Second Chance at Romance

Chealsea is busy typing away at her laptop, trying- and failing- to come up with a workable formula for her cooperation's newest project, when her phone begins to ring. Fortunately she's a technical whiz and has it hooked up to her laptop's system via Bluetooth connection. From this she sees that the call is from her best friend, Barbara, and, while she doesn't feel too much like talking right now, she decides to answer if only to get back to her work faster.

Sighing she switches to video call and comes face to face (so to speak) with said friend. The vibrant red head on the other side of the screen looks at her with a mysterious gleam in her eyes and already Chealsea is regretting answering.

"Hey Che Che!" Barbara exclaims. "You won't believe what I did today!"

Chealsea puts her head in her hand, "If you called to tell me you set me up on another blind date-"

"Well I did."

The brunette groans, "Barb! I keep telling you... I DON'T want to start dating again! I've got too much to do as is!"

Her friend presists, "Oh c'mon Che! You haven't been out of the house since quarentine ended, and you haven't been on a date since Mark-"

"Don't!" the heroine warns. "I don't want to talk about that creep."

The red head concedes, "Okay. Okay. You're right... But, Chealsea, I'm worried about you. Everybody else has moved on as best as they can now with all this Covid stuff and you... Well... You've just been confined to your apartment."

Chealsea looks at her friend for a moment before giving out a deep sigh. She runs a hand through her hair and continues her conversation as she untangles her fingers from her long locks.

"I know, Barb. I know you're worried. It's just... Ever since he-who-must-not-be-named, and I'm not talking about Harry Potter's Voldemort," she added with a laugh that was shared by her fellow book nerd, "dumped me a couple of years back I've just been focusing a lot on my work. Then this whole virus thing broke out and... I don't know. I guess I've just gotten used to the loneliness."

"Which is why you need to get out there! You've got too much goodness in you to be wasting it on work and solitude," Barbara said. "If there's one thing this pandemic has taught anybody is that Life's too short to be lost doing the same thing over and over again." She suddenly became more serious, "And that's why I'm NOT going to let you back out of this date like you did the last one."

"How're you gonna do that?" Chealsea asked.

Knock Knock

Her eyes widened as she looked behind her shoulder and back at her laptop.

"When did you have this planned?"

"For five o'clock today... Now open up! I gotta get you ready!"

She ended the call and Chealsea had half a mind to let her stay outside. Then she looked at the incomplete formula and at the food wrappers that littered her desk before shrugging.

"Why not? Maybe I'll get lucky and the date will be short," she said to herself before going to the door to let her friend in.

An hour later saw our heroine in front of one of the fanciest steak restaurants in the city. She was dressed in the nicest outfit her more fashionable friend had managed to piece together from her more practical wardrobe- a cobalt blue sackcloth style dress, a light weathered short-sleeved mid-length white jacket, and a pair of classic black low heel shoes. Her hair was in a bun atop her head with two tendrils of brown curls framing her face. Her neck was adorned with a simple blue sequined necklace and blue studs hung from her ears while her make-up itself was simple so as not to completely smear from the white cloth mask she was wearing over it.

On Chealsea's shoulder was a black strap purse where she kept her wallet and cellphone. She took said phone out and carefully looked at the picture of the young man her friend had set her up with.

He had a muscular build, tanned skin, black curly hair that was kept short but not too short, and was wearing a dark blue smock shirt with the local hospital's insignia on the left side over his heart.

"He seems okay," Chealsea had told her friend.

Barbara noticed the blush on her face and smirked, "He's more than 'okay', Che. He's awesome! He's an RN right now but he's hoping to get enough experience and education later to become a full-fledged doctor."

Chealsea looked up at her, "Does this RN have a name?"

She rolled her eyes, "Of course! He's-"

"Hello," a voice broke her out of her musings.

