TONY.
“Your dad asked me to remind you about the blind date sir.” Wilson, my driver and bodyguard reminded me for the zillionth time.
“You know, I’m starting to think my dad paid you to do this shit. Or is the woman your sister or something cos I don’t get why you’ve been singing it in my ears throughout the week!” I snapped.
“Oh, I wish! He threatened me sir, not pay me. Remember the last two dates you didn’t go on, you stood those women up for no reason. I got scolded for it, in fact, he still talks about it.” Wilson said causing me to smile mischievously.
“Well, I’m going to go to this one but I have something up my sleeve that’s going to stop this once and for all.”
“There’s actually something that can stop this once and for all, just introduce your lady to him, you know, that one you said you like a lot? Just get married to her already.” Wilson said.
“Well, I’d like to do that but she has to want to get married to me first, don’t you think? So chill.” I snapped.
After stopping by at one of my clubs and doing many more meetings, I finally stepped into the luxurious restaurant that I was to meet my so called blind date.
I knew that if I didn’t go again this time, my dad was bound to flip seriously at me, he was already annoyed at the fact that I decided to just start up my own chain of business instead of taking over his, it wasn’t even the fact that I started my own business that really flipped him off, it was my choice of business, he had called it supporting irresponsibility and prostitution in disguise. I tried severally to change his mind, all to no avail. And who could blame the old man, every single time he showed up at any of my clubs, he always saw stuffs that ended up supporting his theory.
Getting married to his choice of woman was what I promised him in exchange for letting me do whenever I wanted. He had said that if he didn’t have any other say in my life, he wanted a say in just one thing which was the woman I got married to. And honestly, I didn’t care because I knew that he was going to let me marry whoever I wanted at the end of the day.
The man liked to act like he would surrender to my choice even when he does ninety percent of the time. Growing up, I had a very loving family, being an only child also, I was literally spoilt. But it all fell apart when I was fifteen when my mom died of food poisoning. My world literally shattered but I was able to pick up the broken pieces and be whole again due to the loving nature of my dad, and he didn’t remarry yet although, I had tried to set him up with a couple of women around his age one time. He just said he wasn’t interested.
I remained seated at the table that had been reserved for the date. I was getting impatient and had decided to just leave if whoever it was didn’t get here in the next twenty minutes before I then heard my name from a familiar voice, “Tony?”
I looked up to see no one other than the same woman who had invaded my mind for no reason I could point at, the same woman I had been trying to avoid, Beth.
“Uhm… hy Beth.” I greeted. “Are you here on a date too?” I asked and before I knew it, she was almost pouncing on me.
“Don’t tell me that you’re the blind date I’m here to meet, don’t even try to say it.” She said.
“Uhm, I’m here to see the daughter of one Mr Martinez.” I said.
“Well, that’s me, I’m Elizabeth Martinez! You know what? That’s not even the bone of contention right now, my problem and confusion is why are you on a blind date when you clearly have a girlfriend? A girlfriend who’s my own best friend! Is this who you are, huh?” She rambled on, almost creating a scenes and causing some heads in the restaurant to turn to look at us.
I immediate stood up to calm her down, “Please, calm down and listen to me first, let me explain.” I pleaded.
She gave me a look that looked like she was unsure whether to listen to me or not but she seemed to surrender as she took her seat even though she was still glaring at me.
“Okay? What’s the story?” She asked.
“Look, you can ask around, I don’t don’t go in these dates that my Dad sets up everytime, to be honest, I just came here because I didn’t want to break his heart again and I actually had some mischievous thing up my sleeves, so trust me when I say I’m not out here going on blind dates even when I have a girlfriend. I’d never do that, I love Lara too much to do that to her?” I said and for some reason, the last part came out like a question, like I was convincing myself so much that I love her.
“You say that like you aren’t a popular Playboy though.” Lara said, letting her guards down as she placed her mini bag on the table and sat properly.
“Not when I’m in a relationship though. Yes, I used to be with women and all that but not anymore, at least, not since I started dating Lara and she knows that.” I said, honestly.
Cheating was honestly not my thing, I may be a man who never stayed too long with women but never did u string two or more women along at once. Most of the time, it was always a one or two time fling, until Lara, that is.
“By the way, what were you going to do to me when I got here since you said you had a mischievous thing up your sleeve.” She asked taking, looking at her nails.
“I was going to act very crazy in front of you and end all these blind dates once and for all, when it goes around that Antony Black went crazy and all, I was sure that most women will back off.” I said and was extremely surprised when she laughed, I didn’t know when I smiled in return, her laughter sounded like music to my ears, it was at that moment that I finally took a good look at her.
Her face wasn’t anything extraordinary or significant, and yet, I felt somehow magically drawn to those serious and silent features. Though she always avoided my gaze for some reason I can’t pinpoint, I couldn’t help but notice her clean skin and lack of makeup, along with her silky baby hairs. Perhaps many would consider her homely, but he found her awe-striking, I felt the strong need to keep being comedic just so I could always see her throw her head back and laugh the way she just did.
“If it’s settled, I should probably just go then. Don’t worry, I’ll tell my dad that you went crazy!” She said, laughing a little.
“That will really go a long way, thank you. And you don’t have to rush home, we are here already so there’s nothing wrong with us enjoying our reservation except you’re running away from me or something.” I said, not wanting to see her leave so soon.
“No, absolutely not. Uhm… uh… I’ll just see what they have for us on their menu then.” She said as she took their menu and started to look through, it was almost like she was trying so hard not to look at me or to avoid conversing with me.
Somehow, I knew that our history was the reason she was feeling awkward and I didn’t like it so I went against what I had planned and decided to talk about it, shocking even myself.
“About that night, I’m so sorry that I left like that.”