highlander_ii

"How'd your date go, Mike?"

Mike sighed into a chair at the break table. "I don't want to talk about it, Donna."

Donna's nose wrinkled. "That good huh?" She tugged at his arm. "Come on. We'll drink. You'll talk."

Mike sighed and followed. A drink would be a good idea.

Donna took him to a little bar where they sat at a table in a corner and ordered drinks. "So, what happened?"

"Worst date. Worst. First I was late -"

"You didn't ride together?"

Mike shook his head. "My idea. I had errands to run before. But traffic was shit, so I was late." He sipped his drink.

"You didn't ride your bike did you?" Donna asked, clearly hoping not.

"No - no no. It was raining so I got a cab. But," he held up a finger indicating he had something else tasty to add, "while I was waiting for my cab, some asshole drove through a puddle and got that all over the back of my pants. So I got to show up looking like a half-wet rat."

Donna wasn't laughing, which Mike appreciated. "So, you were late and a little wet. No big deal, right? That's recoverable."

"You'd think so. But I misread the menu and ended up with something gross, but I was too chickenshit to send it back, but I also couldn't eat it, so I pushed it around on the plate until the wait staff took it away."

"Did you eat anything?"

Mike shrugged. "The starter salad and some bread." He dropped his head into his hands and groaned. "And then the worst part - I knocked my wine glass over..."

"Oh, you didn't?"

"All over my date." He shook his head. "It was a mess." He dropped his head to the table, tapping it several times with his forehead.

Donna patted him on the back of the head. "Did you cut your losses and end it there?"

"If only," he mumbled from his head-down position.

"Oh no, Mike."

Finally, he lifted his head again and drained his drink. "While we were waiting on cabs, I went in for a kiss and was thoroughly denied. Like, hand over my face and everything. I... I just walked away after that. There was no way to salvage that disaster."

Donna waved over a member of the staff and ordered another round of drinks. "You were right - worst date."

"I'm not going on another one for a very long time," he declared and let his head fall back against the booth.