excerpt: "No Soup for You"

I love the day date... No wine, no shower...
Depending on your definition of date, me and Emma had one date. It was about two months into my contract and we went out to lunch together. It was a simple walk to the sandwich shop and we sat at one of the circular tables in the corner.
She talked about her love for news and how she really loved working for CNN and I could tell this was her career. I pretended to care about the midterm elections, not so much in terms of politics, but for the excitement of real change in Washington. In truth, I cared more about the Oscar vote than the congressional midterms. But in the moment, seeing her face light up as she asked me about the New Jersey seventh, I found myself fairly engaged.
As for the date aspect, nothing went well. I offered to pay, she didn’t accept. She walked faster than I, so I didn’t open the doors. And at no time did I feel like she saw me as anything more than a work friend. And more than anything else that was what was frustrating. I wouldn’t go out to lunch with her if I wasn’t interested. I don’t need any more friends. And I don’t think she saw the lunch date as anything more than friendship. That’s how different our minds were.
I thought about kissing her, but there was never that conversational pause where I could slip one past the goalie. Instead we talked about the upcoming elections and then a little football. But nothing that seemed substantial, nothing that felt like a couple. So while it was nice to have a one-on-one date that didn’t feel like a date. It was terrible to have a date that wasn’t a date.