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"I am just a small girl in a big world, trying to find someone to love" _ Marilyn Monroe <3
“Pleeeeeeeeeeease”.
“Iris I don’t want to! It’s such a desperate move”.
Linda sat on her bed, her arms crossed and a determined look on her face.
“When was the last time I asked you for anything”, her best friend pouted.
Linda shifted her position and opened her mouth to respond. Iris put her hand out to stop her.
“Ok ok. But you’re my best friend. The bestest of best friends. And this is what best friends do”.
Iris started to put her puppy dog eyes into effect. Linda groaned from the bed.
“Fine! But you owe me so big”.
Iris squealed with joy and rushed over to hug her friend.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!! You will not regret this”.
“I'm pretty sure I will,” Linda muttered in return.
………………
Later that night both girls stood outside of Jitters.
“Not to state the obvious, but we look good”, Iris said with pride.
She was wearing a beautiful red bandeau skater dress which accentuated her small waist and showed off her caramel legs. She finished the look with some cute yellow heeled sandals. Linda was wearing some tight fitting high wasted black jeans, black heels and a shimmering silver top. She looked at her friend, Iris's face was lighting up with excitement.
“No last minutes regrets then?”
Iris shook her head emphatically. Linda smiled and linked her arm through hers.
“Ok then Miss West. Let’s go”.
Together they stepped through the doors into the bustle of Jitters.
………………
“Ok ladies and gentleman. Welcome to Speed Dating Night at Jitters!”
There was a round applause and some whistles from the audience. Linda looked at Iris and rolled her eyes.
“You know the rules," the host continued. “You will get only 5 minutes with each person, so choose your questions wisely. Once you hear the ding of the bell, the men will move one table to their right…”
She went on like this outlining the rules of the event. She finalised her speech by handing out the list of men’s names to the women and the list of women’s names to the men.
“Ok ladies and gentlemen. Let’s begin!”
……………..
Iris was slowly beginning to regret her decision to come here tonight. She looked at the table next to her where Linda sat. she was laughing, seeming to really be enjoying herself.
“So you actually thought that Captain Cold would be a good name for a superhero?” she was saying.
“Hell yeah. Its got that alliteration thing going for it that all superheroes seem to love,” her date responded.
"Oh really? Name one."
"Erm... Mirror Master. Weather Wizard. Gorilla Grodd. Rainbow Raider. I can go on."
Linda laughed. "I feel like you just made most of those up."
The man Linda was talking to had just been “dating” Iris before moving to Linda's table. He was a short Hispanic guy with long black hair which fell loosely around his shoulders. Francisco he had said his name was. She had liked him, every sentence out of his mouth was funny. But Iris had not felt any romantic attraction towards him. She wouldn’t mind if Linda went for him though, it would be nice to have him around. She smiled.
“Yeah I thought you might like that.”
She snapped back to reality and looked at her current date. He had been speaking, but she wasn’t sure what about.
“Pardon?”
“My ideal first date would be Big Belly Burger. Best burgers in Central City. You smiled so you must agree”.
“Hmm.”
She didn’t know how else to respond. It would be rude to tell him she had zoned out on him. She looked at her date. Tony something he had introduced himself as. He was good to look at, that was for sure. All muscle and height. But there was no depth to his words, and she couldn’t help but be bored. She waited eagerly for the ding of the bell, before saying her goodbyes to him. Please God let the next one be the one. God wasn’t listening.
After what seemed like an eternity, Iris was quickly beginning to lose hope of finding her future that night. She didn’t even look up when the next guy sat down.
“Hi. I’m Barry. Barry Allen?”
He phrased his own name like a question, obviously a guy who wasn’t sure of himself. She was turned off already.
“I’m Iris West. So what do you do, Barry Barry Allen?” she asked without looking up.
“Oh wow. Straight to the point. Well erm.. I am a Forensic Scientist”.
She looked up then, intrigued.
“Really? You don’t meet many of them now do you?"
He rubbed the back of his neck and let out a small chuckle.
“No. No you don’t. It takes a special kind of nerd to make it."
Iris laughed and looked at her date properly. He was a handsome man, with brown hair that was short around the sides but longer towards the middle. He had sparkling green eyes. Even while seated she could tell he was tall, definitely over 6ft. with broad shoulders and a strong jaw. He smiled at her and she felt something flutter in her stomach. She had always had a weakness for the brains and looks combination. She leaned back in her chair, keeping a steady gaze on him.
“Well Barry Allen, you happen to be just about the most beautiful nerd I’ve ever seen.”
He blushed and rubbed his neck again. That's when she realised, he wasn't unsure of himself, he was just nervous. She felt a sudden need to put him at ease.
“So tell me Barry Allen. What brings you here tonight. I mean, besides the free coffee".
Barry laughed, then looked thoughtful for a moment.
“I am here to find my wife”.
Iris leaned in, intrigued once again.
“What do you mean?”.
“Well I work a lot. I am basically an entire department by myself. At the end of the week I am mostly too tired to go out and meet new people. But I know I want a Mrs Allen in my life one day who isn’t my mum. So, when I saw this advertised, I thought, why not?”
