didn’t look for him, I would never fail to find him.
My shoulders slumped forwards. ‘Why did I ever agree to come out with you?’
The corners of Olivia’s mouth exploded into a smile as she adjusted my posture like a marionette. ‘Because you couldn’t say no.’
Half an hour ago, as I had knocked on the door to Olivia’s palatial eight floor apartment, I had been blissfully unaware what she had in store for me. Tonight was the first night we both had free and we were in desperate need of a catch up, despite there being nothing new about my way of life.
‘You’re...late,” she enunciated carefully as I stood outside the door catching my breath.
‘Oh don’t pretend to be angry Liv, you know I’m always late,’ I said storming past her to adjust a crooked picture on her wall.
‘Perhaps, but your time would be better spent in Debenhams rather than in the office doing overtime.’ She tapped her perfectly manicured nails on the doorframe.
I ignored her and continued to focus my attention on the gilded frame which wasn’t behaving. When I finally turned around, she hadn’t moved and the door was still wide open.
‘What?”
‘Well, don’t hate me,’ she began and I knew in that instant I was about to. ‘But I’ve kinda arranged for us to go speed dating.’
