Chapter 3

Sol texts her best friend, Thea:

Hey, I’m going out with this new guy, Franklin, tonight. Can you be my safety person? 👷🏾‍♀

Thea: Of course. Send me the details. Which one is he again?

Sol: The one with the eyebrows. Okay, we’re meeting at that coffee shop on Thames St down in Fells Point at 7 tonight. Should be done by 8:30 AT THE LATEST. You know what to do. Thanks, girl! Pray for me!

She puts on her favorite orange sweater with the polka dots that hugs her in the right places and is loose where she keeps thinking she should lose a few pounds. She wears her long, wavy brown hair down and freshens up her makeup. She doesn’t want to overdo it. Her favorite jeans and orange wedge heels complete the look.

Sol is thirty-six, has never married, and knows that dating in real life is a lot different from in the movies. This is one reason she stopped watching rom-coms. They just lead her to have expectations that are out-of-touch with reality. For one thing, these safety texts. In the movies, it seems like the people meet up with a new guy and fall in love on the first date. In reality, Sol knows that as a single woman living alone, her personal safety has to come before any potential romance. That’s not to say she doesn’t believe in falling in love and living happily ever after. It just hasn’t happened for her yet. She dates on and off. Franklin is the first guy she’s meeting after taking a few months off the dating scene.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Sol says as she stretches to hug the guy with the prominent eyebrows, Franklin. Does he get them waxed? she wonders as she looks at his face. “Should we get coffee?” Sol walks confidently over to the counter, knowing Franklin is watching her and that she looks good.

Thankfully, Franklin likes coffee and doesn’t seem too high maintenance about it. Then again, he could just be on his best behavior for their first date. Sol has learned a lot from being on the dating scene so long, like not judging too much by the first date. And for the first date, keep it brief and inexpensive. There can always be a second date, but you can’t get back those hours or dollars you spent on a bad first date. She loves coffee and even took a barista class to learn how to make all the fancy espresso drinks, so coffee on a first date is usually a good call. She orders a latte and decides against getting anything to eat, even though that chocolate cupcake in the case looks amazing.

“So, Franklin…or do you have a nickname? Do people call you Frank? Or what’s your middle name?” Sol jumps right in with easy questions to get the conversation started. She’s gotten good at small talk after so many first dates.

“Well, my middle name is Lyndon, so no one calls me that. No, everyone pretty much calls me Franklin. My last name…Campbell…you probably know my father ran for city council last year, so my last name was on every yard sign…so that really belongs to my father.”

“Oh, so what happened in the election? I’m in a different district, so I didn’t really follow that one. He didn’t win?” Sol asks.

“No, this lady won. I don’t know, I think she knew someone who pulled some strings. Girl power.” Franklin rolls his eyes at this last statement and then must remember he is on a first date and stops talking and stops rolling.

Sol just looks at him. Is this guy for real? she thinks. Well, it is his dad; maybe he’s just hurt he didn’t win.

“Okay, so I’ll call you Franklin then,” Sol continues.

“What about you? Sol means ‘sun,’ right? Are you Spanish?” Franklin asks.

Sol has been getting these kinds of questions all her life: What was she? She was white, but with her olive skin, dark hair, brown eyes, and Spanish name, she either blended in or confused people. Spanish, Hispanic, Latina, black, mixed, light-skinned, Italian, Greek, Jewish. Sometimes she just introduced herself as Sunny to spare herself that conversation.

“No, I’m white,” she says simply.

“Oh,” he says. Sol can’t tell what he thinks about her answer. She presses on, attempting to steer the conversation in a different direction. “So, what do you do for work?”

Franklin proceeds to tell her about his job as an insurance broker. She finds it a little hard to come up with follow-up questions besides trying to understand his role in the larger insurance process. But she’s happy he has what seems to be a stable job. She tells him a little about her job, but he doesn’t seem to have many follow-up questions about that either.

Sol knows from his profile that Franklin is divorced and has children. She thinks it’s a little too much to ask about that on their first date, even though she’s curious to know what happened. He doesn’t bring it up either, but she figures they can talk about it in the future if there’s another date.

After an hour of chatting, Sol says goodbye with another quick hug. Franklin holds the hug for a couple seconds longer than Sol expects. She takes another look at him as she’s leaving. She thinks he’s attractive and the date wasn’t bad. Well, maybe, she decides.

She texts Thea: On my way home. Thanks for looking out!

Thea: How was it?

Sol: It was okay. He asked me out for dinner next week, so I guess we’ll see.

Thea: 👀

Sol: What does that mean?

Thea: Just okay?? We’re not going for just okay!

Sol: I know, I know. But I want to give him a chance.

Thea: The eyebrows?

Sol: They’re kind of cute. In a BIG way.

Thea: SMH! Good night!