Enjoy the Little Things | Blind Date 1 of 31

Like a zombie rising from a shallow grave on the morning of an impending apocalypse, Suzi Sparrow stumbled out of bed and headed for the kitchen.

But no zombie had ever screamed in the way that the shrill sound left Suzi's throat (and don't go on about how zombies aren't real--try telling that to poor Rick Grimes who lost everyone he ever loved while traipsing through the Georgia wastelands or that hot guy from 28 Days Later who was so traumatized by the undead roaming in London that he ended up moving up north to Birmingham and turning to a life of crime with his mobster brothers.)

"WHAT IN THE EVER-LOVING TATTOOINE YOU SCARED THE BEJESUS OUT OF ME!" Suzi yelled without taking a breath or emphasizing proper punctuation immediately following the scream because although startled, she still had a natural knack for fancy exclamations.

"Yo, girl. Relax. You know we gotchu," said Trystan, her best friend in the whole world, as he pulled her into a bear hug while smooshing her against his Jolly Green Giant body. With her nose pressed against his synthetic football jersey, Suzi couldn't breathe, much less object.

"This is exactly what I was talking about," said a voice Suzi quickly recognized as belonging to Amy--another friend, but lower on the bestest scale--before the telltale sound of the fridge door closing. "Poor thing is a mess. This intervention couldn't come fast enough."

Suzi wriggled out of Trystan's well-intentioned grip. "Intervention? I mean I know I may have downed a bottle and danced on top of the bar last night," she began to argue as the third uninvited guest Taren--who was more Trystan and Amy's friend but was always around so they were buddies by association--emphatically nodded. Avoiding his eyes, she added, "But I totally knew what I was doing."

"Literally none of that happened," Amy said with a laugh.

"It didn't?" Suzi was puzzled. "I swear I--"

"Nope. Quite the opposite, actually," Taren interrupted. "After two shots of tequila, you spent the next few hours crying to us about how Ashley was right and you should be more open-minded, blah blah blah."

"Ashley?" Suzi asked quietly, trying to recall last night's events through a decreasingly cloudy hangover fog.

"Yeah, Ashley. Your ex, remember?" Trystan said, grimacing as the words left his lips. He never had been a fan of her relationship with the architect.

"Yes, of course I remember who that is. But what does last night have to do with you three showing up in my kitchen uninvited on a Monday morning?" she asked.

"I told you she'd forget," Amy said.

Suzi spun around. The sudden movement made her queasy. "Forget what?" she asked, holding down the bubbling nausea. Upchucking on the kitchen floor was not her ideal start to the day.

"Our bet," Taren said.

"More like a dare," Amy corrected.

"Or just a challenge, really," Trystan also chimed in.

This did not sound good. "What challenge?"

"You, Suzi Sparrow, agreed to go on a month's worth of dates--" Amy began, but Taren cut her off.

"Blind dates," he said to which Amy nodded.

"Yes, blind dates, to prove to yourself that you are up for an adventure and to try new things," she finished with a smile.

Suzi's mouth hung agape. "A whole month? I really agreed to that?"

The trio nodded in unison. 

Suzi's heart sank. "So you mean I have to go on thirty dates?" she asked after she managed to return to reality.

"Well, ideally it would be a bit more since July has thirty one days, but it's give-or-take since someone is bound to bail. Statistically speaking and all," Trystan said, not letting his minor in quantitative analysis go to waste. He was probably the only pro football player in the league with one, and he liked to show off as often as he could. Unfortunately, that was less often than not in the locker room, so his friends bore the brunt of it.