The Blind Date

         The restaurant was beautiful and romantic. The lights were low and the atmosphere was comfortable. There were few people eating at the tables that were decorated with red roses and white candles. It was a slow evening for the staff and they seemed to be wandering about asking if someone wanted more wine or if the food was ok.
         Liz prayed she would be rescued from this horrible nightmare. She sat across the table from a man she just met because her sister thought she should get out more. Liz hated blind dates and her sister knew that. She had set her up before and it didn’t work out.
         Liz kept eyeing her fork and struggled to suppress the urge and stab her eyes out. This guy was so boring and he wouldn’t stop talking. He wasn’t particularly easy on the eyes either.
         When her sister told her about this single co-worker of hers and how she had already set up the date, Liz thought she might strangle her.
         “Why Glory??? Why??? You know I hate blind dates! The guys you think might be good for me are boring or jerks or there is just no chemistry!”
         “Liz, you need to get out more. You need to party a little, loosen up! This guy I found for you is really nice and he’s cute and he’s has a job, which is more than the last guy you went out with. Just go out with him once and you don’t have to go out with him ever again if you don’t want to.”
         Liz was regretting it now.
         He was discussing his interest in anime and how much he loved it. He talked about how it was more than just cartoons. It was a serious work of art and there were serious themes behind each story.
         Yeah, sure! Liz thought to herself. She was trying to smile and be nice and show some interest when she really didn’t care. Her attention was beginning to wane and it went straight to the kitchen.
         A waiter came out of the kitchen balancing a full tray of dishes topped with the most expensive meats and sauces delicately arranged to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
         Liz didn’t know why they did that, decorate the food and make it as perfect as humanly possible. It was just going to get messed up and eaten anyway.
         The waiter was having a hard time balancing his tray. It was for a party of six that happened to be in a booth behind her hideously boring date. All at once, a chain reaction so powerful that time seemed to stop and Liz couldn’t help but think what happened? after it was over.
         She wasn’t sure what he tripped over but he tripped. His steps went one after the other as he tried to regain his balance. The tray was just too heavy. His face screwed up as he brought his other hand to equalize the balance on the tray.
         The customers screamed in horror as their precious, and expensive, food fell into their laps, all over the table and all over the floor. The plates crashed and shattered into a hundred pieces and the prissy women stood up with a surprised, open mouth look on their faces.
         Liz couldn’t help but laugh and, although her date knew what happened, he thought she was laughing at him.
         The evening wasn’t the same since that event. Liz just didn’t care anymore. She left her date at the restaurant because they had ridden in different cars and reflected on the horrible evening aside from the disastrous dinner of the other patrons.
         That evening, Liz took a solid vow that she would stick to. Her sister would no longer set her up on blind dates. If fact, if she did again without asking her first, she would make her go in her place and suffer the horror. If she thought the guys were sweet and cute, than Glory should date them not Liz.
         The only thing left for Liz to do that evening was the simplest thing a girl can do. Get a glass of wine, light some candles, draw a bubble bath and relax.