Cool. “So, what do you do for a living, Nick?"
“I—" He's staring out into space again. I'm seeing the bigger picture here. “I work for a production company downtown."
We step outside, and he trips down two of the steps but catches himself before he face-plants onto the cement.Holy crap.“You okay?"
“Yeah, yeah."
“So, back to what you were saying about the production company?"
He walks for a minute without answering my question. In fact, he's walking about three steps ahead of me. I have heels on, and this is as fast as I'm going, so he can keep on hoofing it I guess.
Another minute passes, and he must realize I'm about ten steps behind him at this point and he stops, waiting for me to catch up. “Sorry, didn't see you back there. So yeah, I'm the camera guy. We do some ah smaller shoots for indie clients who need videos of figurines in motion."
“Figurines in motion? You mean like, you move them around with a green screen to make them appear like they're moving on their own?"
“Whoa, not too many people understand how it works. Yeah, totally, that's exactly what we do." Let me guess what kind of figurines they are—no, no wait, let it be a big surprise.
“Well, that sounds fun."
“Yeah, yeah."
We walk for another minute, and he doesn't ask me what I do so I offer the information to kill time. “So, I started a new job this week at a local advertising firm, and so far, it's awful. The people I work with don't have a clue about what they're doing, and they are most likely going to end up in a lawsuit by the end of next week, which means I probably won't keep this job longer than a month." Saying it all out loud makes Virtual Generation sound even worse than I was feeling about the place. Where did I go wrong?
“Cool, cool." He didn't hear a word I said. Sweet.
We arrive at the restaurant, and I check in at the hostess stand. I want to pat myself on the shoulder for making tonight just a little easier. The hostess grabs two menus, and we follow her down the row of tables, Nick first.Evidently, the saying, “Ladies first" must be an old rumor that misconstrued over the years, because I haven't met a guy yet who has acted in such an old-fashioned manner. I know how to pick them though.
He takes a seat in the closest side of the booth, and I sit across from him. “You can sit with me on this side if you'd like?" he suggests.
I want to ask him when he has seen two people sitting on one side of a boothon their first blind date, but I will be nice, so Layla gets to keep her goddamn money. “Oh, I'd rather be able to look at you when we talk. It's easier to get to know someone that way."
“Good thinking, good thinking," he says.
“Here are your menus," the hostess says, handing us each one. The girl gives me a long questionable stare, and I want to mouth “help" to her, but I can't do that either.
“Blind date," I tell her, with a chuckle as I press my hand to my throat, trying to non-verbally explain what I mean by a blind date. Nick is none the wiser though. He's already searching through his menu.
The waitress cups her hand around face and mouths the word, “Sorry," in my direction.
“So, have you lived here in Massachusetts your whole life?"
“No, no," he says.
“Oh okay, well, when did you move here? Where did you move from?"
“Uh, Texas—you know—where everything is bigger. It's true what they say. Everything is bigger. So is my—"
“Oh boy, okay, got it." What the hell is going on here? I wantto kill Layla. I am. This is it for her and these goddamn website projects. Done. She's cut off.
“Did you go to college here?"
“Yeah, yeah."
“Okay, that's cool. Yeah, I attended Boston College."
“I went to UMass Amherst. It's actually uh," he pauses, and a smile dances across his lips as if he's ashamed. I don't know what could embarrass him about attending UMass though. “It's the biggest party school in Massachusetts, so I—ah—yeah, I know how to get jiggy with it, if you know what I mean."
I close my eyes for a second and take another needed breath. “Yeah, I've heard UMass has a reputation for their parties."
