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Currently, she sat in her car, in the parking lot of the trendy sushi restaurant The Canary.  The lot itself was relatively full, but it was nothing compared to the weekend.  For whatever reason, Emma couldn’t exactly get up and head in the restaurant just yet.  She needed to get a hold of her nerves.  She needed to relax.

Though the engine was off, the radio was on and Taylor Swift came through the speakers, singing about being fearless during a first date.  It was upbeat and fun, but it didn’t get the tension in her muscles to relax like it normally would have.

She reached up and pulled her vanity mirror down so she could inspect her makeup.  As usual, it was light but she decided that maybe she should put more effort into it in order to show Kyle that tonight was actually special to her.  Not that she assumed he noticed the makeup she wore on a day-to-day basis or that she believed tonight was more than just a casual date between two people who seem interested in each other.

Shaking her head, she flipped the mirror closed and glanced down at her attire.  It had taken an hour to choose an outfit she was comfortable with which was ridiculous because the only time Emma actually cared about what she wore was when she was on stage.  Even so, she went through at least half a dozen options before finally settling on dark skinny jeans and a relatively loose white, three-quarter sleeved shirt with thick, navy blue nautical-style stripes running across it.  On her feet were black high heels with red bows, and her hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, her bangs bobby-pinned and hair sprayed in the shape of a small, fashionable bump.  Her multiple fly aways actually added to the look, framing her face, softening it.

She never used hairspray.  It made her hair crunchy and it smelled horrible and yet there it was, holding her hair together.

She stopped herself before she started to think about why she was making such an effort.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she told herself as the song changed.  “This whole thing is ridiculous.  You need to calm down.  Breathe.”  Emma pushed her shoulders back and took her own advice, breathing in through her nose and out with her mouth three times.  “There.  Now just remember, Kyle Underwood is a twenty-five year old guy who happens to play hockey for a national team.  There’s nothing special about him; he’s just another guy.  You have no idea where this is going, if it goes anywhere.  One step at a time, Winsor.  This is one date.  You’re not planning a wedding, are you?”

Emma started laughing at her last question.  The thought of her getting married to anyone, let alone Kyle Underwood, was amusing since she had absolutely no plans to ever tie the knot.  Yeah right.

“In retrospect, there’s no reason to get nervous about it because it’s probably going to go nowhere,” she continued.  “Kyle Underwood is a pretty good looking hockey player.  You think he wants to settle down now?  And
you
for sure don’t want to settle down, Winsor.  Stop with the butterflies and get your ass out there.”

Giving
herself a nod of encouragement, Emma turned off the car completely and grabbed her keys.  She could do this.  If she could choreograph an entire dance routine in ten days after Crystal had a mental breakdown and couldn’t pull it together, Emma could go through one date with a hockey player.  She wouldn’t even break a sweat.

Emma walked to the front of the restaurant where a pretty hostess was on the phone, taking a reservation.  She gave Emma a warm smile and lifted a finger, indicating that she would be with Emma in just a minute.  Glancing around, Emma realized the restaurant was busier than the parking lot actually revealed.  A handful of couples where waiting to be seated while the bar was practically filled with those that wanted some appetizers and drinks before they got their tables.

“Hi!” the hostess said brightly, grabbing Emma away from her thoughts.  “How may I help you?”

“I’m actually waiting for someone and I’m not sure he’s here or not,” Emma said.  “He’s tall, probably…”  She raised her hand above her head to indicate her estimated height for Kyle.  “He has, like, dusty blond hair and really piercing blue eyes.  Like Hugh Laurie’s.  And he has really broad shoulders.”

“Oh.”  Suddenly the hostess’s voice turned flat and the look she was giving Emma was almost accusatory.  “You mean Kyle Underwood.”  She dropped her eyes and gave Emma a once-over before locking eyes with Emma again.  “You’re not his type.”

“Excuse me?”  Emma couldn’t believe the quip that had come out of the hostess’s mouth, but the hostess started talking before Emma even knew how to react.

