Chapter 3: A Long Awaited First Date

I walked back to my apartment in a daze. I had a date. Even better than that, I had a date with Cheryl Roberts. I actually had a date with Cheryl Roberts.

I spent the rest of the day doing everything I could think of that would take my mind off of her. I did some laundry, including the sheets from my bed. I was tempted to leave them on, because I thought that they would smell like her, but when I checked them, they really only smelled of alcohol and puke. I tided the kitchen. I tried to read a book for my course on Russian history.

Finally, at about 3:30, I gave up. I shaved, showered, and dressed. Casual pants, button-down shirt. And then I sat on the couch and waited for it to be time to go and get her. The minutes seemed to drag by. I actually turned my phone off and back on again just to make sure the clock on it was really working.

At last, it was time to leave. I pulled on a windbreaker, and left to go and pick her up. I tried to walk slowly between her place and mine, but I was still there ten minutes early. Way to look calm and cool. Not. I didn’t want to walk up and down her street in front of her apartment building looking like a stalker, so I rang the buzzer. She answered, and I apologized for being early, and she laughed and said not to worry. Then she told me to come up to apartment 406, and buzzed me in.

When I got to her unit, I stood for a second to catch my breath. And just as I raised my hand to knock, the door opened, and there she was. Short, blue, pleated skirt. White blouse. “Come in, please,” she smiled. “I just have a couple more things to do and then I’ll be ready to go.”

She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then took my hand and pulled me into her livingroom. A blonde girl was sitting there, with a computer on her lap. She was wearing yoga pants and a tank top that barely contained her boobs. “Megan, this is John. John, you’ve met Megan - in passing at least - though I don’t think you’ve been introduced.”

I looked again. It was the girl from the hallway last year, the one Cheryl had been with when I asked her out. I hadn’t realized that they were roommates. Megan closed her laptop, stood up, and came over to give me a hug. Cheryl disappeared down the hallway, and Megan motioned for me to sit down. Once I was settled, she sat down too.

“Cheryl told me about last night. We talk about pretty much everything. She says you’re her knight in shining armour.”

I laughed. “Not so sure about that. My armour can get a little tarnished sometimes.”

“That’s not what Cheryl told me. I’m so glad that you came by when you did. And I don’t know what Candice was thinking, leaving Cheryl alone like that with those guys.”

“Oh, you weren’t...”

“No. I stayed home last night. Cheryl was out with another friend. Last time they’ll go out together, I’m thinking.”

At that moment Cheryl came back into the room. She had pulled on a grey sweater, and added earrings and a matching necklace. “All set?” she asked, picking up a light jacket.

I stood up. “I am if you are!”

Megan waved a goodbye in my direction, and Cheryl gave her a quick hug, and we were off. As we walked down the hallway, she reached over and slid her hand into mine.

“Where are we going?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you that. I wasn’t sure how your stomach would be. What do you feel like? Italian? Thai? Greek?”

“Not Italian or Greek. Too heavy. Thai?”

“Done.”

I knew of a great Thai place only a few blocks away. My mom and my sisters and I had gone there once or twice when they were down visiting me. We made small talk as we walked. I found out that she was an only child, she found out that I had two younger sisters. She told me her dad was a lawyer with his own practice in Toronto, and her mom was a financial planner. I told her my mom was a school administrator and my dad had divorced her and then left the country. We hadn’t heard from him in over ten years.