Blaine
After our week-long talks about comic books, superheroes, and everything nerdy that I thought I would never find a girl that was interested in like me, I decided to make dinner that Saturday extra special. Reese and I had been planning and talking about this date all week, and I was pretty sure I was just as excited about it as she was. I changed our reservations to this cool little place on the East side of Philly that was decked out in comic book memorabilia. Sure, it was kind of a touristy spot, but it was awesome and fit in with the theme of our date night.
I got ready, making sure to let Reese know she didn’t need to dress up for dinner, and headed out in a car to pick her up. When my driver pulled up to her place, she was walking out of the door of her apartment, excitement on her face. The driver opened my door and she slid in, our lips immediately pressing together. She was absolutely adorable in her jeans, Vans, and sweater with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. I hadn’t seen her like that before, and I was pretty sure I liked her more like that than I did when she was all dolled up.
“So, are you as stoked as I am for this date?” she asked.
“I pretty much stayed up all night reading my comic books and brushing up on my facts,” I said, nodding my head. “I am super excited.”
When we pulled up outside of the restaurant, Reese’s face lit up, excitement running through her eyes. She grabbed my arm and squealed, making me cringe and laugh at the same time. I immediately knew I had made the right choice.
“I’ve always wanted to come here,” she said in awe as we walked through the door.
The first hour of dinner was spent pointing out all the awesome memorabilia strewn across the walls. It was like a Hard Rock Café, but for the nerds, with autographed pictures of Stan Lee, movie set pieces from Star Wars, and collector’s editions of several big series comic books, all encased around the room. On the big projection screen in the background they had the Justice League movies playing, and our salt and pepper shakers were appropriately created to look like Superman and Batman.
“See, even in the spice world, Batman is spicy and dark,” I said, laughing.
“Yeah, but Superman will give you high blood pressure and heart problems,” she said, shaking him upside down over her fries. “So, we have plenty of time to debate comic books tonight. Tell me something about yourself that I don’t know.”
“Uh oh,” I said. “Is it secret time?”
“That it is,” she said, eating a fry.
“All right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “When I was a kid, about seven years old, I was outside playing with some friends. We decided to go walk to my buddy’s house to eat lunch. When we were walking, there was a stray dog that was running up and down the street. I had never actually been around a dog since my mom was allergic. I started whistling at it, thinking I could pet it or something. I don’t really know what I was thinking. Well, it started running toward me, and by the time I realized that it wasn’t excited to see me, it had pounced on me and knocked me to the ground. I wrestled with it for several minutes, and then my buddy’s mom came out and managed to get it off of me and ran it off down the street.”
“Oh, my God,” she said, covering her mouth. “Were you okay?”
“They rushed me to the hospital,” I replied. “I got a bunch stitches on my forearm and my right calf, but luckily, the dog had kept its mouth away from my face. If she hadn’t come out though, I’d probably have died. I had to get that crazy rabies shot in my stomach, was on antibiotics forever, and it really messed me up in the head.”
“I’m so sorry,” she replied. “That’s terrible.”
“Ever since then, I can’t even imagine spending time with a dog, much less ever owning one,” I said, looking down at the check and pulling out cash for the bill. “And that is my tragic little story. You ready to go?”
“Blaine, that’s terrible,” she said with a strange look on her face. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, well, you live and you learn, I guess,” I said, shrugging my shoulders and standing. “Now, let’s get back and get our movie on. I have snack food galore and a ton of wine waiting for us.”
She stared down at her plate for a minute, hesitating, but she shook her head and smiled, reaching up and taking my hand. I felt like she was holding something back, but I let it go, figuring she would tell me when she was ready. People always reacted weird to that story, which was why I only ever told it if I had to. Now that I was feeling pretty strongly about this woman, I felt she needed to know, just in case the subject of pets ever came up.
When we got back to the house, I immediately pulled out all the food I had bought and popped open a bottle of wine. Reese grabbed the bookbag she had brought and unzipped it, pulling a large Hulk stuffed animal out of it and smiling at me. I laughed and poured a third glass of wine, just to keep the Hulk from getting angry.
We sat down in front of the television and started the movies. Normally if we watched a movie, it was a quiet affair where we snuggled up together, covered in a blanket, and enjoyed being that close. This, however, was an all-out party. We laughed, we yelled at the different characters, and we playfully argued back and forth about their roles in upcoming movies. By the end of the first movie, we had gone through a bottle and a half of wine.
I brought out some beers for the beginning of the second movie, and by mid-movie, the two of us were on our feet, drunk as hell, acting out the scenes as they went. I hadn’t had that much fun with someone in a really long time. In fact, it probably hadn’t been since I was a kid playing with my friends. Reese was definitely one of the most interesting women I had ever met, and I felt free and open to be whoever I wanted to be when I was around her. I didn’t have to put on a show like I did in corporate America, and I realized as I laughed loudly at Reese leaping through the air, that I had pretended to be this stuffed shirt, rich guy to everyone around me for so long, I had lost track of who I really was on the inside. It was the exact reason I’d thought about starting my own tech company in the first place.
Still, I knew that to continue to be successful, I couldn’t be who I wanted to be around everyone else, but there in my penthouse living room, I was free to be me around Reese. I had been looking for a girl like her for so long, and I couldn’t believe that she actually existed, much less the fact that I had found her. Everything in my life was starting to shift, but instead of fearing it, I was embracing it wholeheartedly. I couldn’t imagine there was anything about this girl that I wouldn’t find loveable or endearing, and as far as I knew, she was pretty much like me, minus the billion-dollar corporation on her back.
We both fell back on the couch, our stomachs aching from the laughter. She leaned her head back against the couch and smiled, turning it toward me and looking me in the eyes. I leaned my head next to hers and gingerly kissed her on the cheek.
“I’m having a really good time,” I said with a smile. “Thank you for letting me be who I really am.”
“Thank you for not kicking me out when I started to dance along to the music during the Avengers movie,” she joked.
“I considered it,” I replied.
“You did?” She feigned shock. “But then who would you have to take back to your room and ravage?”
“I was going to keep the Hulk doll,” I replied, wincing as she slapped my arm and laughed loudly.