A Lesson in Awkwardness

If she admitted to liking country, this date would surely be over
before it got off the ground. Of course it was important to be honest
in a relationship, but this was the first date, after all, and there's
no sense in risking easily avoidable humiliation. Therefore, Leah
casually slipped both hands under her jean-clad legs as Brendan drove
with one hand and station-surfed with the other, deciding finally on
the neutral, always reliable Top 40 station. She'd always found it odd,
that people actually stared at radios as if they could observe the
sound coming out. Now, suddenly, she understood.
She caught a sidelong glance and averted her eyes, shifting focus to
the rapidly passing scenery, which proved difficult, being that it was
already dark outside, and streetlights stopped being a source of
fascination about 18 years ago, when she turned two years old.
"So you and Tom know each other from where, again?" Brendan
questioned, and Leah, ever grateful for a topic, carefully responded
with the lines she'd been rehearsing in her head for the past day and a
half. She mixes them up a little, in an effort to sound less
contrived.
"Baseball, he plays." Very nice; go Shakespeare on the poor boy, she
mentally berated herself, and contemplated smashing her head through
the passenger side window. "I mean, he plays baseball." God. And why
was he laughing?
"Yeah, baseball and stuff, I know. I played with him; he caught and I
pitched. How did you meet Tom?" The kid had an attitude, she was seeing
now. He also had a point. She'd neglected to follow through with the
practiced explanation, and it was just as well, because there didn't
appear to be an extensive list of potential conversation lined up in
wait for them. They'd been in the car together for exactly 13 minutes,
and already she was rationing dialogue. A sure sign of relationship
success.
"I used to work with him, and we have a couple of the same classes."
She was so boring. She bored herself, and now her hands were actually
starting to sweat from the nervousness of the situation and the fact
that she was still sitting on them. This wasn't normal for Brendan; he
was very social, and she was bringing him down by not talking, and
right now he was thinking of ways to get out of this "blind" date so he
could go home and tell all six of his girlfriends what a pathetic case
she was.
"I am starving!" he nearly shouted. Funny how guys were so unaware of
their voices. Either they were inconceivably less self-conscious than
girls in parallel situations, or they chose to express their uneasiness
in the complete opposite way. Which was perfectly expressed in the
manner that they were each handling the state of affairs at this very
moment. He, making the effort. She, pondering the inner workings of
their now 16-minute mutual relationship.
As the truck jerked to a stop in front of The Outback, Leah vowed to
cease thinking and start speaking, with no subject off-limits except
for the one most present in her mind. Somehow, she thought he might be
frightened to learn that this was not technically a true blind date.
That this was a meticulously orchestrated event, set up not at the
divine inspiration of Tom the mutual friend, but at the repeated
suggestion of Leah the determined admirer. No, that probably wouldn't
do for an opener.
Approaching the glass door, she was relieved to see a crowd of people
waiting to be seated. Always good to have a distraction. The thought of
facing him and only him, for as long as it took them to get their
dinner, might possibly kill her. And then the eating part, which she
hadn't even considered. There would be food in her teeth; she needed to
call the whole charade off.
Brendan stepped in front of her, opening the door and performing a
sweep of the arm that would've been followed by a hat-tipping, had he
been wearing one. Leah thanked him and hurried inside, feeling almost
guilty for being out of the cold first. He made his way to the front
and apparently, he'd made reservations, because there was no distracter
period for the two of them. They were immediately led to a booth, where
she practically hurdled the waitress in a moment of blind terror at
being faced with the decision of whether to sit directly next to
Brendan or across from him. Therefore, the ball was now in his court,
and thank God he was sitting across from her, because now she could
finally get a good look at him.
As she did, an unexpected wave of calm washed over her. This might well
be the last time she'd ever see him from the front, and for some reason
he was looking more eager bench-warmer than condescending veteran, so
she decided to throw caution to the wind and run with this opportunity.
There was nothing to be worried about; because this was typical,
laid-back Brendan, and there was no way he'd ever do anything even
remotely rude. Definitely not to her face, but probably not behind her
back, either. Words began tumbling from her mouth, unchecked by her
brain but having the desired effect, regardless. If he was bored, he
was certainly hiding it professionally.
Before the waitress even got around to their table, Brendan was at ease
enough to lip-sync the words to the song playing over the loudspeaker,
and Leah had overcome her anxiety enough to make fun of him.
"Country?? You can't tell me that you like country." She could almost
hear her best friend laughing and rolling her eyes as she recalled that
very morning, when they had driven to McDonalds and mangled her new Tim
McGraw CD at the top of their lungs.
"Heck yeah, I like country. And darn it, I'm proud!" Yes, this was
definitely a match made in heaven. Other than that whole proud thing,
anyway. Leah began preparing the wedding.
"You're kidding. Me too!" she exclaimed. It was much easier to confess
to an embarrassment of this sort when you had an ally.
"Oh, really?" Brendan smirked. "And this is why you made fun of me for
it? And didn't say anything when I passed all those stations in the car
on the way over?"
"Yeah, basically," she grinned back.
"So you were hiding things from me? Do you think that's a good thing to
do on our first time out together?"
"Well, I planned to tell you someday."
"I'll bet you did." She didn't like that look in his eye. "Probably
about the same day you were going to tell me about how you asked Tom to
set us up, right?"