Chunks: blown

Luckily, I made it to the bathroom before I lost my composure completely. The old guy in the stall yelled at me to ‘keep it down!’ as I released all of my stomach’s contents into the loo. I thanked the good God up above for the mints they had in the bathroom. I threw a handful into my mouth before going back to the table.

When I returned, Cait’s face looked like she couldn’t decide if she found the situation horrifying or hilarious.

“I probably should have mentioned that I hate Lovusian food.” I admitted as I sat back down.

“That would have been good to know, yeah!” She laughed loudly, finally accepting the situation as hilarious. “Why did you let me pick this place?!”

“You said it was your favorite place! I didn’t expect you to eat the craziest shit on the menu!”

“It’s good! I-I mean, I enjoy it!”

“I’m not hating on you for liking it; it’s just not for me is all. I’ve never liked any of the hybrid stuff.” I shrugged.

Cait giggled. “Alright, you can have the rest of the milkshake. Not very romantic, but I don’t want you blowing chunks again.”

“‘Blowing chunks?’” I asked, giving her an incredulous look.

“Yeah, ‘blowing chunks’.” She repeated, confused.

“That’s the nastiest way I’ve ever heard someone describe vomiting before.”

We laughed. We spent the rest of the meal playfully arguing and teasing over our food tastes. It was fun; we both had an immediate understanding of how to talk to each other, while avoiding most of the awkwardness of a first date. It was amazing. Her eyes glimmered when she laughed. I noticed that she usually pushed her glasses up on her nose after she laughed. The little quirks like that made me like her even more.

Chad brought out the check and I reached for it. Cait quickly snatched it up, shaking her head with a grin.

“Nope! No white-knight chivalry here!”

“But… I, uh…” I didn’t know what to say. I thought the man was supposed to pay, but I don’t think saying that would be the right choice considering her wording.

“Don’t worry about it, dummy; I won’t talk money here, but I’m pretty well off. I own a store, remember?” She pulled out a wallet out of the small green bag she had and pulled out a wad of cash about three times the amount I’d ever had in my wallet.

“Oh my… you’re telling me I got myself a sugar mama?” I grinned devilishly.

Cait laughed. “Ooh, I like the sound of that…”

Chad grabbed the check and thanked Cait for the 200% tip (holy shit). She got up and I followed suit, tailing her out the door.

“Hm…” She hummed to herself.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, I’m just not sure what we should do next…. The ‘dinner and a movie’ trope is cute, but we met at the movies, so it feels droll.” She put a finger to her chin as she thought.

I hadn’t expected the date to continue past here, but I wasn’t going to argue against the idea. “We could… uh… go bowling?”

“Are you one of those pricks who is amazing at bowling, so you ask a girl out to go so you can seem super cool when you do well?” She raised a suspicious brow.

“Oh, no; I’m fucking terrible at bowling.”

She laughed loudly. “Good. I am too. Let’s go!” Cait looked around the parking lot. “Which one’s yours?”

“Oh, uh…” My mind filled with thoughts of my horrific van parked blocks away. “…I walked.”

“You walked?! You poor thing!” She grabbed my sleeve and pulled me to a nice looking car. She practically shoved me into the passenger seat before getting into the drivers. I felt like chivalry called for me to drive, but I’d picked up that Cait wasn’t much for that.

“Music?” She asked, holding her phone out with some music app open. “Anything but **** metal. And country, actually. Or K-Pop. Or… bad; no bad music.”

“I, uh… I like rap?”

She squinted at me. “What rap we talkin’?”

“G…good?”

“Hmmm…” she clicked her tongue. “Alright. I’ll give you a chance.”

I spent the small ride to the bowling alley mentally straining to think of the safest/ best rap songs to play. In all honesty? I’m more of a, like, 90s rock guy but I’d panicked.

She smiled at me as we pulled into the location. “You did well. Basic, but well.” She giggled and got out of the car.

I followed her into the bowling alley. It was kind of musty and dingy, filled with kids and old people. They sold beer by the pitcher, though, so it worked out as a date spot.

We spent the next two hours bowling. We played a ton of games since it was just the two of us, and she wiped the floor with me most the time.

“You aren’t throwing it right. You notice how I get it down the center? It’s all in the arm-“ She placed her hands over mine, pushing against my back like the pottery scene in Ghost.

Her small frame pressed against me was heart-fluttering, but her actual tip was very helpful. I even beat her in one of the games afterwards.

Afterwards, she offered to drive me home. I gladly accepted. Thankfully, she took control of the radio and played some nice soft pop stuff that seemed popular. The music played softly as we talked about books (in my case, pulling mostly from what I’d read as a kid).

Cait got quiet as we pulled into my apartment building. She looked up at the tall structure with a weird look.

“Are you sure this is the right place…?” She asked hesitantly.

“Uh… yeah? Why, is something wrong?”

“No, no, just… it’s nothing.” She stopped in front of the doors.

The date was over. My first date. Holy shit, I felt good.

“Can we… uh… do this again?” I asked after I got out of the car.

“Well, I’m not sure we can do another first date; but I’d love to have a second one.” She winked. As she pulled away I wondered what was up with her weirdness about this place.

Fuck.

My car was still parked in that fucking parking lot.

-

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