Jacob was tying his striped tie over his neatly pressed, white shirt. As he was gazing at himself in his bathroom mirror, he was giving himself a pep-talk. “It’s only one date, even if it is a blind date. If you don’t like her you never have to see her again. You just have to make it through this one date." Jacob adjusted his shirt one more time, opened his mouth widely while gritting his jaw to check his teeth, then grabbed his suit jacket and keys and strolled out the door.

As Jacob was walking through his apartment building hallway, he took slow steps. He couldn’t get his love history out of his mind. He’d had a long string of bad first dates recently; ever since Karen dumped him for another guy. He and Karen had been dating for over three years when he found out that she was cheating on him. Immediately following their breakup, his best friend, Bruce, encouraged him to get back on the market. When Jacob tried to find dates, he always found dull women with little interests in common so when Bruce took it upon himself to find him a date, Jacob agreed, but only for the purpose of trying a different approach.

Jacob peered at his watch as he entered the parking garage, 7:17 was blinking on the tiny screen. He pulled out his phone and opened his conversation with Bruce.

“She’s looking forward to it, man. I told her you’d pick her up at 7:30. Her address is 17 Forrest lane, it’s a small townhome. She’s a little quirky, but I think you should have a good time!” his text message read.

Jacob wondered what he was getting himself into; what did quirky even mean? As he climbed into his car and plugged the address in his GPS, it told him that her condo was fifteen minutes away. Peering once again at his watch that now was blinking 7:19, he knew he’d be late. With a sigh of disdain and discontent he started his car and pulled out of the parking garage beneath his apartment building.

As he finally reached her condo, he gazed around the quaint neighborhood that had the exact same model of white houses lined all the way down the street and had perfectly landscaped grass as well as pristinely trimmed trees. Jacob’s watch was now blinking 7:36. Content with the fact that he was only six minutes late he climbed the stairs to her white front door. He rang the doorbell which then started echoing throughout the house.
“Be right there!” he heard a woman yell from inside.

When the woman answered the door, he was pleasantly surprised. Wearing a form fitting red dress, a woman in colorful coach shoes stepped out with a smile that showed her perfectly white teeth. Her bright blue eyes sparkled as she said, “Hi! You must be Jacob, I’m Laura.”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you!” Jacob replied. “I made us a reservation at 8:00, so we should get going.”

As they began driving there was a long period of awkward silence. Jacob peered at the clock blinking 7:43 and he finally began speaking. “So what are your hobbies?” Jacob asked.

“Oh, I love to hunt!” She replied.

Jacob was dumbfounded. As a vegetarian for his whole life, he had always hated hunting. “Oh... cool...” he said.

“Yeah, I went just the other week! I shot a deer!” she said laughing.

Jacob was holding back vomit as he thought of that innocent life. He wasn’t a sap but he saw no reason for killing innocent animals.

“I can show you pictures if you want!” she said.

“No!” Jacob responded quickly. “I’m sorry, no. I’ll pass.” He breathed a sigh of relief as Laura changed the conversation to a topic he was much more comfortable with. He reassured himself that just because they had one difference in opinion didn’t mean that this date was going to be a disaster. It would all be okay. He just had to keep an open mind.

His positivity didn’t last much longer. When they arrived at the busy restaurant, Jacob walked up to the hostess wearing black pants and a button up white shirt with glasses and a tight bun on the top of her head. He informed her they had arrived for their reservation at 8:00; his watch was blinking 7:58. The hostess investigated her list for a while then told them to wait a moment with a concerned look on her face as she walked a couple of steps away. She started whispering to another man nearby towards the pair. As Jacob was waiting he noticed that the entire building was made of brick and there was a large fire burning across the room, keeping the restaurant a cozy temperature. All of the tables had large white tablecloths over them and glasses of water glimmering with condensation under the dim lighting.
As he was zoning out admiring the restaurant, the woman clomped back over in her heels that looked a half size too big and informed Jacob that they didn’t have their reservation in their book and that another table wouldn’t become available for at least a half hour. Jacob was unhappy but accepted this was out of his control and turned around to approach Laura. When Jacob relayed this information, Laura had a much stronger reaction than he anticipated.
“This is ridiculous!” Laura shouted for the entire restaurant to hear. “We have a reservation. We showed up on time. We should be seated right now!” she continued shouting as she stomped toward the hostess.
The hostess’s eyes grew wide with fear as this raging woman came storming toward her. “I’m sorry, ma’am, for the mistake, we will get it sorted out and get you seated as soon as possible.”
“Ma’am!? Excuse me!? Do I look like an old woman to you?” Laura retorted.
At this point Jacob was hiding his face and did not want to be associated with Laura at all. He was extremely embarrassed with her actions. This date was turning out to be a disaster. When Bruce said she was quirky, he didn’t think to mention that she had a quick temper, too. “Laura, relax. It’ll be okay we can just sit over here and wait,” he gestured toward a sofa.
“Fine,” laura responded. “If we have to, I guess we can deal.” She walked slowly towards the sofa, but not without turning around and glaring at the hostess before she sat down.
When they sat, his watch was blinking 8:09 after Laura’s ordeal with the hostess. When they finally came to seat them, over twenty minutes had past. As they followed the woman Laura had yelled at less than a half hour ago, you could feel the tension in the air. Jacob just stared down at the feet walking in front of him, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone in a restaurant. He was actually thankful when they were seated at a table in the corner and he didn’t have to face the restaurant.
A woman with red curly hair, bright green eyes and freckles came up to them as they were looking at their menus. As she was playing with an old string bracelet around her wrist she said, “Hey y’all! Welcome to Morton’s! What can I get for you?” in an adorable southern accent that Jacob found completely endearing.
“I’m good with water, actually,” Jacob replied.
“You aren’t going to order us a bottle of wine?” Laura asked sharply.
Jacob was shocked, he’d never have a date tell him he should order wine. He never drank, simply because he never felt a need to. He couldn’t believe how rude she was. He looked up at the waitress and could see the pity in her eyes. She could clearly see how awful the date was going.

