Pages Between Us

Supermarket or Strip Mall

"Maybe I should wear the black one. Black hides everything unwanted bump and highlights the exposed areas" Alanna winks at me holding one of my black dresses to her chest. She had decided that her dresses had brought her bad luck on previous dates and that my closet would be perfect to raid.

"You don't have any unwanted bumps" I say laughing as I lock my necklace in place. "And I like the red one on you" I point out. I envied how well she could get away with a red dress. She had naturally vibrant red hair that fell to her shoulders and big bright blue eyes. I had dyed my hair back to it's natural color and been letting the roots grow out for the past year and a half. I don't know why I ever thought I pull off blonde hair, but Jack had loved it so I had done it what felt oh so long ago.

"Well I love that silver dress on you" she says winking at me and added a cat call in there for extra effect.

"Why thank you" I say giving her a spin. "And here I was going to play sick to stay home tonight and binge a TV show" I add and she scoffs in disapproval.

"Would have been your loss. I heard you're guy is a doctor" she smirks and I try not to grimace. The last doctor she set me up with was a podiatrist with a foot fetish.

-

We all met at a little classy bar about three blocks from my apartment. The family doctor, Adam, was just what I had expected and dreaded. For at least forty minutes he went on and on about every patient he'd ever had. Occasionally he'd say "enough about me what about you?" but before I could start he'd get reminded of another crazy story where a kid got sick on him. It really wasn't the best conversation for a first date. After the fourth awful story I finally shut him up by dragging him to the dance floor where I learned he had two left feet and he didn't care how loud the music got he still opened his mouth. Luckily for me he was on call and got paged half an hour later. He apologized and said he'd call me but I begged God he wouldn't.

I immediately sat down at the bar and ordered a drink.

"Where did Adam go?" Alanna asks coming over with her date, Mark, for a drink.

"He got paged" I say taking a sip of my drink.

"Well that's too bad I like him" she says and it takes all of me to smile a nod as to not offend her. It turns out Mark and Adam had been friends since they were roommates in college. I wondered how long it took Mark to gain selective hearing.

When Alanna and Mark went back to the dance floor I paid off my tab and stood up to leave.

"May I have a dance?" A tall strikingly handsome man asked me. There was something about him that drew me towards him. I didn't know if it was his smooth but deep voice or his casual manner; however, I gave him my hand anyways.

We didn't speak much over the song that the band played. He spun me and led me through more moves than I knew but I managed to keep up and have fun. At some point I remember Alanna kissing my cheek good bye with a giddy laugh as she left with Mark.

The man and I danced and talked for nearly an hour before they bartender announced last call. Apparently he'd just moved into an apartment a block away from mine. He'd spent the last few months traveling from Greece to Hawaii to Bora Bora and many other exotic places. We probably talked for hours at the bar and much longer on the doorstep to my apartment. Whether it was the drinks talking or desire to hear more of his stories I invited him in for more drinks. For a few more hours we stayed up telling stories about anything and everything. At some point we made our way to my bedroom but we didn't make it any farther than into the bed before we fell asleep.

Waking up still in my dress I grabbed a change of clothes from my closet and went to the bathroom to freshen up. Coming back into my room I stopped at the doorway as the man from last night was looking at the ivory box in the corner of the room and his hand hovered over to letters from James.

"Those were from an old friend of mine that was in the marines a while ago. I imagine hes off sailing the Atlantic nowadays" I said with a mystic and distant smile as I thought of him.

"You know we never got a chance to introduce ourselves at the bar" he says with a look I couldn't place my finger on. He slowly stepped towards me and held out his hand. "My name is James, James Morey" he smiles and my body froze in place. I had noticed a chain around his neck throughout the night and I tugged it out from under his t-shirt to see three dog tags hanging off the chain; one of which had J. Morey scrawled into it. With misty eyes and a giant smile I shook his hand back. "Nice to meet you James, my name is Cher. Cher Wilder"

So it wasn't a super market or a strip mall but a bar where we would come to meet. In that moment I had never been more grateful for a blind double date going so wrong.