Pastel Colors and White Chairs

As steam raised from the mug of coffee on my table, I could feel my heartbeats rising. Just when I thought, “Is she not going to come?”, I heard the entry bell of the shop. A beautiful girl walked in. She had long and curly brown hair, wore a pink flowy dress. I secretly hoped that she be my blind date.

It was a cute little coffee shop, the one that had beautiful pastel-colored walls, white chairs, and filled with the aroma of coffee beans. As I walked into the café, I saw a boy wearing a white shirt and blue jeans looking at me. He had beautiful blue eyes. Susan did tell me that my date had blue eyes. It was her who set me up on a blind date.

I saw her walk towards me and I felt nervousness building in my mind. She is the first girl I was meeting after my break up with Emma. Needless to say, it all felt new suddenly.

“Tyler? Susan’s friend?”

“Yes. You are Jess, right? Nice to meet you. You look beautiful by the way.”

“Why did I compliment her in the same line? She may think I am desperate”, I was scolding myself to have sounded desperate.

“Thank you! You look great too, Tyler”, She said, getting settled.

“I’m sorry I got a bit late. It was a busy day today”, she said.

“No issues”

She ordered a cup of coffee.

“So, nice coffee shop, right?”, I asked him. I wanted to start a conversation and also wanted to know if he is into interiors and designs.

“Yeah. I have heard about this place, but I am coming here for the first time. It is small and cozy and I love the pastel walls. I have this weird attraction to pastel colors. Anything pastel gets my attention”, he said.

“He likes pastel colors too”, I thought.

“Yeah. So how was your day? I had a busy one”, I enquired.

“It was a good day. We finally finished the project we were working on. I hope Susan told you that I’m a Software Engineer, right?”, he replied.

“Yeah, she did tell me. And I was all set to be a Computer science Engineer myself. But, decided to drop out after two years and pursue my dream as a Fashion designer. Honestly, I did like coding and all, but I think my love for fashion was much greater.”

I liked her. She was beautiful, independent, knows what she wants, and liked coding. I was relieved. I thought girls found coding boring, but clearly, I was wrong. I felt quite at ease with her.

“So, you’re a Fashion designer, right? Rate my sense of dressing”, I asked her and immediately realized how much of a cringe question that was.

“I’d give an eight. You could have worn casual shorts. That would have made a better date look”, she said with a hint of a smile.

“He is a nice guy. No red flags so far. He does have a decent fashion sense. I liked him. Maybe, we could go on a second date”, I thought.

Sunlight falling on him, made his skin glow. I wanted to ask him what was his skincare routine but, thought it would be weird to ask on a blind date. So instead I asked,

“Have you been to blind dates before?”, and regretted asking that. “Skincare routine was better than that question”, I thought to myself. Now I had to hope that he didn’t think I’m crossing boundaries asking him personal questions.

“No. I’ve not been to blind dates before. Actually, I had a long-term relationship and we broke up five months ago. So, this is the first date I’m going after my break up. Susan is my good friend and since she insisted, I gave in”, he replied.

“Damn! Did I make him uncomfortable? Why do I ask weird questions?”, the pessimist in me scolded me for making it uncomfortable for him.

“No, I don’t think I asked anything weird. It’s a casual question, right? He didn’t sound uncomfortable at all.”, the optimist in me came around to support me. The pessimist and optimist in me were having an argument in my head.

“What about you? Have you been to blind dates before?”, I asked her.

“Yes. I have been to blind dates. But I think it has been quite a time since my last date. I have been busy with work lately. I have a fashion show coming next month.”

“Oh! that’s great and it's so cool. All the best.”

She smiled and went back to sipping her coffee running her eyes through everything in the shop. She is an observer. As we sat in silence, I noticed her brown eyes. It was like a pool of honey. Each time she looked up from her coffee mug, her eyes looked more pretty.

“Wow, she is absolutely beautiful”, I thought.

“Jess, do you love mountains or beaches?”, I depended on my go-to question. This was a question I would ask people to start a conversation. I was a mountain person. I loved hiking and camping on hilltops.

“I love both. But I think, I love mountains more. The sunrise on a hilltop is so beautiful. It will make me forget all my worries. So stunning. I hope you are a mountain lover too”, she replied.

“Yes, your guess is right. I love the mountains.”

I felt like I ran out of questions. I was too focused not to ask anything private and I didn’t want to ask any cliché questions too and now I don’t know how to keep the conversation going.

“Hey, so do you mind if we take our date to the beach. I know you are a mountain lover. We don’t have any hills nearby, but we do have the next best thing. A beach. So what do you say?”, she asked me as if she read my mind.

“Yeah sure.”

It was the time of sunset when we reached the beach. It was a calm evening with a cool breeze. Seeing people flying kites made me think about how my dad taught me to fly a kite.

“What’s your favourite memory on a beach”, I asked him. He seemed to have lost in thoughts.

“Hmm… I think when me and my friends went to the beach almost every evening when I was in college. It was a great time. We had a beach near our college and we used to spend our evenings there.”

We sat down on the sand and looked at the never-ending horizon. It was a few minutes of silence. It seemed like she got lost in her thoughts too. It felt good to even sit there in silence. I thought about what my friend once said - that it is easy to keep a conversation going and it is really difficult to sit in silence without feeling the awkwardness. That evening I didn’t feel any awkwardness in the silence we shared. I felt calm and peaceful. I looked at her through the corner of my eyes and saw her smiling. Maybe, she felt the same way. Her hair was falling on her face and I felt a strong urge to brush the hair out of her face. She looked at me and smiled.

“Did she notice that I was staring at her? Does she think I’m weird now?”, I started scolding myself again for not acting cool around girls.

“He looks stunning in the sunset”, I thought.

He was definitely my type, but I didn’t know if he likes me too. I wanted to ask him if we were going for a second date, but didn’t want to jump the gun. So, we sat there watching the sky change colors and the waves getting higher. I haven’t sat on a beach like that for a long time and it felt great to sit there with him.

“Hey, I had a great time and it is getting dark. Maybe, we should call it a day?”, he asked.

“Yeah sure. I had a great time too”, I replied. I felt like asking him about the second date but didn’t want to sound desperate.

“So, do we meet again?”, he asked. This guy could read minds. I was glad he asked about it.

“Yes. I think we will meet again. I had a peaceful evening. I want to meet you again, Tyler.”

“Sure, I would love that too, Jess. Bye for now.”, he said and stood up.

“Bye Tyler”, I said and hugged him goodbye and sat there on the beach for some more time.