He paused and looked at me with the same expression he’d worn all day.
“Look... I... whatever happened this weekend, I’m sure it sucks,” I said. “But I’m not going to waste my time here if you’re going to act this way. You haven’t said more than two words the entire time that we’ve been hanging out, or at least it feels that way. If I wanted to talk without connection...”
I would have chatted with my father.
Who actually asked me to come see him.
That’s more than what’s happening right now.
“Look,” I said, getting emotional. “I can’t, not right now. If you want to try again, come by Billiard’s later this week. But I can’t have you like this.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond. He’d had plenty of chances to do that throughout the date. I think I heard him gasp when I was halfway to my car, as if he was about to say my name, but the breath died in the air and never added anything more.
It wasn’t like I felt like a strong woman when I made the decision to leave. I felt shitty and sad that someone I had curiosity in for some time had turned out to be a dud. I strongly wanted to believe that this was a case of him having a bad day. I wanted to believe that if we did this again, he’d do it better.
But as far as first impressions went outside the bar, boy, it could not have gone any worse.
