Valentine's Day Blind Date

Blind date becomes a bust before becoming a love match.

Bill sat at the end of the bar, a seat from which he could watch the front door. He had been sitting there for a while. He was hoping to see her before she spotted him. He was excited about meeting Susan, his blind date. He hoped she looked as good as her picture. All of the other women he met had lied to him about their age and/or about their weight, sending him photos that were years older.

Since it was Valentine's Day, even though he hadn't met her, yet, he had bought her a Valentine's Day card, flowers, and a small satin heart filled with chocolate candy. He hoped he hadn't gone overboard with the gifts, but it was a special day and he had hopes that she'd be his special Valentine.

He had exchanged several e-mails with her over the last few weeks and, after speaking with her a couple of times on the phone, they hit it off enough to make this blind date on of all days and appropriately, the day of love, Valentine's Day. They met on one of those Online dating sites. He responded with an e-mail of interest to her wink and after one thing led to another, here he is ready and waiting to meet her for the first time. Suffice to say that he was just as nervous about meeting her as he was excited.

She sounded fantastic. From what he could determine, it sounded like they had so much in common. After reading her profile a dozen times, viewing her photos over and again, and rereading her e-mails, she sounded like his kind of woman. Only, he was trying to harness his excitement. He wanted to savor the moment for when she walked through that door.

He didn't want to seem desperate, pathetic, and needy. He wanted to appear interested, attentive, and sensitive, a tough balancing act to do, especially since he hadn't had a date in more than a year. It was important that he show her he was self-confident and assured without being distant and appearing disinterested. It was always difficult meeting someone for the first time, especially someone who he already had so much hope that this relationship would blossom into something more than dinner and a kiss goodnight.

He looked at his watch again for the hundredth time. With her being so late, wondering and worrying what may have happened to her, he wished he had her cell phone number. Only, what would he say? She wasn't that late, yet. She only gave him her work number. Maybe she had to work late, he thought while taking a nervous sip of his drink. Nah, it was Sunday. She didn't work today, although sometimes she said she worked from home.

Now, she was already 20 minutes late. Fashionably late was acceptable, at first, but this was excruciating watching the minutes tick by, while waiting and hoping and expecting every woman, who walked through that front door, to be Susan. The time slowly passed and now he was nursing his second drink. He checked his watch again. He had been waiting for nearly an hour. This is ridiculous.

The thought that she wasn't coming hit him in the way that he felt, as a boy, when he was disappointed that he didn't get a puppy for Christmas. The only thing he wanted that year was a dog and he didn't get one. He remembered feeling so disappointed, not unlike how he felt now.

So many years later, the only thing he wanted was to meet Susan. He had hoped to have a relationship with his dream woman. He felt like such a loser. Depressed and dejected, he had given up hope and was ready to forget about this blind date and head home.

Head home? Head home to what? He'd rather sit at this bar for another hour than to rush home to his lonely life. Only, it was obvious to him that she was a no show, just as it was obvious to him that they weren't going to meet.

Maybe he'll send her an angry e-mail when he got home or maybe a concerned e-mail. Maybe he shouldn't e-mail her at all. If she writes him, maybe he should ignore her e-mail, play hard to get, not act interested, and respond to her e-mail after a few days have elapsed.

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know all that much about dating protocol. He didn't know the rules. He wasn't a player. He was just a guy looking for his special someone.

Should he go or should he stay? Should he wait longer? How much longer should he wait? He had already been sitting there long enough. If he sat there any longer, he'd look desperate when she did finally appear. Even the bartender wasn't coming over to him anymore.

He felt bad. He felt sad. He couldn't help but feel like a pathetic loser.

With the reality of her being a no show, in just one hour, sixty minutes, three thousand six hundred seconds of his wasted life, the anticipation of his blind date had gone from happy to sour. A bittersweet moment, where he was so excited before, when he first entered the restaurant, he was so sad now. He couldn't help but think that she may have been the one, his wife and the mother of his children.