“I don’t drink, Laura,” he replied gritting his teeth. “But if you’d like to order a glass for yourself, that would be fine.”

She flipped her head towards the waitress, “Fine, I’ll have a pinot noir.”

“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” the waitress said giving another pitying glance towards Jacob as she strolled away.

As they went back to looking at their menus, there was an extended period of silence. “I’m going to to the ladies room,” Laura said abruptly, clearly feeling the same awkwardness and tension Jacob did. As she was strolling towards the restroom, the waitress came back holding a tray with their drinks.

Jacob looked towards Laura walking to the restroom glaring at everyone as she walked and could not stop thinking about how awful this date was going. He looked at his watch, which was now blinking 8:50. He’d barely been with her for over an hour and he couldn’t stand her anymore. “Do you have any room in the kitchen to hide somebody?” he asked the waitress.

“Excuse me?” the waitress replied.

“You heard her yelling, you know how awful this date is going. I can’t stand her anymore. Please, just help me hide before she gets back. I’ll pay for the drinks, I’ll buy a meal, I’ll even give you an awesome tip just, please, get me out of here.”

The waitress gave him that same pitying look she had already given him twice before. Jacob could tell she was thinking it over in her head until she finally responded. “Okay fine, duck behind that door back there quickly. I’ll tell her you had an emergency but I better get a good tip for the earful I’m about to get!”

Jacob quickly ran to hide behind the kitchen door and peered through the foggy window of the big metal doors waiting for Laura to return. As she walked back, winding between the tables laid out closely in the restaurant, he could already see the anger on her face. As her face grew red with anger, all he was thinking was that he was happy he wasn't the one who had to confront her.
When Laura saw the waitress walking by, she snapped at her, "Where is he!?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, he said he had an emergency and had to leave. He payed for your wine. Do you need me to call you a cab?" the waitress said calmly.
"What do you mean emergency? I can't believe he left in the middle of our date!" she screamed. "How can this be happening again!?"
The waitress repeated herself, "I'm sorry, I know it's inconvenient. Would you like for me to call you a cab?"
"No, it's fine. I can take care of myself," Laura said as she stormed toward the exit and whipped her phone out of her purse.
The entire restaurant was silent and Jacob was unsure of what to do. If he exited the kitchen, everyone would see that he had just stood up his date but everyone had to have seen how crazy she was. As he was deep in thought, he didn’t notice that the waitress had slipped into the kitchen.
“Hey, I thought you would’ve seen but your psycho date is gone!” she whispered to him as he snapped out of his thoughts.
“Oh yeah, I saw! I was worried everyone would judge me if I came out too soon. Thank you so much though, I owe you big time for saving me on that!” Jacob replied.
“Hey, you promised me a good tip!” the waitress said.
“Oh! right,” he started to fumble around in his pockets.
The waitress grabbed his arm and interrupted him, “I was just kidding! You seem like a nice guy, you definitely did not deserve the way that woman was treating you.”
Jacob let out a small smile while he brushed his sweaty hand through his hair. He could feel his pulse racing. “Hey, I still owe you. Maybe we can go out for a drink when your shift is over?” he asked.
“That sounds great! Do you know what time it is?” the waitress asked.
Jacob looked down at his watch that was blinking 9:15 and showed the waitress his watch.
“Perfect! I’m off work in 15 minutes. I’m Christine by the way. It’s nice to meet you, even if it is in this strange circumstance,” she giggled.
“I’m Jacob, and it’s been really great meeting you. I’ll wait for you outside while you finish up,” he said letting a smile smile creep onto his face. He then ambled out of the restaurant, smiling like an idiot, without even noticing the stares of those in the restaurant who recognized him from the ordeal with Laura. As he spun his keys, he couldn’t help but think how everything had worked out for the best, even following his disaster date.