Iris was silent for a second.
“But do you think that 5 minutes is enough to let you know whether you have met the one ?”
Barry's eyes twinkled with a secret.
“I think, when it’s the right person, you don’t even need 5 minutes”.
He was looking at her intently now and the force of his gaze was making her temperature rise. She found herself rubbing the back of her neck. Great, now she was nervous. Barry Allen. There was something about him that allowed her to forget all the men she had met that night, hell, that she had met in her life. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, leaned into the table, returned his gaze and smiled, regaining her composure.
“That’s a great answer Barry. Truly inspired”.
He smiled, leaned back in his chair and pushed his hand through his hair. It was then she noticed that he had biceps too. Brains, looks and muscles.
“So tell me Barry Allen, what would be your ideal first date?"
He leaned back in and looked at her. He studied her face, looked at the dress she was wearing and then dragged his eyes back to her face. She felt a blush starting to creep in.
“Well", he started. “A dress like that definitely deserves more than Big Belly Burger”.
She laughed. He must have somehow heard Tony Something’s answer.
“Why were you eavesdropping on my date Barry Allen?”
He looked like a naughty child who had been caught doing something he shouldn’t. But the look was quickly replaced by one of a quiet confidence.
“Do you want to know the truth Iris?"
It was the first time he had used her name. She liked how it sounded. She nodded.
“You are without a doubt the most beautiful woman in here. Now please don't think me shallow, I'm a man, we admire with our eyes first". Iris chuckles at that. He continued, "The fact that you are wearing my favourite colour, the only woman wearing red tonight, well I took it as some sort of sign from the universe you know. So you will forgive me", he said with a smile, "If I've been too busy paying attention to how my favourite colour makes your skin glow so perfectly, rather than to my other dates."
Iris was just looking at him now. And then she felt a shyness come over that she had never felt before and looked down at the table. Iris hadn't been speechless since the day she learnt to talk.
“The waterfront," she heard him say softly.
Iris looked back up at him. “What?”
“You asked me what my ideal first date would be. There’s a gazebo out on the waterfront. In my mind I can see it all lit up with fairy lights. And there are so many restaurants out there that I'm sure a private table for two could be arranged right there. Dinner and a view." He paused. “That’s where I would take you. For our first date.”
Ding ding
Iris jumped and for the first time that night the sound of the bell was unwelcome. Barry looked reluctant to leave, Iris wanted him to stay. But the next guy was already waiting to take his seat. She looked at him and smiled.
“It was nice to meet you Barry Allen, Forensic Scientist”.
He smiled, got to his feet, kissed her hand softly before moving on to Linda’s table. She watched him sit down before turning back to face the guy who had just sat down.
“Hi I’m Iris. And you are?”
The guy smiled a beautiful smile.
“Thawne. Eddie Thawne.”
………….
“So apparently Cisco and I are the perfect match”, Linda said as she read her email from the Speed Dating Host the next day. “And he has given them permission to give me his number. What do you think? I got a good vibe from him.”
Iris was looking down at her own email and not really listening.
“Sorry babe what did you say?”
Linda repeated herself.
“Yes yes please go for him! I loved him. And with both of you around I will be laughing all day, every day”.
“Yes we are hilarious pair aren’t we?” She had already started typing a message out to him. “So what about you? Who did they say was your perfect match?"
Iris looked up from her laptop.
“Erm.. that Thawne guy. Eddie.”
“Ooooh he was fine.”
“Hmm, he was that”.
“So what are you going to do?”
Iris thought about a pair of soft green eyes.
“I really don’t know.”
………...
It had been almost 2 weeks since the event, and Iris had thought about Barry for every single day of them. It had only taken her a few more minutes to figure out that she was never going to text Eddie and had responded to the email explaining such. She had even gone a step further and swallowed her pride to enquire about Barry. However, it was against their policy to give out contact details for anyone else other than the match. She was now resigned to thinking that she would have to be content with the memory of their five minute date.
“Iris? Iris West?”
She turned around at the familiar voice. He was standing at the back of the Jitters queue in all his 6 ft glory. Her heart leapt a little at the sight of him. She gave up her position near the front to go to him.
“Barry!” She had to fight off a huge urge to hug him.
He smiled and the familiar flutter came back to her stomach.
“So I guess the universe decided we weren’t a match after all. The Speed Dating gods put me with a Patty Spivot. She was...chipper. I couldn’t call her though. Not when all I could think about was a certain lady in red”.
Iris blushed and looked down at her feet.
"Oh wow. Straight to the point." She was smiling though. He lifted her face to look at him .
“I’d like to take you on a date Iris West. I realised after I left that I didn’t know anything about you. Mainly because you were too busy interrogating me.”
She giggled and shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm a reporter. It's a force of habit".
"Ok then Iris West, Reporter. Will you go on a date with me?"
Iris felt a wave of irrational jealousy for this woman who was apparently a better match for Barry than she was.
“ Well the universe seems to think you should be taking the chipper Patty to the waterfront. And that I should be with someone called Eddie. He was pretty."
Barry smiled at this, unfazed. He stepped closer to her.
“Screw the universe”.