It serves him right for putting that much hope into a blind date and counting on someone who he hadn't even met before. Yet, he was ready to meet someone and get married. He was tired of living alone, doing things alone, and going places alone. If only just to have someone to talk to every day would be such a big turnaround in his lonely life.

Stop! Why do you always do that to yourself? Why do you put so much stock and so much importance in these women when this never, ever works out? He gave up. Instead of just going home, rather than just chalking up her and this night to taking a chance, a gamble that didn't pay off, he'd rather beat himself up with sorrowful, internal monologue and feel sorry for himself. He'd rather throw himself a pity party rather than get up, brush himself off, and look for his miss right, all over again.

That's it. He's done. As soon as he gets home, he's pulling his profile from the dating site. Never again will he expect to find his love match Online. It's been nothing but a big waste of time. The entire site is nothing but deception, liars, and players. He'll just wait and hope that it will happen one day and if not, so be it. He'd rather spend his life alone than to go through this heartache and disappointment again. Maybe he'll finally get a dog, yeah, a nice Cocker Spaniel or a Golden Retriever or maybe he just adopt a mutt from the dog pound.

He decided to put his fate in kismet and in chance. Maybe his true love is shopping at the supermarket this very minute. He looked at his watch, again, before looking at the front door, after two women, looking nothing like Susan, entered the bar. Nah, he thought, looking at his watch, yet again, the market is closed already.

Only, he liked her. He really liked did. He liked everything about her. She was so very pretty. Now, he wondered if that was even her photo and suspected that it was not.

Okay, he never really believed that she won the Olympic Gold Medal in the Luge and in Curling. He figured she was only kidding about that. Hey, he thought it funny at the time, he laughed, especially since he used to watch those two competitions. He just figured she had a sense of humor.

Nor did he believe that she almost won the New York Marathon by pretending to be a lion and scaring the runners from Kenya with growling sounds. Where once he thought she was funny, now, he felt stupid. He wondered, if her entire profile was a fake. He had been duped. He couldn't believe there were people like that out there.

Her photo and then her profile is what first attracted him to her. She was a Gemini, so she said. With him being a Leo and compatible with the astrological sign, he loved Gemini women. And with him being a bit over fix feet tall and she being, 5'7", she was his preferred height for a woman. Lastly, she didn't smoke. That was a biggie with him. He couldn't be with a smoker.

Only, where is she? Why didn't she show up and why didn't she, at least, give him the courtesy of a phone call? After all that, the e-mails and the phone calls, he couldn't believe she's not coming. The plans he had for the evening, the things he wanted to say to her and ask her, were all so meaningless now. He felt foolish being stood up like this and having waited for her like that.

Then, he thought, maybe she has a good excuse. Maybe her car broke down or she had a flat tire or was in an accident. Maybe she had a medical emergency. Here he is thinking bad things about her and she may be unconscious, in a coma, even, and in the emergency room of the hospital. The nurse could be cutting off her clothes right now. He imagined her naked. Yet, so long as she wasn't unconscious and/or in a coma, she has his cell phone number; she could have called him.

She could have told him she'd be late, really late and asked him not to wait for her or to wait for her. She could have told him that she's sorry but she couldn't make their date tonight, begged his forgiveness and/or understanding, and set another time for another date. For her to allow him to sit there like a fool is inexcusable and unforgivable. How could she do that to him?

He wondered if she was already there in the restaurant and watching him, laughing at him. He looked around at the people already having dinner to see if he could recognize her from her memorized photo sitting at a table with someone. Maybe it was all just a big joke played on him. Maybe, she's sitting somewhere with her boyfriend or girlfriend and they're laughing at him.

Maybe they do this all the time to men. How cruel? That's so mean. If that's what she's like, he's better off without her. Nah, he's just being insecure and paranoid. She wouldn't do that. She's not a psycho. Who knows? How would he even know what she is not having met her? She could be a psycho. There could be something seriously wrong with her. They've never met in person. How would he even know?

He was so very lonely. He was really hoping to meet her and to make a connection with his dream woman. It's so hard to meet someone and even more difficult to meet the right someone.