“He’s at his usual table.”  Instead of actually showing Emma over like she probably should have, the hostess jutted her pointed chin to the secluded table in the back corner of the room, and before Emma could ask for clarification, the hostess motioned for the small group behind Emma.

Well.

But instead of feeling offended or put off, Emma felt herself smile.  The entire situation she had just found herself was hilarious.  She wasn’t Kyle’s usual type?  He brought all his dates here?  And suddenly, she relaxed.  When she reached Kyle, she was smiling.

“That’s unexpected,” he said, standing.  “I wasn’t expecting Diana to be working tonight, but every once and a while…”

Emma quickly took in the sight of him.  He really was tall, and the fact that he was wearing nice clothing only emphasized that fact.  The white, long sleeved collared shirt tucked in neatly to grey slacks.  He looked good.  Guys always looked better in suits, and Kyle was no exception.  His hair was still styled so that the locks that might have framed his face were pushed up into careless spikes.  If she was being honest with herself, Emma felt underdressed in comparison to him.  But it didn’t matter now, did it?

“Let me just get this straight,” Emma said, taking a seat.  “You normally take all your dates here, and not only that but you have a usual table?  I’m sure you eat the same thing and follow the same script too.”

“My dates don’t normally call me out,” Kyle said.  His voice was teasing but it had an undertone of uncertainty, as though he wasn’t quite sure how Emma was going to react.

“Oh, let’s clarify that,” Emma said.  “This isn’t a date.  If your ex-girlfriend works at the restaurant you usually take your quote-unquote dates, they’re routine.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“Um, for the free meal at one of my favorite restaurants,” she pointed out, grabbing her menu.  “By the way, don’t count on getting laid after this.  Oh, and you should probably know that I have a pretty big appetite.”

“Has anyone ever told you how blunt you are?” Kyle asked.

Emma watched him look at her from over the menu.  She found what she wanted and place it back down, locking eyes with him. 

“Yeah,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.  “I get that a lot.  I don’t know, I just think it’s a waste of time if you go through the motions and find out that you’re not compatible with someone.  And if I hate anything, it’s definitely wasting my time, especially with something like relationships and romance and stuff.”

Kyle’s lips turned up, and maybe Emma was imagining this, but it looked like his eyes only got bluer.  She felt the flutter of the delicate butterfly’s wing in the pit of her stomach and she quickly grabbed the champagne glass filled with ice water in order to stop it.

“What?” Emma asked, suddenly self-conscious.  She had brushed her teeth for four minutes before leaving and she hadn’t eaten anything since a couple of hours ago and she had checked her face right before leaving her car.  There was no way something was on her face or in her teeth. 

So why was he looking at her and smiling like that?

“Whoa, no need to get defensive,” he said, his smile only deepening.  “It’s just, I’ve never heard a girl be so explicit when it comes to romance.    Normally, they’re looking for Mr. Right or walking on the beach or all that stuff the movies come up with that makes us guys look bad because there’s really no way we can live up Ryan Gosling in The Notebook.”

“And you call
me
defensive?” she asked with a laugh.  “Someone has issues.”

“Look, I’ve dated around,” he said flatly, “I’ve had a couple of girlfriends before which means I’ve been forced to witness the atrocities that are known as romantic comedies.  I’ve probably wasted three hundred hours of my life that I’ll never get back.  The only good thing about them is watching them usually got me laid at the end of it.”

“Wow,” Emma said, rolling her eyes.

“I figure if you’re comfortable enough sharing things upfront with me, I can do the same with you.”

“So you’re saying that the only reason you asked me out tonight was to get some?”  An arched brow, a challenge.

His eyes sparkled, taking it.  “If that were true, I’d have suggested we go see the new Katherine Heigl movie,” he said.  “Instead I asked you out to dinner.”

“Right, the same place you take all your dates,” Emma said.  “Very classy, Underwood.”

