Proposition

After weeks of only ever looking at the man that she had run into on her first blind date at Chardays from a distance. Eve had finally worked up the courage to approach him. 

The seriousness of the situation was not lost on her.

Most likely things would be getting even worse from then on out. No date that she had gone on so far had given her the illusion that things would be getting better. With each one that she had walked away from, Eve felt like there was worse waiting for her. What if her next date came to dinner carrying an explosive, or enough poison to kill everyone at Chardays.

"Do not worry. I am a connoisseur of toxins, you are perfectly safe," Eve had imagined the mystery man saying. The mental image had been enough to make her shudder. It had also been enough to give her the last bit of nerve that'd she'd needed to sit across from an absolute stranger, and pour herself a drink from his bottle of whiskey.

"I believe that the two of us might be able to help each other out," Her introduction was strong...solid. At least she thought so until the man in black open his mouth.

"Hello, I am Eric Fisher. I have seen you around. But we have never been introduced. Can you tell me your name?" 

Oh...of all the things, she had been so focused on getting to his table, and playing it cool that she had forgotten the most important thing.

She'd not told him her name!

Face flaming, Eve made to lift her glass and take another sip, but she stopped herself. She really was not making a good impression.

He was probably thinking that she was some kind of lunatic.

"Hello, I'm Evelyn 'Eve' Hale. I am not some crazy person I swear," The man in black, Eric Fisher, gave her wide eyed look, and Eve's face flamed even more.

Saying you were not crazy was more likely to convince people that you really were.

"It is nice to finally put a name to a familiar face, Evelyn. But what exactly are you doing at my table?"

Eve breathed a sigh of relief, glad that her awkwardness had not resulted in him instantly kicking her out. Smoothing her sweaty hands over the tops of her thighs, she decided to just go for it,"

"I have seen you around from time to time during my blind dates. I assume that you were also here having blind dated, right?" Eve tried her best not to show obvious relief when he nodded.

Knowing that he was not some sort of womaniser, helped her feel more at ease with the crazy idea that she had come up with.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and Eve was definitely someone who was very desperate. She had promised her best friend that she would go on ten blind dates and despite the dates having been horrible, she'd had every intention of not backing out. Eve had truly wanted to honour the promise that she had made to Stella because she knew that it was coming from a place of love. But unfortunately for her, it seemed that she would not be able to do that. When she had walked into the restaurant earlier that evening. She had not been thinking of throwing in the towel. 

But then her date, Brian, had come in and he had shown her exactly why it was a good idea for her to just give up on the whole thing. Her previous dates might have been horrible, but at least back then the men had been focused on her.

But now Brian had shown her what it felt like to be inferior. At first the date had been going fairly well. The two of them polishing off their starter, while getting to know each other better, the normal stuff like likes and dislikes, like strangers who hoped to be more to one another often did . But then as Brian had started drinking a bit more. His tongue had loosened, and unlike some people who when drunk became disrespectful or overly quiet, Brian had proven himself to be the type of drunk that Eve tended to avoid at all costs. 

Drunk Brian was a lovesick Brian, and his attention had not been on her at all. Instead, the moment that Brian had gotten a little bit tipsy, he had started talking about his ex...Melanie.

His words might have been slightly slurred and hard to make out in places but every other word out of his mouth had been Melanie. 

"Melanie loved this dish that I ordered tonight. Melanie has the prettiest eyes. Melanie has a laugh that just makes the entire room light up,"Melanie this, Melanie that.

It had not even taken five Melanies for Eve to realize that Brian was in the wrong location. The man had not needed to be on a blind date. He had needed to be with his ex trying to patch things up with her.

Her thought had been proven correct when, after crying for a bit over the fact that they were no longer together, Brian's head had suddenly snapped up and he had looked at her like he had just come up with the greatest idea on earth.

"A song, Melanie loved songs. If I sing to her, she will come back," He'd said, And Eve, having long given up on being anything other than the almost other woman to Brian, had merely nodded. In her defence, when she had been agreeing with him, she'd thought that he would sing to Melanie some other time. Like maybe do it old school and show up beneath her window with a boombox on his shoulder serenading her. No such luck. Brian had decided that he needed to sing to his Melanie and he needed to sing to her that very moment. Which was how Eve had wound up on a date with a man who was on the phone with his ex, singing at the top of his lungs about how great she was. Now such a display would have normally had everybody staring at her.

But she had been saved from such a fate. Unfortunately, the incident that had saved her from that, had been one that had embarrassed the only other person that she semi knew in the place. Any other day a man singing to his ex would have been something that was embarrassing beyond measure. But somehow the date of the freckled man topped that. There was no looking away from a naked woman. Especially one who was covered in tattoos and posing confidently even as the staff tried to get her off the table. Her antics had even been enough to get Brian to briefly stop singing, once he had finally noticed. His mouth wide open as he had stared at the naked woman being led out in shock.

Turning back to the phone, he had finished off the song, and had then pleaded with the woman on the other end.

"Melanie this place is not for me, I'm coming home," Eve'd heard the affirmative on the other end, before Brian had left without a goodbye. 

She'd felt people's eyes on her as he had been escorted out. But her focus had been on the freckled man, feeling more sorry for him, than for herself.

Now that she was currently sharing a table with him. Eve had no doubt in her mind that he would agree to her unconventional plan.

While everybody's eyes had been on the woman being escorted out of the restaurant, her eyes had drifted over to the freckled man, and seeing how down he had looked, Eve had decided to just take chance and do something wild.

Which was why she was currently sitting across from him slowly sipping on her whiskey.

"Let's date," She finally blurted out.

Looking at his shocked expression, Eve hid her own shock at how forward she was being by gulping down the rest of her drink.