The Real Perfect Date

Today is the day I have been both excited for and dreading. My friend, Annie, is always telling me I need a man in my life and I am always telling her ‘definitely not’. I am happy on my own, with my cupcake business and two room apartment. This ‘date’ I agreed to go on, is more for Annie than me, and it’s tonight.

“I’ll be over in a little bit!” Annie squeals through the phone. I’m not sure what’s scarier. A blind date set up by her, or the ‘help’ I’m going to receive to get ready for it. I set the phone down and finish frosting my peppermint chocolate cupcakes, adding little peppermint shavings to complete them, perfect. While packing them away I hear the buzzer so I go ahead and let Annie in. Four flights of stairs later I hear the crinkling of bags outside my door just before a knock. She doesn’t wait for me to answer, she knows I unlocked it right away.

“Hello!” she says in her singsong voice. “ARE YOU READY?” She squeals much louder now in person.

“Sure, Annie, I just need to put these stickers on the cupcakes. Lucas is almost here.” I laugh as I separate the cupcakes into the correct orders and put the address labels on them. As if he knew, I put the last label on and the buzzer goes off, it must be Lucas, my delivery guy. Meanwhile, Annie has made herself comfortable on the futon and emptied all those bags. Lucas also walks right in, still wearing his bicycle helmet.

“Hey Emmie, how are you today? Got a big order?” Lucas fixes his glasses, making his green eyes seem a little larger.

“Lucas.” Annie looks at him with disdain, he hadn’t even noticed her, and she very much so likes to be noticed.

“Oh hi Annie, nice to see you again. Are you two having a spa day?” He is looking at everything she brought to prepare for tonight.

“Something like that.” Annie flashes a wicked smile.

“Don’t mind her. She’s here to help me get ready for a date tonight.”

“A-A date? You have a date? Oh well, good luck, I mean, have fun.” He laughs awkwardly.

“ Um, thanks, I think. Here are the cupcakes.” I hand him the bags and he takes them with a big smile, then practically runs for the door.

“Goodbye!” he yells from the doorway, before disappearing.

“He likes you.” Annie says teasingly. “But you are going to be in love after tonight. Can we start now? I have a lot of work to do.” She laughs. Let the torture begin, also known as the best day of Annie’s life.

After hours of her painting my face, brushing my hair and brewing a potion from different lotions to get the perfect scent, she hands me a bag with a dress in it, the final touch. It’s a beautiful ice blue down to my knees, with matching shoes of course, though I will be keeping my spare flip flops close by for when the heels start to hurt.

“Beautiful.” She pretends to brush a tear from her eye. “My little girl looks all grown up. There is a car waiting for you downstairs”

“Already?” My heart is racing, I’m not sure I’m ready.

“Of course, now go. I’ll clean all of this up. Have fun. Don’t be good.” She winks at me, then gives me an air hug. She is being careful not to mess up her masterpiece that is my face and hair. With a quick push, I am out the door and heading to a blind date, with a man I only know the name of, Dane. He will pick me out.

The taxi pulls up in front of this huge hotel, not just any hotel, The Hotel De La Paz, a beautiful five-star hotel I could normally only imagine the inside of. I get out of the taxi and walk straight through the doors which are being held open for me by two boys wearing matching outfits. I am greeted almost instantly by another uniformed boy not giving me time to take in all the sights, but I don’t miss the two dolphin fountains.

“You are Miss Emorie right?” I nod. “Good, right this way.” He leads me to a restaurant inside the hotel, it is dimly lit by romantic lights. We come upon a table with a small vase of red roses in the middle and a man that stands up when we arrive, Dane.

“I’ve got it from here. Thank you Miles.” The boy beams at the man and neatly walks away. He then turns to me and walks closer. “You look beautiful in that dress. Annalise told me you were beautiful, but she most definitely undersold you.” He pulls out my chair and beckons for me to sit, I do. I blush at the compliment and the gesture.

“Thank you, no one has called me beautiful in a while.” I laugh at how awkward that sounded, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he takes his seat across from me. “You are quite handsome yourself.” I feel my cheeks turn red. He really is though, with his dirty blonde hair brushed back so it’s not in his face and blue eyes that seem to be able to see through everything. He laughs, which slightly startles me. Even his voice is sultry and smooth.

“Good day, what will you be starting off with?” The waiter asks and I know I just need to get a merlot from this place.

“Mer-”

“We will have the house special and a special bottle I had put aside for the event.” He answers quickly and confidently, completely cutting me off. The waiter walks away. “So how do you like my hotel?”

“This is your hotel?” I can’t believe it. “How do you know Annie?”

“Who?”

“Annalise, my friend.”

