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Although it had been a while since he had a blind date, Jack was almost certain they weren’t supposed to go like this.
The waitress gave him another pity-filled smile as she offered to refill his water, and Jack politely declined while he glanced at his watch again. It had been almost an hour since he arrived at the restaurant, and since the time he was told his date would met him. There was, however, no sign of any date, and he was feeling rather ridiculous waiting for someone.
That was, until some petite blond slid into the seat opposite him, apologizing about how late he was and how terrible the traffic was. Jack noticed the rain outside the window, and looked back at the person sitting across the table. The waitress watched them with piqued curiosity, and Jack was almost taken aback when the stranger winked at him.
“Sorry, I showed up late and didn’t know which table you were at--oh my, are these gardenias for me?--I’m sorry, miss, but could you move the things from my table to this one? I wasn’t sure where my date was.” The stranger grinned at him and added, very softly, “Play along.”
Jack nodded slowly, still a bit confused. He wasn’t sure why he’d need to play along with anything, but wasn’t opposed to doing whatever this guy told him to.
Maybe he’d always just had a thing for blonds.
After the waitress left to move the stranger’s food, Jack raised one eyebrow at the person across from him.
The other just blushed and chuckled nervously and looked away. “Sorry, I guess I owe you an explanation... I’m Eric, for starters.” He held out his hand, and Jack took it in his own in greeting. “I saw the waitress looking at you, and you kept looking at your watch and the door, so I thought... I’m sorry, this is probably so awkward...”
Jack couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out at him, and Eric looked up with surprise. He quickly returned the grin, and they both chuckled again.
“I’m Jack.” He noticed he was still holding Eric’s hand, but he didn’t seem to mind, so Jack made no move to take his hand away. “So, uh... I’m guessing you’re not my blind date?”
“I’m not, sorry to disappoint you.” Eric grinned cheekily as he added, “But I’ll still let you pay for my dinner.”
“Actually, it’s the least I can do,” Jack replied, as the waitress came back with both of their orders. “It’s not often I get such a handsome date.”
Eric flushed, looking down at his food. “Oh, I, uh--I was just kidding, but I mean...”
Jack held up his hand to silence him, still smiling. “It’s fine. I’m grateful.”
He let go of Eric’s hand to pick up his fork, but regretted the loss of contact almost immediately. This date had actually gone better than expected already--especially considering this wasn’t his actual date.
“So, what brings you to a fancy restaurant like this?” Jack asked in between bites of food.
“It, um, was actually this tradition I had with my last b--partner, uh, to go to this restaurant on our anniversary, but he broke up with me almost two months ago.. I guess I had a craving, and ended up coming here anyway.” Eric laughed weakly and kept eating, halfheartedly adding, “Old habits die hard, huh?”
Jack bit his lip. That wasn’t exactly what he expected.
“Oh, well... I hope you don’t mind coming here with someone else. A total stranger, at that,” he answered awkwardly, poking at his food.
Eric looked up, eyes wide. “Oh, gosh, no! That’s not.. Sorry, I made this weirder than it already was, huh? I’m glad I came.” He smiled, and reached over to pat Jack’s hand. “It’s been a while since my date offered to pay for food, especially at a fancy place like this.”
Jack shrugged one shoulder, smiling. “Like I said, it’s the least I could do.”
They fell into a lull of silence, both eating. Again, their hands stayed linked together, and Jack absentmindedly rubbed little circles into Eric’s palm with his thumb. He had just met the other, but somehow he felt like they were already connected.
Soon enough, they had both finished, and the waitress came back to ask if there was anything else they wanted. Jack ordered a slice of apple pie, a la mode--and when it came to their table, he shared some of it with Eric.
"If you think this is good," Eric had told him between bites, "wait until you try mine."
"You bake?" Even if Eric was a total stranger to him, this revelation surprised him quite a bit.
"Well, yes," Eric said. His cheeks glowed a light pink, and Jack wasn't sure if it was from the restaurant's warm lighting, or from Eric's own embarrassment; all he knew was that the look suited him.
"I'd love to try your food sometime," Jack said, scooping another spoonful of quickly-melting vanilla ice cream in his mouth.
"I'd love to make some for you."
After Jack paid (though Eric tried to fight him), he led Eric out of the restaurant, pulling his coat around himself a little tighter.
“It’s chilly out, huh?” Eric noted, rubbing his gloved hands together. Jack hummed in agreement and stared at the sky, star flickering just above the city lights.
“Well, um... I guess I should get going.”
“N-no, wait.” Jack turned to Eric again, who was looking up at Jack with wide, surprised eyes. The look gave Jack a sense of courage, so he rambled on, “Since this already started as a sort of date, would you... Would you, uh, like to continue our fake date with what I had planned? This wasn’t my only reservation for the evening, and I’d hate it to go to waste.”
A pause. Eric nodded. “That... That’d be lovely, Jack.”
Jack smiled. “There’s a spot right by here, you’ll love it. I mean, I hope you will.”
--
"A museum? This was were you planned to take your blind date?"
Jack shuffled in place, feeling sheepish. "Well... Yeah, it was."
Eric laughed--but it didn't seem ill-spirited. His laugh was light and melodic, with a lilt that was also prominent in the way he spoke. "It's sweet. I guess I didn't take you for the museum type."
