"So, Marty, tell me about yourself."
He sniffed and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "I understand I'm able to speak freely with you?"
A server filled our glasses with white wine. I hadn't ordered, so presumably, Marty had. Good thing I liked white. I took a sip and smiled up at the server. "Are you ready?" he asked.
"No, I'm sorry, I'll need a minute."
Marty raised his eyebrows. "I'd be happy to order for you. I've studied the menu already."
Um, what? Absolutely not. "No, thank you, I'm perfectly capable of ordering my own food." What the hell?
The server walked away, and I leaned forward. "Marty, how long have you been here? When did you leave Dream?"
He screwed his lips and furrowed his brow. "It's been two weeks now, why?"
"How did you learn about Gaia? Like, what practices are okay and what are not?"
"Oh, I've been watching a lot of television and movies."
There was so much potential there for a disaster. "Can you give me some examples?"
He cleared his throat, and I waited patiently. "Well, uh, let's see. There's I Dream of Jeannie. And Bewitched. There's this lovely channel called Nick at Nite that plays reruns of Gaia's more popular shows. A friend recommended it."
Ah. That explained it. "Oh, Marty. So, let me give you a tip. It is an antiquated practice to attempt to order dinner for your date. I suggest you look for more modern shows to watch. May I suggest…” I paused. I didn’t watch much tv, and the shows I liked, like Doctor Who, might not work in this instance. “Well, actually, TV isn’t a good basis because it’s fiction. But nowadays, it’s usual for the woman to decide what she wants to eat and drink.”
“My apologies.” He smiled at me, but after that faux pau, neither of us could get fully comfortable. The dinner was pleasant, and we talked about what Marty hoped to do with his time here. He gave a non-answer, but he was polite and asked lots of questions as if wanting to get to know me.
I held out as long as I could. This date was absolutely not going anywhere, though I had no desire to hurt Marty's feelings. I just couldn’t put up with it any longer.
"I'm sorry, Marty. This just isn't going to work."
He nodded and smiled sadly. "I agree. It was a pleasure to meet you, Cathy."
We said our goodbyes and I left feeling an odd sense of relief. Marty wasn't for me, and I couldn't help but compare our date with the one I had with Reynard. Once I'd been sure he wasn't a total monster, literally, and up until the alchemist had freaked me out, I'd been engaged, animated, and fully involved in the date. Not a second of boredom or thoughts that it was a terrible match.
Maybe I would force Rey to take me on another date and just ignore the sixth date for now.
With a sigh, I hit the button on my key fob to unlock my car door and grinned.
Maybe this time I was getting it right. After all, there's nothing quite like a good first date. Maybe Rey and I could attempt to redo our first.
I slid into the car and turned to put my purse in the passenger seat only to find it filled by Reynard. "How was your date?" I couldn't stop the shriek that slipped out, nor could I stop myself as my keys rammed toward him. I'd had them in my hands defensively, just like any other woman in the world would when walking to her car at night. How had I not seen him when I walked up? I'd parked under a streetlight, near the building, just like every woman is taught to do when going out at night. "Oh, my gosh," I breathed as he pulled the key out of his shoulder. "I just stabbed you."
"You're strong," he said in approval as he studied the bloody tip of my house key. He didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered that I had just shanked him with a key. Actually, he seemed rather impressed. "That's a dull key to stab with." He rolled his shoulder and smiled as I began to panic. "Don't worry. It's already healed. I'm just glad this was a regular key and not silver. Then we really would've been in trouble."
"You're healed?" I whispered.
"Like it never happened."
Pulling back as far as I could, I rammed my fist into the shoulder I'd just stabbed. "You deserve to be stabbed," I yelled. "How dare you scare me like that! I was just thinking I was looking forward to our next date and then you're here, in my car, scaring the hell out of me in the dark like some psycho."
A slow smile spread across his face. "Well, I'm glad you still want to go out with me. I didn't think it was a total write-off, no matter how bad the first date ended."
I sighed and shook my head, then said in my lowest, most threatening voice, "I'll make sure to have my keys remade in silver."
He clutched his heart and chortled. "You do wound me now." He winked. "But I could suggest a pawn shop that may be able to melt down silver and make keys for you. Though silver’s pretty soft, so they wouldn’t work for long."
I couldn't help but giggle.
