“Yeah. Besides, I don’t think she’ll be happy if I bring random people to her crib.”
“Technically, I’m not random. Your sister was always MIA the few times I came to visit.”
“True, but hey, you’ll finally meet her at graduation. Anyway, get out of here and go have fun. Everything is going to be cool over here.”
I nodded before dabbing Key up and heading out the door. After about twenty-minutes, I arrived at the restaurant. I checked the clock and realized that I was right on time. Looking around the parking lot, I shook my head. Of course, George hadn’t arrived yet. I guess I should’ve known better that when he said 8 p.m, he really meant 8:30 p.m. That man wouldn’t be on time if it were his own funeral.
I walked into the restaurant and checked with the hostess to see if George had at least made reservations. I was really giving him more credit than he deserved because, of course, he didn’t reserve a table on a Friday night. Thankfully, a party had canceled, and we’d be able to book the area with a thirty-minute wait. I figured that was fine since I was still the only one there and waited in the lobby. After waiting 20 minutes, George finally walked in.
“My bad, I’m late, bro,” he said, dapping me up. “I had to make sure I had the right drip to make my girl’s heart melt. You feel me?”
“Yeah, okay. And I guess it’s your 'bad' that you didn’t make reservations, too? How are you going to invite people out to dinner and not reserve a table?”
Geo smacked his lips and waved a dismissive hand at me. “Man, I wasn’t thinking that far. I got excited when Rachelagreed to meet up, and everything else went out the window. Besides, I knew that by calling you, everything was going to be handled. You’re the bookworm, and I knew without a doubt you’d always be the responsible one and get everything in order.”
I rolled my eyes as the waiter came up to advise that our table was ready. We followed behind him toward the back of the restaurant until he stopped at a booth that was next to a private bar.
“Say, man, you don’t happen to have two tables back here?” George asked. “No offense, but I’m not trying to be looking across the table at another male while I’m trying to entertain my lady.”
I nodded. “For once, we are on the same page.”
The whole setup was quite romantic because the booth was secluded from the rest of the tables in the restaurant, but that was meant for a party of two, not four. I wasn’t looking for anything serious, but it would be nice to have privacy with my blind date so I can get to know her better. Who knows, maybe she could be the one for me after all.
“Sure!” the waiter said, moving me to a booth that was behind George’s.
As soon as I had settled into my seat, George abruptly stood up.
“All right, man, they’re here. Be nice.”
My eyebrows flew to my hairline. “What do you mean by ‘be nice’? I’m always nice!”
He scrunched up his face before rubbing his forehead in frustration. “Let me rephrase. Don’t go nerdy and Mr. Know It All by turning the conversation into a lesson on the differences between RAM and terabyte. You like to go into great detail about your computer science and gaming developing software engineering bullshit.”
“First of all, you do not know how I talk to women. We only hung out like one time at my parents’ job, and I was talking to you about my degree because you asked.”
“Whatever! Look, don’t talk about that shit.”
I folded my arms across my chest. As much as I wanted to give George a piece of my mind, I held my tongue. He was acting as if we were the best of friends, and he knows how I interact with other women. He doesn’t know shit about me. Hell, the only reason I’m out of the comfort of my home was because I gave my word.
George huffed out a long sigh. “I apologize. Look, this girl is sexy as fuck, and her body is everything! I’ve been trying to get with her for a minute, and she’s finally giving me a chance. I don’t want anything to go wrong tonight. Plus, if everything goes right, we both will be lucky.”
I gave him a puzzled look. “What is that supposed to mean?”
His eyes briefly widened before he shook his head with a nervous laugh. “Never mind. Do me this solid, man, please.”
I rolled my eyes. All he wanted was to add another notch to his belt when it came to this woman. While that was his business, I couldn’t care less if I ended the night with a woman in my bed or I was alone building my game. I sighed before running my hand down my face.
“Okay. Okay,” I spoke. “I will not talk about my career or my degree. I will let Miss Blind Date Lady do all the talking.”
George gave me a thumbs-up and took off towards the front of the restaurant. I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck before placing an arm around the back of the booth. Leaning back in my seat, I masked my face to give off a nonchalant attitude. However, deep down, I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t have a problem speaking with other people per se, rather I didn’t like small talk. I was already introverted and often ran into awkward silences. Oh, don’t get me started when I’m souncomfortable that my social battery starts to run out. Hell, by that point, we might as well pack it up and call it a night because when I don’t want to people anymore—I won’t.
Ricky has been spending all our time in college, breaking me out of my shy introvert bubble, and over the past four years, I have gotten better. However, there were times when I second guessed myself, causing me to shut down. One thing that helped was for me to talk about my passion for designing video games, but with George telling me not to bring it up, I fear that he may have been right. Now that I thought about it, the women I interacted with before would change their entire mood when I started talking about computer coding. To be fair, I’d only bring it up when they asked what my major was.
I placed my hands on the table as I fidgeted with my fingers. The realization that my normal comfort conversations were being kicked through the roof had my nerves on one thousand. Clasping my shaking hands together, I briefly closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.
“Okay, Dex, you got this. Remember what Key said, get out of your head and have fun.”
The sound of heels tapping against the floor had me looking toward the door. There, I saw George strolling to our area with two women by his side. The first woman was a little over five feet seven inches with a short black bob that swayed with each step she took. She had deep honey-almond skin and dark brown eyes. Her long, glossy legs poked out of her hot pink halter dress that showed off her slim frame. George beamed at me as if he were a kid in a two-story candy store with unlimited money as he wrapped his arm around the woman. She was definitely beautiful, and I could see why he was cheesing so hard.
