Chapter 2: Fooling Around at Dinner

Saturday came quickly and as the afternoon passed I got ready for my date. My roomie, Jen, was curious of course and pumped me for information. I told her all about the grocery store incident and lunch but left out one crucial detail, which I am sure you can guess.

“And he’s HOW old?” Jen questioned me with narrowing eyes.

“Twenty-eight,” I answered softly, but immediately added, “But he doesn’t look that old.”

“Where does he live?”

“He never told me.”

“Did you get his phone number?”

“No, and he didn’t get mine either.”

“So let’s see, you don’t know his last name, where he lives, or his phone number. Geeze Kelly, what DO you know about him?”

OK, so she had me there. The truth was, I didn’t know much at all about this guy. After our lunch, I realized that most of our conversation had been about me with him doing very little of the information giving. God, what if he was some unemployed nut-case?

In any case, I decided to stick with it. When the time came, the outfit I chose was fairly conservative - jeans, a plaid cotton blouse and a bra. Yeah, don’t be so surprised, I actually chose to voluntarily wear a bra. It wasn’t so much for modesty as it was to gauge his intentions. Going braless with this particular blouse, as tight and thin as it was, would have been pretty blatant and given him a clear signal as to my “availability”. Although the outfit as a whole wasn’t TOO conservative, it was just enough avoid any commentary from my roomies. It wouldn’t do to have them see me in one of my sluttier outfits!

I was still working on my hair with my curling iron, trying to coax some body into the straight and limp strands of hair, when the doorbell rang. If it was him, then he was about five minutes early. Jen went out to check and she came running back in and shut the door.

“Kelly, your date’s here,” she announced. Then she put her hands on her hips and gave me a solemn stare. “So just when were you going to tell me?”

“Tell you?” I repeated back in my most innocent tone.

“Don’t give that Kelly,” she reproached me, “You know darn well what I mean.”

“Ohhhhhhhhh, you mean that he’s tall, dark and handsome?”

“Yeah, dark is one way of putting it,” she retorted.

“Ohhhhh, I guess I never mentioned he was black?” I asked, as if it was the first time I’d thought about the matter of skin color.

“Well DUH!” Jen exclaimed.

“Hey, it’s not like we’re getting married or anything,” I protested mildly. I turned off the curling iron and grabbed my jacket and purse. “You’re not prejudiced, are you Jen?” I teased. It was a bit unfair, just as that line of response always was because it put the responder in an awkward position, sort of like asking a guy if he had stopped beating his wife.

Jen just glared at me as I blew her a kiss and went to meet Larry outside the front door. He was the perfect gentleman, holding the car door open for me and then closing it behind me.

It was almost an hour to the movie theater on the east side of Columbus and I had no idea where we would be eating along the way and he didn’t offer me any information. Along the way we chatted and I learned a little more about him. He worked in the manufacturing section of a large company in town and specialized in testing the final products. He wasn’t a native of the area, having just moved in from Houston about three months ago. In that time he hadn’t met many girls and had just a few friends, mostly work-related. We seemed to share many things in common when it came to our religious and political beliefs (yes, we DID talk religion and politics). He attended a church in a nearby town that was mostly black.