"I think they're fascinating. I'm a bit of a history buff--or, at least, my friends say I am."
"Oh?" Eric grinned, and raised an eyebrow at Jack, challenging him. "Well then, teach me what you know."
Jack chuckled. "Alright, I'll try."
He walked through the museum, stopping at the interesting displays (an American WWII soldier's uniform, a model of America's first railroad) and giving brief explanations. Eric seemed to be interested--if he was acting, Jack couldn't tell.
“You’re very knowledgable on this, aren’t you?” Eric laughed when they reached the section dedicated only to battle tactics used in wars. “You definitely are a bit of a buff.”
Jack laughed, too. “I like to watch documentaries.”
“Ah, I see.” Eric was smiling and looking up at Jack, the edges of his eyes crinkled with... was that fondness? Somehow the possibility made Jack’s heart skip a beat. “Personally, I prefer cooking shows--but I guess that’s not a surprise, huh?”
Jack had zoned out for a second after being amazed by Eric's smile, but blinked to try and regain composure. “Oh, um, not really. It makes sense that you’d watch shows related to your interests.”
“Oh, but I guess I /am/ a bit of a junkie for shows like How It’s Made and Mythbusters.” Eric chuckled sheepishly and looked away. “It’s silly, I guess.”
“No, it doesn’t seem silly at all. Those shows are pretty fascinating.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, I do.”
They stood staring at each other in silence for a moment, before Eric started chuckling quietly. Jack grinned and asked, “What’s so funny?”
“You’re kind of an oddball, aren’t you, Mister Jack?”
“That’s funny, coming from the guy who randomly sat at a stranger’s table in a restaurant to help him not feel bad. What if my date /had/ come?”
“That was a risk I had to take, I guess.”
Jack smiled. Maybe they were both oddballs. “How come?”
“You were sitting alone and looked kinda sad, and you’re... Well, you’re incredibly good looking, I must say. If a good looking guy is sitting alone, sad, at a fancy dinner table, with flowers that looked beautiful and fresh, how could you /not/ want to sit down and help the guy?”
Good looking. Eric decided to pretend to be his date because he was good looking and lonely. Jack wasn’t sure if he was giddy because of the compliment or surprised that Eric found him handsome enough to go out on a limb for him. It was a mixture of both.
“Fair enough,” Jack agreed, nodding to himself. He noticed another couple walk into the small area, and put a hand on the small of Eric’s back to usher him away; the other jumped at the sudden contact, but then quickly leaned into Jack’s touch.
The rest of the museum trip was spent quietly, with Jack murmuring facts from documentaries, and Eric commenting on everything.
--
“You really didn’t have to buy me this,” Eric repeated as they exited the gift shop, and then the museum as a whole.
Jack smiled. “But I wanted to. You really seemed to enjoy it.”
“Yeah, but...” Eric continued to stare at the snowglobe in his hand, eyes wide. “This is too much--especially considering how little we know each other.”
Jack shrugged. “I know you well enough to know you wanted that snowglobe.”
Eric didn’t respond, just looked at the trinket in his hands and watched the glittery “snow” inside fall down. The snowglobe featured carolers huddled together, smiling with their mouths open as though interrupted mid-song. It was so intricately detailed, and the price tag was proof of it; but Jack shrugged it off like it wasn’t a big deal at all, just a little gift.
“Thank you, Jack.”
Jack hummed in response, then glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late. Do you need a ride?”
“Oh, um... No, thank you. I couldn’t possibly ask for any more.”
“Are you sure? We can hail a cab if we’re lucky, there’s still some time.”
“It’s fine, really.” Eric smiled timidly, cradling the snowglobe. “This was a great night, Jack.”
He smiled. “Yeah. We should meet up again--for a real, planned date.”
Eric laughed and looked away, but he seemed sad all of a sudden. “I wish we could.”
“... You wish?” Had he done something wrong?
“Oh, it’s... I’m actually moving the day after tomorrow. Staying in state, but...” Eric continued to stare at the ground. “I decided to treat myself tonight, since I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to have the food again. I guess I was craving it, but...”
Oh.
Jack nodded numbly. “That... makes sense.”
“... Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
They were quiet.
“We can exchange phone numbers?” Jack suggested.
“... Would you want to? I don’t know if we’d even be able to meet up, or when--“
“No, I’d... I’d like to try.”
Eric looked up at Jack again, and nodded. “So would I.”
The two exchanged phone numbers, swapping phones and imputing their information.
“Bittle?”
“Well, I thought... Maybe you knew another Eric, so, my full name would make sense.” He fumbled with his snowglobe, and suddenly seemed rather timid.
“Right.” Jack bit his lip, and smiled. “This was more fun than I’ve had in a while.”
Eric smiled back. “Me, too.”
Eric and Jack just stood there smiling for a minute, before Eric leaned up and pressed a kiss to Jack’s cheek. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
Jack blinked in surprise, and then laughed. “Okay.”
Eric grinned, and laughed too. “Okay. I’ll, uh--I’ll go get a cab.”
“Yeah.” Jack couldn’t stop smiling.
Blind dates weren’t so bad, he thought.