blind first dates (c.h)

"the feeling's mutual"

"Emmie, just try and have a good—" I hung up before Cassidy could finish her sentence and sighed loudly as I kept my eyes closed. I took a deep breath in before opening my eyes and looking up; I knew I would need to order an Uber back to my place soon. I hadn't even looked back down at my phone screen before someone's finger tapped my shoulder.

"I'm... sorry." I turned around with a racing heart to see a guy standing behind me. Even though the sun was setting and there was a lack of natural light left to illuminate his face, he seemed to glow as I stared at him. I couldn't help but become giddy as I took in his presence. 

He was wearing black skinny jeans; the ends of which scrunched up above a pair of black boots—but not creepy black boots; instead, they were really nice ones. The right leg of his jeans had a slit in the knee that showed off his tan skin—even though it was the middle of winter. I, myself, was struggling with my paper-white complexion, but this did not seem to be a shared adversity. He was in a plain black shirt, but over it he sported an open dark-gray wash denim jacket. His hair was messy, but in a well-kept way—and he was hot.

"I couldn't help but overhear your phone conversation, and I just wanted to apologize. Cassidy didn't tell me that you didn't know about this, so I'm sorry you were roped into something that you didn't want." As the guy apologized to me, I could barely hear him over my thoughts. They were screaming: You big idiot! Look who you were just about to turn down! "I don't know if you drove here or not but if you need a ride, I can take you home."

"You do not need to apologize—at all," I assured him. I suddenly realized the power I could potentially have over the situation if I played my cards right. "It's really okay. I'm just sorry you had to hear that—I probably seem insane. Believe it or not, but I'm not quick to anger..." I trailed off by beginning to awkwardly laugh, and I wished he had joined in, but he never did.

"I don't think you're insane, I promise. I would be thoroughly pissed off if my best friend continuously set me up with people I had no interest in." The guy took a step closer to me and I kept my eyes on his face as he did. "Look. I'm going to make you an offer. I know you don't want to be here, and you have every right to hate this situation. But I also can't help but think about how hungry you were saying you were, and I know that I'm fucking starving, so why don't we just have dinner? I'll be offended if you order a salad, and I encourage you to eat whatever you want. Literally, whatever. I don't mind sitting and listening if you want to talk about how you think you're insane, or maybe something that really angers you—like Cassidy. I would be pleased to listen. Maybe we can even work out some of your anger issues." The guy smiled at me as he spoke and I laughed quietly, rolling my eyes playfully, but I eventually let myself nod. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, fuck it," I said, confidently, only to have my hands fly up to cover my mouth a second later. "I'm sorry, I need to work on that."

"No, you're right: fuck it. Come on." The guy lifted his arm, bending it at the elbow, and I laughed before looping my arm through his.

"I'm Emmie, by the way," I said, looking over at the guy who was still a mystery to me.

"Oh, god, sorry. I swear I have manners. I'm Calum." As we got to the door of the restaurant, we pulled our arms apart and stood face to face as we introduced ourselves. "Cassidy talked my ear off about you, so I figured she would have told you about me... but I guess you didn't know I was coming. Either way, she hardly knows me. Uh—I just moved in across the hall from her and Graham a couple of weeks ago. It was something of fate that I even ran into them; I'm only staying there for a few weeks before I move into my house, so I wasn't expecting to meet anyone."