Take A Chance On Me

I knew today was going to be a bad day from the start. First of all I stubbed my toe on the bedside table as I got out of bed, if hurt like fuck and I couldn’t help shouting out a few obscenities as I hopped around the room in pain. Then I cut myself shaving before my blind date, yes you got it right, me, Nick Carter was going on a blind date on Valentine‘s Day of all days. Set up by AJ who told me she was a complete babe, I couldn’t wait, it had been a while and I needed some fun, hey maybe if I was lucky I’d even get laid!

So anyways, I arranged to meet Seren (I know, unusual name) at Casa Mia, a nice little Italian restaurant I knew, where the food was exquisite and the waitresses were pretty damn fine too, you couldn’t really go wrong with a nice Italian meal could you? Hmm!

“Oh man, you have to be fucking kidding me” I said, hitting the steering wheel of my car in frustration. Road works. Of all the times and places to carry out maintenance, they had to do it now and here, causing queues of traffic and delaying my journey. Great, now I was gonna be late for my hot date and she’ll think I’m an asshole.

Luckily I got to the restaurant and there she was, just as gorgeous as AJ had told me she was, if not prettier. I looked her over appreciatively, long blonde hair, blue eyes, athletic looking body and a nice pair of boobs, just what I liked in a woman.

“Hi, I’m Nick, you must be Seren?” I asked, just to make sure I wasn’t mistaken here.

She nodded her head “Hi Nick” she said “nice to meet you“.

We were shown to our table, a nice little secluded table in the corner of the restaurant, lit by candlelight.

“This place is lovely” she said looking around. I didn’t really pay much attention to the décor to be honest, but I agreed with her. We looked at the menu for a few minutes and then the waitress took our order.

“Ladies first” I said, and watched her as she ordered her food, she had a nice kissable mouth I noticed.

“Sounds good” I replied “I’ll have Gli Asparagi alla Parmigiana to start and then La Sinfonia del Mare, what about drinks? What would you like?”

“How about a bottle of wine?” she replied

“Sounds good, we’ll have a bottle of Chateauneuf Du Pape please” I replied and closed my menu and placed it down.

We sat in awkward silence for a few moments, until I decided to ask about her unusual name.

“So where does the name Seren come from?” I asked, hoping she’d fall for the Carter charm I was giving off.

“Oh, my parents are Welsh. It’s a Welsh name, meaning ‘star’” she replied

“It’s a beautiful name” I said “so, have you lived here all your life?”

“No, we moved out here when I was eleven, so I guess you could say I’ve lived here most of my life” she replied and we began to chat more easily, feeling comfortable with each other. My day was starting to pick up!

Our starters arrived and looked delicious, I was starved and couldn’t wait to get stuck in, attacking my plate of asparagus hungrily.

“Great!” I said, looking down my shirt to see that I’d spilled some of the sauce down my front, typical, it only happened when I wore white.

Seren laughed and told me not to worry, said it was hardly noticeable, yeah right! But I carried on, I could always go and clean my shirt when the plates had been cleared away.

“Mmm that was gorgeous” she said as she finished her starter and put her fork down on the plate.

“Yeah, this is probably the best Italian in town” I said and then excused myself to go to the bathroom. I did my business and then turned on the tap to wash my hands and try and get the sauce off of my shirt, to my horror the water sprayed outwards instead of down, splashing my trousers and making me look like I’d pissed myself.

“Fuck no, she’s gonna think I’ve pissed my pants” I muttered and tried to dry myself under the dryer, but it wasn’t working, typical! So I walked back out, hoping that the water stain on the front of my trousers wouldn’t show up in the dimly lit restaurant. I could see her looking, this was not good, I looked down and sure enough, you could see and it really did look like I‘d pissed in my pants.

“It was the tap, it sprayed the water out” I explained.

She just giggled as I sat back down. The main course arrived and we tucked in, all of a sudden I got something stuck in my throat, I was beginning to choke on my food and struggling to breath, when all of a sudden I coughed up a king prawn and it hit her slap bang in the face, I was mortified as was she.

“I’m so sorry” I said “I was choking, I didn’t mean to…….”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine really” she said, she must’ve thought she was out with the clumsiest guy in the world, I’d hardly made a good impression so far.

We carried on as before, washing our food down with the bottle of red wine.

“Another glass?” I asked, noticing her empty glass and picking up the bottle to pour her another.

“Yes please” she replied and I began to pour, only I knocked the glass over and it spilled it’s contents all over her immaculate looking WHITE clothes, the look on her face said it all really.

“For fuck’s sake, these are brand new” she exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, really I am, I’ll pay for them to be cleaned, buy you some new clothes, whatever” I couldn’t apologise enough.

She sighed “OK, sorry for over re-acting”

We finished off our main course and then ordered dessert, how much worse could it get? We may as well go the whole hog and make a mess with the ice cream or whatever the hell it was we were gonna order. I managed to redeem myself though, we got through that without the drama, then ordered a coffee each, things were looking up, maybe she could be persuaded to come back to mine after all!

“Could we get the bill please?” I asked when we were ready to go, then realised to my horror that I’d forgotten my wallet, I smacked my head and groaned.

“Don’t tell me you actually expect me to believe that one?” Seren said, raising her eyebrows.

“Look I’m sorry Seren” I said as I turned out my pockets “don’t worry, I’ll sort it” and went off to speak to the manager, they knew me here, it’s not like I was gonna rip them off or anything. After a bit of negotiation, they agreed I could come back tomorrow to settle up, thank god!

We left the restaurant and I offered her a ride home, hoping that I may still be able to salvage this disaster of a date. We hardly said a word all the way back to her place.

“Thanks for an unforgettable evening Nick” she said when we’d stopped outside her house. Hey, she actually liked me after all!

I reached over to kiss her, taking her words as invitation to do so, but she pulled back and opened the car door.

“Could I see you again?” I asked hopefully

“Listen, I’ll call you” she said and jumped out and ran up the path into her house without a backward glance.

“But…” I began, realising she didn’t have my number and I didn’t have hers. Had I really just been given the brush off?

I drove home, alone and just wanting this day to be over with, I suppose cupid wasn’t on my side this Valentine’s day!