The Third Date

Even though her name was “Cherry” this girl seemed refreshingly normal to Nelson. He nervously tried to ignore the fifty or so messages on his phone since his recent “break up” if you could call it that, and instead tried to focus on his date.

“Do you like horror movies?” She asked him smiling.

Another few messages came in on his phone, and he flipped it over. Looking back up he replied, “Yeah, if they’re good.”

“I like them even if they’re not good, sometimes they’re just too crazy!” She said laughing to herself.

“Yeah, crazy.” He mused out loud, looking at his phone, he had brought this on himself.

“Who keeps texting you?” Cherry asked, looking over at his phone.

He nervously looked at all the messages that had already built up. “A girl I broke up with recently…” Shit, why did I say that? He thought to himself.

“You just broke up? And you’re dating already? But we’ve been talking online for a few days now…” She seemed to be feeling awkward. Foot insert into mouth.

He laughed nervously. “It wasn’t really a breakup, it was like, we got together, and she wanted something serious while I’m not ready for that…”

“I see,” She responded. “Well I want something series too, I mean I’m not crazy, but I don’t want to waste my time.”

His phone lit up with messages again. Maybe he should delete her, he thought, but that somehow made him feel even more guilty. “What do you mean by wasting time?”

“I mean that I’m not super young, and I don’t like to casually date if things aren’t going in a serious direction.” She answered him, glancing at his phone.

“I understand.” Are all girls like this? He thought to himself, this is why it wasn’t the right time to be dating again. Nelson couldn’t fathom why Tim thought it was so fun. Was he just too nice of a guy? “I think serious is important, but don’t you think it’s a bit heavy for a first date?”

His phone buzzed as several more messages came in. He picked up his phone and began searching for a way to turn off notifications as she responded. “Yeah sure, it’s just something you should know…” She looked at him to see if he was listening while fiddling with his phone.

“Um hmm?” He responded trying to find the notification setting responsible.

“Maybe we should get together another time when you’re not so busy?” She said, picking up her back and starting to stand up.

“No no no, it’s ok!” He said putting his phone down again having been unable to find the setting. It buzzed several more times as if on a fiendish cue.

“It’s fine, I have to get up early for work tomorrow. It was good to meet you, maybe next time we can see a horror movie?” She asked politely and then left.

“Damn it,” Nelson said out loud and began to scroll through the tons of messages he had gotten. “That’s it, I’m done with online dating,” he resolved with himself.