Dinner with the devil

A Story by BernardVerna

He was just another man trying to find love, but when he meets his date... he knew she wasn't.

I walked in the restaurant and saw her sitting by herself. She was so beautiful that I was too scared to walk over to her. I stood at the front of the restaurant’s doorway, blocking the other couples from getting inside. She wore a long red dress with matching lipstick and heels. Her long lustrous blonde silk hair bounced on her tan skin when she turned her head to look at the door of the restaurant.

She looked directly at me and I didn’t know what to do. The couples behind me pushed me inside the building, trying to get to their reservations on time. “Come on buddy,” one man behind me called out, “I’m not trying to lose my table!” I turned around to apologize then moved out of their way.

I slowly walked towards her not knowing if she would like me or not. She stared directly at me, as if she was judging me. My short black hair and brown eyes even my pale skin. The longer she stared at me the heavier my legs felt.

I was half way to the table but kept question my appearance. Would she like my tuxedo? Would she see the mole on my right ear? I began to clinch the rose I had gotten for her in my hands. Three more steps; two more; one more. My heart began beating fast and I started to sweat.

“Hi,” she smiled as she stood up to hug me, “You must be my blind date.” She was almost my height, but seemed taller with the heels on. It was the perfect height.

My mouth whimpered while I was trying to think of something I could say to break the ice. “Wow. You look amazing.”

She smiled as she took the rose out of my hands. “You’re not bad yourself. Thank…you…Peggy.”

I gazed into her gorgeous eyes and smiled. “Peggy? Who’s Peggy?” I didn’t really care what she was saying I was still distracted by how beautiful she was.

She stepped away and awkwardly looked at me. “Your sister, Peggy.” She reached into the purse on her the table and took out a small piece of paper. “Aren’t you Blaine Godfrie?”

“No,” I said with disappointment. “Please tell me you’re Janet.” In my head, I was praying to god that she was Janet.

She twiddled with her thumbs with disappointment. “No, I’m Katie.”

I looked at the table trying to find a menu. “Isn’t this table three?”

Katie looked at the menu under her purse. “No, this is table seven.” She pointed to a table near the men’s bathroom. “That’s number three.”

“I’m sorry, Katie.” I turned around in shame at my real table, and sitting there was another woman. Her left leg was crossed over her right and it shook with anger. She was wearing a black dress and black heels. Her long frizzy black hair was wrapped up like a doctor’s and a couple of pieces stuck out. Her glasses barely covered the hatred in her eyes.

I was half way to the table and turned around to look at Katie one more time before meeting Janet. My conscious started to talk to me. “Don’t go over there! She looks crazy!” Even though it was my conscious, I still kept walking towards the table. Unlike with Katie, I didn’t even slow down.

I finally reached the chair and introduced myself unenthusiastically. “Hi. My name’s-“

“I know who you are!” The angry woman stood up and went to the other chair. “I’m Janet, sit down.” She had a very bossy and irritating attitude that you could tell by just looking at her. “I’ve already ordered for us. I got you the clam chowder.”

I sat down and looked over at Katie’s table. I saw that a man walked over and sat down. “Blaine,” I said with envy.

“He…llo!” Janet snapped her fingers in my face trying to get my attention. “What are you looking at? Actually I don’t even care, where do you work? Because I want to quit my job when we get married.”

The only word I could hear was married. “What wait hold on? Married?” I would have been surprised that Janet would even consider dating nether less marriage. I looked over at Katie’s table again and saw that both of them were laughing.

The waiter came with our food. “Alright,” he said looking at Janet. “I see your friend of the night has come. Here is your food.” He placed the clam chowder in front of my and in front of Janet, a lobster dinner. When he left, he looked at me and smiled as he said “Good luck.”

“Why did you get me clam chowder, I wanted lobster too,” I said with irritation. The clam chowder didn’t even look appetizing. I was cold and the clams sunk to the bottom of the bowl. I looked at her lobster dinner and water ran out of my mouth. The lobster was about a foot long glazed with butter. She cracked the shell and steam came out of its claw. The baked potato that came with the lobster dinner was cooked to perfection. Sour cream, bits of bacon and celery, shredded cheese, and standing on the potato throne was a clump of butter.

“Well maybe you should have been here when the waiter came to get our orders.” Janet wasn’t even eating the lobster, she was playing with it. She broke the claw in half and took all the meat out of the shell. “You still haven’t told me where you work.”

I kept looking at the clock wishing that time would go faster. “I’m a computer programmer.” I looked at Katie again and saw Blaine sitting closer to her. I banged my fists on the table and stood up. “Excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom.”

I walked into the men’s bathroom and went to the sink to wash my face. I looked into the mirror thought to myself. “I could just leave right now and forget this even happened. Yea, she doesn’t know where I live or even my phone number.” I had a diabolical grin on my face as I planned to leave the restaurant.

My reflection in the mirror started to talk to me. “You can’t do that. You have to be a gentleman about it and wait until you finish dinner.” I splashed the mirror with some water from the sink. “Shut up! She is a horrible date!”

I turned around and saw another man in the bathroom watching me. “Don’t get the clam chowder,” I said as I walked out of the bathroom. I stood in front of the bathroom’s entrance as I looked at the restaurant’s exit. I couldn’t leave though both Janet and Katie were looking directly at me.

“What took you so long,” Janet said as I sat back down in my chair, “I’m almost done my lobster.” I smiled with glee when I heard her say that. The faster she is finished, the sooner I could leave.

Even though I didn’t like clam chowder, I hurriedly gulped the entire bowl down and waited for her to finish. “That’s a big meal,” I said, “That would fill you up.”

“I know that already,” she said eating her last morsel of baked potato. “Why do you cut your hair so short, it makes you look so ugly?”

The same waiter came again smiling. “You two are finished already?” He looked at me and laughed. “Do you want desserts,” He asked as he was taking our dinner plates, “We have a two for one deal.”

“Oh, no,” I said before Janet could answer, “It’s getting late. I have to go to work in the morning.”

“Nonsense,” the waiter said handing Janet the dessert menu, “The night is still young.” He smiled and winked at me before he left.

“This looks good.” Janet pointed to dessert on the menu. “Chocolate cream pie.”

I grabbed the menu and looked at the price of it. “Fifteen dollars!”

“Yea, so what,” Janet said glaring at me.

I stood up and took my wallet out. “I’m sorry to say this, but you are a horrible date. I’m leaving…have a wonderful night.” I put thirty dollars on the table and left the restaurant.

I stood in front of the restaurant to calm down and forget about her. I grabbed a cigarette out of my pant pocket and lit it with a match.

“Let me guess,” a voice called out, “Bad date?”

I turned around and saw it was Katie. “You don’t even know the half of it. What about your date.”

Katie smiled. “Not my type.” She looked at the cigarette in my hands and took it. “You know smoking’s bad for you.” She dropped it on the ground and stepped on it. “I never did get your name did I?”

“Anthony, my name is Anthony.”