Chealsea looked up from her phone to find her date for the night smiling at her, at least with his eyes as he was wearing a black mask over his mouth and nose. He was also wearing more formal attire for their meeting- a light blue jacket over a white polo shirt, black pants with matching shoes, and a white handkerchief in the breast pocket. In his hands he held a bouquet of pink roses wrapped in red floral paper with a white ribbon tied around the lot.

"You must be Chealsea, Barbara's friend," he said.

"I am," she nodded. "And you must be... Robert?"

He nodded back, "Exactly." He presented the bouquet to her, "These are for you."

She was very surprised by the gesture, yet very delighted as well. Her ex never gave her flowers when they first met... Or ever during their whole relationship.

Chealsea mentally shook her head and returned to the present, in both senses of the word, "Thank you, Robert. They're beautiful."

"You're welcome," he said. Then in an act of old world chilvary he offered his arm to her, "Shall we?"

Giggling she gave a nod, took his arm with her free one, and they walked into the restaurant like they had been together for years.

The next day Chealsea was all smiles.

She had rewritten and turned in her completed formula to her manager, which was given high praise a mere fifteen minutes later as well as a hefty bonus of five thousand dollars to be added to her next paycheck; her apartment was clean and orderly once more, and she rearranged her clothes so that her more attractive ensembles were present at front.

Suddenly she got a call from Barbara and, for the first time in a while, Chealsea was glad to hear from her friend.

She answered the call and was the first to start speaking, "Hey Barbie Girl! How're you?!"

The red head blinked, "Whoa! Last night must've been some date!"

The brunette giggled like a schoolgirl, "Oh it was, Barb. It was a true dream date come true!"

"Ooh! What happened?"

Chealsea smiled as she told Barbara what had happened, "Well, after we entered the restaurant..."

The Maître De showed the two to a table that was, as now the new standard in all eateries, six feet apart from the other tables and placed their menus in front of them. He then took out a digital pad and stylus pen.

"Would you like anything to drink? We have an excellent choice of wines that can best compliment all of the dishes on our menu," he stated. "We also have selections from our dry menu for the designated driver."

Robert glanced at the wine menu along with Chealsea and asked, "Is there anything you would like?"

Again Chealsea was surprised at his behavior. Her ex never asked for her opinions and always took over ordering the food, even if the dishes were somethings she couldn't eat.

"Actually..." She glanced at the menu and shyly asked, "Would you mind if I got a glass of Mojave Rain? It's my favorite Merlot and I haven't had it for a while."

The man's eyes widened and Chealsea thought for sure he was going to use the same objection her ex used to use...

"Are you sure? It looks a little too RICH for a first date."

Instead the man chuckled and said, "I'd love to. In fact," he turned to the waiting Maître De, "bring us the bottle please and a pitcher of water for later."

The man smiled brightly, gave his compliments on an excellent choice, and departed in short order.

Robert looked back at Chealsea, "Mojave Rain is my favorite wine of choice too. I especially love the after taste of dark chocolate. It makes you feel like..."

"You're having a drink and a dessert," she finished for him. "That's what I love about it too, along with the silky smoothness it has going down your throat. It's not at all like other drinks that try to burn the inside as it goes down."

He smiled even brightly at her, "You've got good taste."

She smiled back at him...

"Once we got our wine we both ordered a delicious roast leg of lamb, asparagus and couscous and talked the through the whole meal about our professions, our hobbies, interests... We have so much in common!" She laughed while she continued. "After that we drove to Dave and Buster's, played some games, then we went to a local karaoke lounge and sang maybe, what, ten songs each. Then we ended our performance with a duet from "Grease"."

At this Barbara smirked, "Which one?"

Chealsea blushed as she answered, "'You're the One That I Want'." At the red head's laugh she quickly added, "Just for the record it was his idea, not mine!"

Barbara merely laughed more and soon Chealsea joined her.

Once they both calmed down Barbara replied, "It sounds like you really did have a dream date, Che Che."

"Yeah," she sighed. "And I hope I get to have another one."

She looked over at the bouquet next to her and smiled.