The Awkward Date (a short story)

Pilar pulled her car into the parking lot, circled it a couple times looking for a closer spot.

It must be busy tonight, she thought as she kept her eyes peeled for any empty spaces. Her palms were sweaty, and she could feel her heart fluttering as she drove. A car was pulling out two spaces from the front door. She shifted gears and backed up so they could get out, then waited for five minutes while the driver made a ten-point turn before exiting onto the street.

She carefully parked herself and flipped the ignition off, pulling the keys out and putting them into the pocket of her faux leather jacket. She had chosen that jacket for the date tonight, because she thought it made her look like a motorcycle-driving badass. As she let her mind go over her outfit again, she felt a spike of worry prick at her. What if it was hot in the restaurant? She'd have to remove the jacket, and her armpits were sweating. She could feel the beads trickle down before soaking into the sleeve of her dress. She couldn't take the jacket off, even if it was hot inside. There was no way her date wanted to see her gross, sweaty armpit stains.

Pilar took a deep breath, and then another as she mentally prepared herself to meet David. He was good-looking, according to his pictures, and under the prompt "my favorite thing" was a description of a perfect date involving pasta, candles, and wine. She had swiped, if not for the candles then at least for the pasta and wine. She liked her carbohydrates. And their conversation online had been pleasant, although she'd had to set the date and time. David picked the restaurant, a Mexican place downtown. Pilar had jokingly reminded him that his favorite thing was pasta, but he'd told her that he was going to save that favorite thing until he'd gotten to know her a little bit better. She wanted the pasta, but hadn't pushed her luck. At least he had agreed to meet her.

She scanned the front of the restaurant, trying to appear confident and nonchalant. Her hands were twitching, and so she rested them on her purse, then felt awkward and put one in her pocket with the keys.

There he was!

Her heart pounded as she pushed through the door, walking in on numb legs, trying very hard not to trip on her heels. She looked good, she was interesting, and he would like her, right?

He smiled as she walked over, standing up with a question in his eyes.

Pilar smiled back, asking "David?" Her voice quivered.

"Guilty as charged." He replied. "Pilar, I take it?"

Wow, he had pronounced her name correctly.

"Yes, I am." Pilar sat down inside the booth, across from him. There were little, decorative fringes along the edge of the table. Bright green and yellow, very festive.

She pulled her purse off and set it on the floor, then thought about all the germs on it and almost moved it. Wait, that would appear to be insecure, she couldn't move it again. She left it on the floor, cringing inside.

There was a beer sitting on the table in front of David, half of it gone. He must have been here awhile.

"Have you been waiting long?" She asked.

"Not too long, about ten minutes," he replied.

"I'm sorry." she said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it."

The server came up then, a young lady with dark hair pulled back into a bouncy ponytail. She didn't look at Pilar as she asked "Hello, can I get you something to drink?"

"Do you have wine here?"

"No, but we have four different types of beer. Would you like one?"

"Um, no thanks. I'll just have a water with lemon. Thank you."

The girl nodded and walked away, leaving another menu for Pilar.

She picked it up, glancing at it.

"So, Pilar, what do you like to do for fun? I read on your profile you go to the gym a lot. Which gym do you go to?" David asked, taking a sip of his beer.

"I go to Barron's on Sunset. It's nice, not too crowded." Pilar looked up to answer him, then back to the menu. Her hands felt clammy from the sweat. Fortunately for her, it was cool inside. There would be no need to take her jacket off.

The server brought her water and a bowl of chips and salsa back, and they both ordered an entree.

They were almost finished with dinner.

In the past hour, Pilar had been up once to the restroom, and readjusted her jacket, patting at her armpits with paper towels in the hopes it would make her more comfortable. Someone must have turned the temperature up because she'd begun to sweat again halfway through the meal.

The conversation had become a little stilted as they attempted to get to know each other, and Pilar felt like she was repeating the lines on a script that she'd made up to show her in the best light. David hadn't been helpful, asking generic questions about her interests, likes, et cetera.

So far, it hadn't been the best of dates.

Not the worst, either, she had to admit. The worst she'd been on, the man spent the whole time talking about the business he owned, and how many trips overseas he took on an annual basis. He had talked about the type of woman he usually dated, also. Listing traits he admired and flaws he detested. That had been the worst date.

David was running out of questions to ask, she could tell. She tried valiantly to come up with things to ask that would be out of the ordinary, things that would make her memorable. Everything seemed to fall flat, and the sweaty armpits had persisted. Good God, it was so uncomfortable.

There had been a particularly long moment of silence, half of the tamale still sat on her plate, when David announced he had an early morning.

"I'd better head out if I want to get some sleep." He said, smiling awkwardly. He looked to the counter where their server stood, hands on her cell phone.

Pilar felt her shoulders droop with a mixture of relief and disappointment. She put a smile on her face and answered "That's okay. It's been nice meeting you."

The entire sentence fell weakly to the floor. Pilar poked at her tamale as David reiterated how nice it had been to meet her as well, and that she was a very pleasant person. All the things you were supposed to say when you were never going to see the person again.

A few minutes later, when David was just about to stand up and get the server, she looked up from her phone. After seeing his expression, she scurried over with the check. "Are we together or separate tonight?"

They both responded at the same time, different answer.