He's tried everything, joined clubs, taken classes, gone to bars, signed up for singles dances, and even volunteered at organizations, where he knew there'd by the kind of women there who would interest him. He even joined a gym to get back in shape, while hoping he'd meet a woman at the gym with a similar interest in trying to get herself back in shaped, too. He's put himself out there meeting and greeting as many people, women, mostly, as he could, but all to no avail. Only, here he is still alone and lonely.

He had already told his friends, his co-workers, and his mother that he was meeting someone and that she may be the one. His mother was constantly, endlessly pressuring him to get married and to have children because she's bored and lonely and wants grandchildren. His mother is the one who needs a boyfriend more than he needs a girlfriend. Sitting at home watching day time television, The Price Is Right and then all of her soap operas, she's the one who needs someone in her life more than he does.

Maybe this was a trick played on him by one of his friends or co-workers. He had told everyone that he had joined an Online dating service. He even told them which one he had joined. Now he felt really stupid trusting his friends and trusting his co-workers with something so important and so personal.

Now, what does he say to everyone? He told them all that he was meeting Susan, his dream woman. When will he learn not to say anything to anyone, until after his dates last more than two times? He built Susan up to everyone, even printed out her picture to show them all how pretty she was.

He was so very proud that someone who looked like her would be interested in someone who looked like him. Not that he was a bad looking guy, he was just average and someone who needed to lose thirty pounds, okay, maybe fifty pounds. He was working on it. He's already lost ten pounds, okay, five pounds.

Now, she's a no show. She may even be someone who is not even real. How sad is that?

He tried not to feel bad and too disappointed by telling himself that it was her loss. He looked around trying to see if she was there somewhere waiting for him. She wasn't. He couldn't help but notice another woman at the other end of the bar, who had been nursing her one drink for nearly as long as he had been sitting there nursing his drinks.

Suddenly, in a panic, he wondered if that was Susan sitting there all that time. He took a long, hard look at her. No, that wasn't not her, she had different colored hair and was of a smaller build. No, definitely, that wasn't her.

He watched her for a few minutes wondering if she had been stood up, too. Wouldn't that be funny if she was here waiting for a blind date, who was a no show, also? How bizarre would that be if they made a connection, two people being stood up and serendipitously meeting for love? That would be too weird. Yet, that's how things happen, but only in Hollywood, he thought.

He should get up and introduce himself. She wasn't a bad looking woman. Actually, she looked almost as pretty as he imagined Susan looked in person. What the Hell? Why not? What does he have to lose? Not one to normally do this with a stranger, especially with a woman and especially in a bar, he took a chance and walked down to where she was sitting.

"Hi," he said with a smile.

"Hi," she said looking up at him and giving him a smile that was meant for someone else, no doubt. By the greeting he received, he figured she thought that he was someone else, the one who she had been waiting for, perhaps.

"Blind date?"

"Oh, yeah," she said giving him an odd look before looking at her watch and then looking t the door. "I've been waiting more than half an hour for him."

"I've been waiting for my blind date for more than an hour," he said with a sad laugh. "I'm Bill," he said offering his hand.

"Rita," she said giving him a sad little smile.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he said handing her the card, the flowers, and the chocolates. "No sense these going to waste," he said with a chuckle.

"Thanks, I think," she said with a laugh.

"May I buy you a drink?"

"Drink? Oh, no. No thank you. If I have another one, I may not be able to drive home."

"What's say we not make our blind dates a total loss and share a table."

She looked at him and looked at her watch again, before looking at the front door for one last time.

"Gee, I don't know," she said.

"Are you hungry? Because I'm starved," he said. "I made a reservation here because I heard good things about their food and always wanted to try this place."

"Okay. Sure," she said giving him another look before climbing down from the barstool. "Why not, but so long as we go Dutch," she said.

"Listen, you'd be doing me a favor by allowing me to buy you dinner. Besides, what kind of guy would I be if I didn't help a damsel in distress with some hot food," he said with a laugh.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you."