“Ah yes, we just met, she comes here often and is not shy at all.” He smiles at whatever thought he has. He didn’t really answer my question. “So tell me about yourself.” I tell him about my cupcake business, though it doesn’t seem that impressive now talking to the man that owns the hotel I’m sitting in.

He tells me about his amazing life and the conversation moves easily and effortlessly. He asks questions about my cupcakes and family and seems genuinely interested. Annie could actually be right, I could really like this guy. He seems perfect. Our food comes out and it is a very small piece of salmon, beautifully decorated on the plate, along with a bottle of white wine with a name I can’t pronounce, but a pretty picture of a chateau on it in gold. Naturally they are both delicious. We eat and talk and laugh and I have a genuinely good time which I wasn't expecting.

"So you really love cupcakes." He laughs. "You'll have to make some for me sometime."

"I would love to. I really love baking in general, cupcakes are just easier to transport." I think we just made a second date. Next time I'll have to plan it to show him my world. We drink and laugh and have chocolate mousse for dessert, which is also amazing.

He pays the bill and grabs two glasses of white wine to go, we go up to the roof of the hotel using a secret code in the elevator. When we step out, I am in awe. It’s decorated with little lights, making a pathway to a cute little cream colored teepee. There is a small garden behind it.

“You can see the park and the river from here.” He beckons me towards the edge to look out over the world.

“It’s beautiful.” I pause to look out at the river below lit by street lamps. The city is so bright, it never looks like nighttime. “The river and this roof.” I laugh lightly. He leans towards me.

“You’re beautiful.” He grabs my arm a little tighter than I would have expected and pulls me towards the teepee. He grabs my head and pulls me in, kissing me hard. I kiss him back, but it quickly dawns on me that he is expecting something I have no intention of giving him. He reaches back to start unzipping my dress. I push him away.

“What are you doing?” I say exasperated.

“What do you mean? Isn’t this why you’re here? The dinner was more of a formality, right?” Suddenly, the nice man I’ve been getting to know was gone. This man standing in front of me was not the same person. So much for a perfect date with a perfect guy. Without answering him, I turn and run towards the elevator which opens for me immediately. “I paid for dinner!” I hear him yell as the doors close.

Before I know it, I’m out on the street, walking in the direction of home but not set on it. I turn to the park. My thoughts are scrambled. Annie would never hear the end of this. I just walk for a while to calm my mind.

“Emmie?” a familiar voice says from behind me. “You okay?” It’s Lucas. Unable to hold it in, I burst into tears and hug him. He doesn’t question, but instead returns the hug lightly. “I guess your date didn’t go well, I’m sorry.”

“It was the worst Lucas, I never even want to think about it again, and we barely even ate.” Another short burst of tears makes their way through. Lucas just keeps hugging me.

“I know what you need. Give me one minute.” He lets go of me and gives me a big heartwarming smile, then walks a little away to make a phone call. He comes back to me and his bike gleefully. “If you have some time, I know what’ll make you feel better.” I decide to go with him, I don’t want to be alone right now and Lucas has always been so sweet.

“Okay, but can you help me with something?” I awkwardly gesture to my dress zipper, which has been slightly undone. With sudden understanding, he pulls it up for me quickly and blushes.

“Okay, let’s go, it’s really close to here. Want to ride on the bicycle pegs?” He looks down at my shoes and realizes his mistake. “We can walk.”

“Yes.” To his surprise, I pull my flip-flops out of my purse and put them on. “Let’s go.” I smile at him and he beams back at me. We ride through the park getting farther away from that terrible hotel. We come to a big green patch in the park and he quickly sets up a picnic space, blanket and all, which he was keeping in his bike, and pulls out two glasses.

“My grandpa just gave this to me today when I dropped off his cupcakes.” To my disbelief, he pulls out a bottle of merlot. “Is this okay?”

“I’ve wanted a glass all day.” We sit down and have a glass together and really talk for the first time. He was raised by his grandparents, a big thing about him I never knew. Another guy on a bike rides up, Lucas gets up and runs to him, thanking him immensely.

“Have fun.” He rides away.

“Surprise! Just what you need.” Lucas hands me the bag and I pull out two cheeseburgers. I laugh. He’s right, a cheeseburger and glass of merlot. We eat our cheeseburgers and sip our wine. He even pulls out two peppermint cupcakes. “They’re from my grandpa’s order.” he says shyly. This is a real perfect date, and it wasn’t even planned. I lean in and give Lucas a kiss on the cheek, to which his entire face turns red from that one spot.

“Thank you, this is a perfect date.”

“A date? Like there can be more?” he asks eagerly.

“Yes”