The fact that they’re in a pitch-black room is supposed to add to the mystery, but for Tinley, all it does is make the situation that much more unnerving. The creaking of a door being opened somewhere only adds to her unease. Any minute now, one of those guys will be sitting in the chair across from her, and the weight of dread in the pit of her stomach intensifies. As the sound of many feet shuffles into the room, she slides her hand across the cold metal of the tabletop in front of her. Luckily, they provided them with drinks ahead of time, but now she’s questioning her choice of getting a glass of wine instead of a cocktail. The extra alcohol content might have helped her nerves a little bit more.

Nevertheless, she takes a small sip and then another. The tart apples and crisp pears dance together on her tongue and slide effortlessly down her throat. She’s had a lot of wine in her life, but this one is exceptionally refreshing. If the wine is any indication, she’s about ready to enjoy a pretty fantastic meal. Not judging at all on the dates. But who knows, maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

The familiar sound of a wooden chair scraping against concrete perks her ears up as her first date takes his seat at the table. She was so wrapped up in the wine, she didn’t even notice that some of the dates at the tables around her had already started. Way to pay attention, Tinley.

“Hey, what’s going on?” asks the voice from across the table at an obnoxiously loud level. Maybe it’s the disorientation of being in the dark and not realizing that even though they can’t see each other, she can hear him just fine.

Tinley laughs and replies to the stranger at a much lower volume, “Oh, you know, not much at all. This is—”

She jumps as the entire table shakes with what she can only assume is his hand slamming down on it. “Obviously I don’t know, or I wouldn’t ask. Why do women always insist on expecting us to be mind readers? You could just tell us what you want, and then we would know.”

Is this guy for real right now?

She doesn’t have a chance to contemplate that for long because the waiter stops by their table with their first course. “I hope you’re both enjoying your evening so far.” There’s a brief pause, and she knows he’s waiting for an answer, but neither one of them speak up. “Okay, well, I’ve brought your first course for the evening. It’s a crusted—”

“Just leave the food so we can get on with it. I don’t need to know every single detail about the food going into my mouth. If you guys fucked it up, I can just get a refund.”

Man, this guy has some serious anger issues. Makes her wonder why he even came to this event in the first place. Maybe he got roped into it like she did, but she’d be surprised if anyone were able to convince this guy to do anything. He seriously seems like a major dick with a capital D. Must be trying to compensate for the lack of down south.

The plate is placed before her and her mouth waters at the scents trickling up to her nose. Silverware clatters against the plates around the small room, and audible moans and groans travel throughout.

“Enjoy your meal,” the waiter adds before quickly walking away. Yeah buddy, I’d be going along with you right now if I could.

The cold metal of the fork meets her hand as Tinley picks it up and takes a bite of her food. The flavors explode on impact, and the crab melts on her tongue. The combination of the sip of wine she just tasted and the crab salad work perfectly together, and she’s glad she decided to go with the Pinot Grigio after all.

She welcomes the silence as they both dig into their food. It’s only after the chatter around them alarms her to the wasted date she’s currently on that she opens her mouth to attempt to salvage the date by asking what he thought of the dish, but before she even has a chance to get a word out, his rant starts right back up again. “Do you know how much easier all this dating bullshit would be if everyone was honest with each other? I mean seriously, what’s with the games? I don’t need another tease making me buy her a bunch of drinks when I get dick in return. Like, what the fuck? This shit is getting old.”

Tease making him buy her a bunch of drinks? What is this dude even talking about? He’s not paying for any of her meal. Somebody has definitely burned this guy a time or two before. He’s harboring way too much anger and just throwing it at a stranger. Maybe since he can’t actually see her, he doesn’t care about what he’s saying? She continues working her way through her salad and enjoys every last bite of it.

As she clears her plate and wipes off her mouth, she takes another sip of wine and gathers her thoughts. “I have no idea what your deal is or why you’re even here since you’re so clearly not enjoying it, but I’d appreciate if you would calm yourself down. This is unnecessary.”

“Oh, the princess is going to have a fit. Well, sorry to break it to you bitch, but I’m not your knight in shining armor. No one is here to save you right now. And if you came here searching for a fucking prince, then you’re even more pathetic than I gave you credit for.”

Tinley opens her mouth to tell him off but is saved by the ringing of the bell. She breathes a tiny sigh of relief that things didn’t escalate further. She was a little worried about the direction that date was taking. Date one down, three more to go. It can’t really get any worse than this one, can it?