My Mystery Date

My first Wednesday date with Matt last week went so well I decided to ask him out this week. He took me to this really nice restaurant in Salem (yep, the witch town) and we had a nice view of the harbor.

He was so sweet when I called him the other day and asked him out. I could tell he was trying not to act too eager, like he was playing it cool. But I could hear the excitement he was trying to hide in his voice, and that made me smile. It also gave me a little flutter in my stomach to know he was excited but didn't want to come across as overeager.

One thing I like about dating him is how outgoing he is, which makes me feel more at ease because I'm somewhat shy. I feel more confident in keeping the conversation going because it's a lot easier for me to respond to the witty things he comes up with than to come up with things to talk about.

I thought about taking him to a movie but changed my mind when I thought about how we'd just be sitting there not able to talk to each other for about 2 hours in a big dark room with lots of other people. I wanted to go to this particular movie but I knew there'd be a packed house with probably every seat taken. Not appealing.

So I decided I'd rather take him to a quieter place where we could just talk, with him taking the lead, of course. Him being Mr. Charming/Witty and me being Mr. Let Me Just Stare Into Your Beautiful Eyes While You Charm Me.

The restaurant where I work is located relatively close to a medium size university and there's this really funky restaurant a couple of streets over. That's where I wanted to take him.

Well imagine how I felt when my boss called early Wednesday morning and said he needed to change my schedule for that day from the lunch shift to the dinner shift. I asked him if I could call Brian, one of the regular dinner shift servers, to see if I could get him to cover me Wednesday night and I could take his Thursday shift. He said, sure.

Brian said he wasn't able to make the change. So now I'm stuck with working on our Date Night. I got really disappointed about this and it taught me I need to be a lot more flexible. I don't even want to analyze why this rattled me like it did. I have counseling later today. {*sigh*}

I called Matt and asked if we could reschedule our date from Wednesday to Thursday night. He said, "Sure. No problem. It'll give me one extra day to get excited about seeing you." 

Now I ask you. In addition to being one of the sweetest things I've ever heard, why can't I think of responses like that? I mean he didn't even miss a beat! How does he do that? I got my smile back and my mood went from disappointed to excited.

So fast forward to Wednesday night. I'm all decked out in my black pants, white shirt, black vest and black bow tie. The lunch shift is less formal, but I'm actually feeling all sexy and cute in this getup. Similar to this ---->

Wearing this outfit gives me some confidence to work a little harder for my tips. Brian told me there are four or five women friends who are regular diners on Wednesday nights and they're always flirting with him. Just innocent flirting. He also told me when they sign their check the line that says, "Tip" is often in the 30% + range. He told me if I "worked it" right, it could be a good night. Shameless, I know, but hey, I'm in college and tuition and books aren't cheap. Right?

So after I had been at work for about an hour, one of the other servers comes back in the kitchen where I am and tells me, "Hey Brad, there's a really sexy man at table 7 who's asking for you."

"What?"

"Table 7. He just asked me to get 'that cute waiter who just went in the back'."

"Are you serious? No way. Where's Roger? I'm not working that table. This is too creepy."

"Roger said he knows the guy and wants you to take it."

At this point I go to the window and look out. Guess who's sitting at table 7? There's my date for Thursday night. Matt. All dressed up. Looking at the menu.

I walk out to table 7 and just stand there. Matt looks up, smiles, puts the menu down, and stands up. He leans in and gives me a quick kiss. Then walks to the other side of the table, pulls the chair out, and waits for me to sit. I'm in panic mode at this point, wondering what the hell is going on and thinking I probably just lost my job.

Roger, the manager for the night, walks over, takes my order pad from me, smiles, and says to both of us, "Your server tonight, Brian, will be over in just a moment to take your order."

The women at table 6, the big-tip flirters, look around and are all smiling at us. I'm looking back at Matt, my head tilted, still in some kind of panic mode, waiting. He's beaming, all smiles.

"Hi. I'm Matt. I'm not in the custom of picking up cute waiters but I couldn't help myself tonight. I'd like to buy you dinner."

At this point I'm looking from Matt, to the kitchen door, noticing Roger and Brian talking, and back to Matt.

"I hear the seafood here is quite good," Matt says with a smile.

"Can I ask you to please tell me what's going on here?"

"Well, I just came in for dinner and thought you might like to join me."

Our server, Brian (the one who couldn't work for me this night), walks up at this point, introduces himself, hands me a menu, and goes through the specials for the night. With a total straight face. I'm starting to think I just dropped in one of those alternate universes.

"I'll give you gentlemen a moment to decide." And Brian walks off.

Mysterious Matt reaches across the table, covers my hand with his, and says, "I lied when I said I could wait until Thursday to see you. I thought I could, but I couldn't. I hope it was okay that I arranged this whole thing. Roger okayed it and everybody's in on it. Everything's cool. And I've heard the seafood here is really good. See anything you like?"

"You're being serious. This is really happening?"

"I'm being really serious that I couldn't wait until Thursday to see you. Hey, I liked the sound of the first special Brian just mentioned. Would you like to... What's the matter? Are you okay?"

He reached across the table and wiped a tear away that I didn't even know was there.

We had a really nice dinner Wednesday night and I went home with him afterwards. I think I'm going to like these Wednesday night dates. Maybe next Wednesday we'll finally get to that funky restaurant around the corner. And that one is my treat.