blind first dates (c.h)

"until next time"

Holy fuck, I thought to myself, immediately changing the pace of my walk to a brisk jog. As soon as I got to Cassidy's apartment, my fist slammed into the wood. After a minute of waiting, I knocked again. This time, an aggravated voice told me to wait: it was Cassidy.

"Emmie?" Cassidy peeked at me through her cracked door with furrowed eyebrows before opening her door fully. "What are you doing here? If you're here to kill me for the date tonight, I—"

"Cass, it was fucking amazing." I pushed past Cassidy as I bounded through her door and covered my mouth as I let out a shriek. "Fuck, Cass! I mean, god damn! He is hot."

"Emmie, you look hot." I looked up at Graham as I entered their living room and I gave him a quick smile before falling face-first into their couch. I pressed one of the throw pillows into my face and let out a scream.

"Em, are you okay?" Suddenly someone was sitting beside me, and I threw the pillow across the couch as I sat up, looking at Cass beside me.

"Okay? I just went on the best date of my life!" I took Cass's face into my hands and bit my lip before speaking. "I would kiss you right now, but I cannot contaminate these bad boys. If you know what I mean."

"Are you on drugs?" Cassidy asked, blankly staring at me as her cheeks were squished in my hands.

"No, Cassidy, I am wine tipsy and one step closer to being a little less lonely," I told her, smiling widely as I stared at her. As the expression on her face began to soften, I realized everything was starting to click.

"You kissed him?" Cassidy suddenly started to squeal and I screamed from her excitement.

"He kissed me!" I told her, wanting her to know that he was really into me. "We had dinner at his apartment because you suck at choosing good restaurants, and he cooked me dinner. Dinner, Cassidy!" I fell back into the cushions of the couch and started to physically shake from excitement. "Oh, fuck. He's dreamy."

"Emmie, you kissed?" Graham was now in on the conversation and sitting in the chair beside their couch.

"Em, the last time you kissed someone was sophomore year in college," Cassidy said and I immediately sat up.

"That's not true, asshole. I made out with Chris Peters at your all's Halloween party," I reminded her, knowing full well I wasn't that romantically inactive.

"Okay, obviously that's not what I meant. You're hot—guys kiss you at parties all the time. But you haven't kissed someone you liked in years."

"Okay, I didn't really like Noah Wrangler sophomore year," I said, wanting to clarify that just because we went on a date and a half and he decided to plant one on me doesn't mean I liked him.

"Well, he was romantically interested... and you kissed him back, so it counts." Cassidy's shoulders shrugged, and I let her have it, even though I still didn't really agree. "Now can you start thanking me for setting you up on blind dates?"

"Cassidy, I will still whoop your ass. You did well once." Cassidy laughed at my words and I couldn't help but to smile a little. My phone started to ring in my purse and my eyebrows furrowed as I pulled it out, checking to see who I was getting a call from.

I saw the caller ID, remembered it was nearly midnight, and became confused but answered anyway.

"Hey, Annie, what's up?" I answered the phone call and pushed myself off the couch, wanting to walk around as I spoke.

"You know when you were in high school and you'd get those really bad migraines when you stressed out too much?" I laughed quietly as my younger sister, Anna, started the conversation like she always did: with a completely random question that always had something to do with me. She could never just say Hi, how are things? or I miss you. But I didn't hold it against her.