Bank Account Balance: $1200.39
Days Since My Last Date: 0days
Current Weight: 173 lbs
Quote of the day: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“So you’re quite the comedian yourself, aren’t you?” Jack said, a smirk on his face.
“No, I never said I was a comedian. Why would you say that?”
“Chocolate?” he raised an eyebrow. “Really? Chocolate?”
“What did you think I was talking about?” I said innocently.
“We both know that you know what I thought you were talking about.” His voice was deep and husky.
I swallowed hard. Of course, I knew he was talking about sex, and of course, a part of me was talking about sex, but I didn’t want to be that sort of girl, at least not right away.
“You’re so different than you were when I was talking to you online,” he frowned slightly, looking puzzled.
“Oh, how so?”
“You’re a little bit more mischievous, not so direct.” He was thoughtful for a second. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re using humor to deflect your insecurities.”
“What insecurities?” I said, far too quickly.
“I don’t know. I don’t know you well enough to know what they are. Unlike you,” he smiled, “I don’t just assume I know someone based upon a first meeting.”
“I didn’t assume anything about you. It’s not my fault if you took what I said seriously or—”
“I’m not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but normally when women are this bitchy on a first date, it means one of three things.”
“Excuse me, are you calling me a bitch?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying, but you are being combative. Do you not agree with me?”
“Uh, I don’t know. What about me is being combative?”
And then I stopped myself because of course, I was being combative, and I didn’t want to be. He was right. I did have a guard up, and not all of it was due to him. A lot was due to my ex, who’d been an asshole and who’d totally broken my heart. He cheated on me, and then he gaslighted me to make me feel like it was my fault, and for a couple of months I’d really thought it had been. But thank God for my best friends. They’d made me see the truth. They helped me realize that him cheating on me had nothing to do with me and everything to do with him being the biggest douchebag that he was.
“I can see I’ve got you thinking.” Jack smiled. “I like that.”
“What? You like that I think, or are you like that—”
“Oh, my gosh. Isabella, really? Sorry.”
I gave him a little smile. “So let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk more about you.”
“You keep saying that. You love to deflect.”
“Yeah, and?”
“I don’t know. It’s just interesting.”
“Well, I am interesting, or did you think I was not going to be interesting?”
“Let’s just say you’re a little bit more interesting than I thought,” he nodded. “I don’t know that …” he paused. “Well, it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter what?”
“I don’t know. This is kind of an interesting first date, if you know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, it’s not great, is it?”
“Excuse me. Are you saying I’m a bad first date?”
“Um, honey, let’s just say this is not the best first date I’ve ever been on.”
“Oh, really? You’ve been on better dates than with me?”
“Yeah, definitely. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that almost all of the dates I’ve been on in my life have been better than this.”
“Wow, how rude!”
“What? I thought you women like honest men.”
“You’re not being honest. You’re being—”
“What, I’m a pig because I told you you’re a bad first date?”
“You know what? You’re a bad first date.”
“It’s funny, though, don’t you think?”
“What’s funny?”
“It’s funny how you haven’t left, even though you think I’m such a horrible guy.”
“I’m here for the meal.”
“Oh, so you’re one of those girls, are you?”
“One of what girls?”
“You’re one of those girls that goes on dates to get free dinners.”
“Oh hell, no. I’m not one of those women. How dare you?” I glared at him, daggers shooting from my eyes.
“I dare because to me it doesn’t even seem like you wanted to come on this date. You’re acting like you’re here against your will. You seem surly and—”
“Surly? Are you kidding me? You did not just use surly to describe me, did you?”
“I mean, I could also say ‘sexy,’ but I feel like you would pull my hair out if I said that.”
That took me aback a little. “What … what made you think that?”
“Okay, you’re sexy, and that’s the only reason why I’m still sitting at this table. How do you like that?”
My jaw dropped. I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I couldn’t tell him off for what he just said, because then he’d be right. But the only reason he was still here was because I was sexy? Did he mean that my personality was bad and it was my looks that had him here?
That was the first time anyone had ever said anything like that to me. I normally assumed my personality was much better than my looks. Not that I was ugly, but I was no Cindy Crawford or Elle Macpherson or Claudia Schiffer or Kendall Jenner—and I hated Kendall Jenner, but she had a nice body, nothing like mine. I would need to go on a million more diets and lose a million more pounds and work out a million more hours before I was even half close to looking like Kendall Jenner.
“ … Thanks?”