"Together," David said, just as Pilar told her, "Separate, please."

The sever raised her eyebrows, looking from one to other of them.

David looked at Pilar. "Please allow me to pay. It's the least I can do."

There was an apologetic tone to his voice.

"Okay," Pilar said, going back to the tamale.

The check was paid, David, scrawled his signature on the receipt, and then bid her goodnight. He was fairly anxious to escape, Pilar could see by the tense set of his shoulders.

"I'm going to stay and finish this," She said, pointing her fork at the tamale. "have a good night, David."

"You too. Bye." He walked away and out the door without looking back.

Pilar relaxed, slumping back against the booth. She felt exhausted. Looking around, she noticed that the restaurant had cleared out, only one other couple remained, and they seemed to be fixing to leave.

She pushed her plate away and stood up, preparing to leave, also. Zip jacket up, get purse from floor and put on shoulder, phone check, keys......

Keys.......

She reached again into her pocket, feeling into all the corners for the keys that had been there earlier in the evening.

"Shit," she whispered, pulling at the material in both pockets until they turned inside out. "shit."

Her pockets were empty; nothing dropped or jangled to the floor.

She bent to peer under the table, searching for her keys. Checking the back of the booth, in the creases, on the floor. Nothing doing.

To the restroom! She checked the stalls, the sink, top of the paper towel machine, everywhere she could think of. When she found nothing, again, she rushed back to the booth. They had to be somewhere.

Pilar set her purse on the table and pulled her jacket, laying it beside the purse. She got onto her knees and went on a very thorough search of the underside of the table, peering in every crack and cranny. She was still doing this when a male voice spoke.

"Pilar? What are you doing?"

She jerked up, banging the top of her head on the table, hard. Stars exploded into her vision before fading away.

It was David.

She sat there, on her haunches while she thought. Should she pretend to be someone else so he would leave and she wouldn't be embarrassed, or own up to it?

Damn, he saw her things on the table. He wouldn't be deceived.

She backed out from under the table, face flushed, and it wasn't from the exertion.

"Hello." He said as her face came into view.

"Um, hi." Pilar returned the greeting as she struggled to her feet. David put his hand out to help her up, and she took it without meeting his eyes. "So, I lost my keys."

"Oh, I forgot my card, so we're both on the same page," he said, then burst out laughing. "No. No, we're not on the same page at all. Keys is much worse."

Pilar felt herself relax as he laughed, then remembered how stupid she must appear, and tensed up again.

You know what? She thought to herself. I'm never going to see him again after tonight, we didn't vibe at all, so why am I acting like it's the end of the world if he sees my stupid, sweaty armpit stains?

All this flashed through her mind, along with the realization that she was tired and very hungry. And her damn keys were still missing..

"I totally agree, keys are so much worse! Did you find your card?" She asked, feeling herself relax as she accepted it. She simply accepted it.

"Yeah, it was under the receipt. I must have forgotten about it in my haste to-I mean.." he stuttered off as he thought about the words he was saying. Now his face was red. He had nice eyes when he was embarrassed.

Pilar laughed, genuinely. "It's okay, David. I know we didn't really hit it off. Look, I'm even sweating because of how awkward it was. See?" She lifted her arm, pointing to the spot.

David stared at her, his eyes widening. They were a rather lovely shade of hazel, she noticed.

He began to laugh like a hyena, and she grinned like her sweaty armpits were the funniest thing in the world. When he was finished, he wiped his eyes and looked at her.

"Can I help you look for them?"

"Absolutely. I think they're about to close soon, so we should hurry."

They spent the next twenty minutes searching all the places, all over again (and then some) for her delinquent keys.

Apparently, they had vanished into thin air.

The server had come over earlier to ask them what the problem was, and had searched with them a few minutes. Now she came back, this time to tell them that the restaurant had closed ten minutes go and they had to leave.

Pilar groaned, her forehead wrinkling as she tried to figure out how to get home. And how to get inside her home once she got there.

They were ushered out by the server, who suggested she come back in the morning, when they opened again.

"How do I get home?" Pilar asked her, mainly to vent. She wasn't looking for an actual answer because she knew nobody had one.

They stood outside, the sun long past set as the server locked the door and turned off the lights inside.

The only sound for a moment was the cars driving by on the street. Pilar would not join them tonight because she couldn't drive without her keys.

"Hey." David, leaned over, nudging her shoulder. "I can drive you home, you know. If you trust me to."

Pilar felt relief, for a split second, until she remembered something. "I can't even get inside my house without my keys," she paused. "but thanks anyways."

Another moment of silence, then

"You could come home with me, and I can drive you back here to look for your keys tomorrow."

There was silence.

"I like you."

Pilar swiveled her head around, trying to read his expression in the darkness. She swore she could see a smile on his lips.

She thought it over, then replied. "You have nice eyes."

She watched as he turned to face her, then smiled wide.

"My car is over there," he gestured to the only other car sitting in the parking lot, besides hers'.

"Yeah, David. I figured." She said, a smile in her voice.

"Okay then."

They walked over and he opened the door for her, then drove her fifteen minutes away to his apartment. He offered her his bed, saying he would take the couch. She accepted happily, but then spent the rest of the night sitting on the couch with him talking. Neither of them had gotten any sleep by the time the sun rose.

And that was okay.