They walked to the Maitre d' together and even though he had already given his table to someone else, he had a free table.

Making small talk over their drinks, dinner, and sharing a bottle of wine, along with sharing a dessert, they appeared to hit it off. It's funny how this happened. How something, even as preplanned as a blind date, can go bust and pale in comparison in the face of fate, kismet, and love at first sight. These two people so alone and so disappointed by the blind dates standing them up, expecting to meet someone they hoped to make a love connection with, suddenly they both connected with a total stranger. They were meant to be together.

Maybe it was easier this way. There were no preconceived conceptions to get in the way of them being themselves. They already had something in common. They were both rejected.

After a meal that lasted more than two hours, Bill paid the check and they left together.

"Can I give you a lift somewhere?"

"I have my car," she said.

It was an uncomfortable moment with neither one of them knowing what to do.

"Can I call you? Maybe we can do this again, pretend we're waiting for our blind dates and have dinner together," he said with a laugh.

"Sure," she said. "Do you have a pen?"

"No, sorry, I don't," he said searching his jacket pockets. "Do you have one?"

"Listen, I don't live far from here. Why don't you follow me and I'll brew some coffee."

"Okay, sure. I'd like that," he said with a smile.

"Do you drink coffee?"

"I do," he said.

"I don't know if you feel the same way, but I have a good feeling about you, Bill," said Rita looking up at him and making eye contact. "I think we made more of a connection than we ever would have with those other two no shows."

"I agree," he said. "My car is parked just here and I'll follow you. Okay? Which one is your car?"

"The blue Honda Civic."

"I'm that red Mustang."

Bill followed Rita. She had two assigned parking spaces in the lot of her condo. He parked beside her car.

As soon as they entered her small condo, they kissed. He doesn't remember if he kissed her or if she kissed him, maybe they both kissed one another at the same time. Whether one kissed one or the other, it happened. It just happened. Rita never brewed any coffee, until the next morning.

"Would you like some breakfast? I have toast, eggs, and bacon," she said from her kitchenette.

"Sure, I'd love some," he said spotting her computer sitting in the corner of the room. "Would you mind if I checked my e-mail?"

"Sure, go right ahead."

The computer was already on and as soon as he moved the mouse and turned off the screensaver, his profile came up on the screen. When hit the back button, Susan's profile appeared.

"What the Hell is this?"

"I can explain," she said standing behind him. "I saw your profile and I figured you wouldn't be the type of guy attracted to someone like me."

"You're kidding," said Bill looking up at her from where he sat in front of the computer. "You're beautiful."

"I was bored and lonely one day. At the time, I thought it was funny to make up a phony profile. Then, I read your profile Online and gave you a wink. Well, one thing led to another. It happened so fast and before I knew it, things got a little out of hand, especially after we talked on the phone. Then, I was stuck. Now what do I do?"

"So, you're Susan?"

"I am, but Rita is my real name. I didn't lie about that. I am who I am. I'm not her. I'm me. There is no Susan. I made her up. I am a Gemini, though. Of course you realize that I was only kidding about winning the Gold Medal for the Luge, Curling, and I never ran the New York Marathon. I never jogged further than running to catch the bus."

"So, I don't understand. You were at the bar all that time."

"I wasn't going to meet you but you were so persistent to meet. Then, I was curious and my curiosity got the better of me. I showed up late and saw you sitting there waiting and watching the door. I felt really bad. I wanted to approach you. I wanted to say something. I wanted tell you the truth, but I couldn't. I was relieved when you came over to me."

"Listen, Rita, I like you. I really do and what we had last night was incredible. I don't know, if this is what it has taken me to meet someone, but whatever it is, I'm all for it," he said looking up at her and giving her a smile.

"Really? You're not mad?"

"Mad? No, I think it's funny. I never would have met you otherwise," he said. "I was blinded by Susan, someone who you made up and who didn't even exist."

A year later, Bill and Rita were married and a year after that, Bill and Rita had their first child. Who says blind dates don't work?