The waiter came by and recited a detailed list of specials.  As Emma listened, she couldn’t believe the memory these waiters and waitresses were forced to possess, although she still remembered dances from when she was fifteen years old.  The waiter was polite and formal, but when he spoke, even as he took Emma’s order, he kept his eyes on Kyle.  And Emma didn’t think it was because the waiter recognized him as a Gulls player or that Kyle came here on a pretty consistent basis.  Apparently, the waiter assumed Kyle would be paying for the meal which meant Kyle would be tipping the waiter which meant the waiter’s attention would be solely fixed on Kyle.

She frowned at this realization.  It was moments like these when she wished she could climb on the table and act like a snotty, wealthy Newport Beach girl, demanding to know if the sexist waiter knew who her father was.  How did he know Emma wasn’t paying for the meal?  Besides society’s tradition and women’s high expectations, of course.  And the fact that Emma had never paid for a date, ever, in her entire life.  And she didn’t plan on paying for this one, even though it technically wasn’t a date.

“So tell me,” Kyle said, once the waiter had left.  His eyes pierced through Emma’s, almost as though he could see through to her very soul. 
Which, if Emma was being honest, frightened her a little bit.  “I want to know about more of these interesting beliefs you have regarding the whole romance thing.”

“In this day and age, I’m sure many young women like me share my somewhat cynical beliefs,” Emma said.  “I’m really not that special.”

“That’s not true,” Kyle said, and was it her imagination, or did his soft-spoken voice actually sound… sincere?  “Remember?  I noticed you in the stands before I came up to you at the beach.  That’s definitely saying a lot because when you’re on the ice, you don’t notice anything except the puck, the players, and the goal.”

“I was wondering when the excessive flattery would come,” Emma said, but even so, she could feel her face being blanketed with a warm mask of redness.  “You’re very good, Underwood.”

“Well, I have had a lot of practice,” he conceded.  “Anyways, your views, please?”

Emma leaned back in her chair, her eyes scanning the dim room.  Couples were involved in intimate conversations, groups of friends were laughing out loud, waiters and waitresses were talking about the specials.  Even though there were tons of people surrounding them, it felt as though Emma and Kyle were in their own little world, submerged in darkness, with only the small, vanilla candle set in the center of their table offering subtle, flickering light.

“I don’t know,” she said after a moment, shrugging her shoulders.  “We all have that first real experience of being in love.  A first bite of the apple.  And something happens which taints every other apple you taste after the first one.  Some people go through life still hopeful, though, that they’ll find one as good, if not better, than their original.  Some people assume that nothing that good will come along again, so they just give up searching in general and ridicule people who do.  If I had to choose a side, so to speak, I’d have to align myself somewhere in the middle.”

“How did I know you were going to say that?” Kyle asked.

“Look, I wish I could be optimistic about love,” Emma replied.  “And I believe in the concept that there is a true love out there somewhere for people.  But I’m a little bit more realistic when it comes to me, and don’t assume that I’ll find something like that in my own life.”

“I think guys would love you,” Kyle observed.  “Do you know how difficult it is to find a girl who doesn’t actually want to play any games?”

“Don’t deny that guys don’t like the games too.  Be honest.  If guys didn’t like certain things, girls wouldn’t have to play.  I’ll give you an example.  Most of the time, guys like the chase and if a girl really doesn’t give one, the guy doesn’t think she’s worthy enough since she was so easy to acquire.  So we think of these stupid games in order to keep a guy’s interest.  Not answering his call so he thinks we’re busy.  Not responding to text for however long because of the same thing.  Flirting with a guy she doesn’t care about to get the guy she does like jealous.  It’s stupid and a waste of time.”

“You really do believe your time is valuable, huh?” Kyle teased, his eyes sparkling.

“Listen, everyone’s time is valuable,” Emma said.  “But I have better things to do than to sit around talking about myself, listening to someone talk about themselves and eating some food.  I have food at home, and quite frankly, I really don’t care about getting to know other people.”