Short Time

When Eve had approached Eric back at the restaurant. She'd had the feeling that the two of them were kindred souls going through the same ordeal. Being tortured by blind date, after blind date, with no escape in sight. 

But then Eric had gone on to verbally eviscerate her, and she'd thought that maybe she had been wrong. That she had simply been seeing him too many times at the restaurant, and had somehow confused his situation with hers. That she had simply been seeing her own struggles in him, and had approached him because she'd wanted somebody to come and save her.

But here he was, sitting across from her at a diner, telling her that he too had been going through some truly horrible dates. 

From a control freak police officer, to someone bringing an actual roach to the table. Clearly the two of them would have been the co-winners of the horrible dates award if it existed. Eve could not help herself. She just had to ask one more question.

"You were going through all of those horrible things, some of which I witnessed. So why on earth did you turn me down when I first made the proposition? You seemed very sure of yourself, and did not even hesitate for one second when you said no," Given what she'd just heard, he should have jumped at her suggestion straight away, but he had not, she had to know why.

Rather than answer her immediately, Eric pushed the tiny bit of food still left on his plate around before finally looking back up at her.

"I admit that I went overboard with all of that moral high ground stuff. To be honest, I wasn't even trying to make you feel bad. I think I was trying to justify to myself why I kept going on those torturous dates instead of just looking for a way out," Eve nodded. That made sense. 

He actually seemed like the type to just bear everything, and keep going until he could not anymore.

"I really truly thought that I had at least a few more dates in me. But I just found that I couldn't anymore. That, together with the fact that my sister already knows your name, is why I called you,"

"So what about you? What was the straw that broke the camel's back? If you were willing to endure a bit longer, why did you suddenly change your mind?"

When Eve had asked Eric about his dates. She had not really expected him to answer her, let alone do so truthfully. But much to her pleasant surprise, that was exactly what Eric had done.

He had told her the truth, and from the way that he had seemed uncomfortable when talking about the dates that his sister had set him up on. It was not something that he had enjoyed talking about. But still in order to appease her curiosity, he had done so.

That did not mean that Eve owed him an explanation of her own. But, she found herself wanting to tell him her own side of things. Their stories were unbelievably similar. If there was anyone in the world who would understand what she was going through. Then most likely it was going to be him.

So she told him all of it, from the cocaine guy, to the environmentalist who'd been more worried over a plant than her.

"Oh, and I think that your first date left with my first date. I saw them together when I was leaving," Shaking his head out of pure shock, Eric put his hands on the table and looked over at her.

"Evelyn, that is not what you should be focused on. My dates were bad, but you had an actual drug addict right in front of you! Why did you go back instead of just abandoning ship?" It was a valid question, one that Eve still did not feel she had a good enough answer for. So she decided to just go with the origins of everything.

"A few weeks ago, I got drunk and begged my best friend, Stella to set me up on blind dates, and she kept the recording and made me stick to my word of going out to meet guys," As expected, both of Derek's eyebrows shot up to his hairline at that. 

"What?! She's blackmailing you," Eve shook her head. 

"Not really. Stella and I have the type of friendship where blackmail is nearly impossible. Just as she has dirt on me, I've got dirt on her. Both of us would end each other if the other ever tried to go for all-out manipulation," It was difficult trying to explain their friendship. They were more like sisters. Eric at least seemed to get a little bit of that. 

"She's got your back no matter what," He said softly, and Eve nodded, realizing that Eric could at least understand that because of his own relationship with his sister. 

"Yes. It is exactly like that. Anyway, while you were having that awful date with the lady who stripped naked, you remember that my guy was the one singing to his ex in the middle of our date, right?" Eric nodded, grimacing at the memory, and Eve found herself, wholeheartedly agreeing with him. The two of them really had not had very good dates.

"That's the exact moment, when I decided I could not do it anymore, but I had no idea how to tell Stella,"

"Were you too scared of disappointing her to tell her that you would not be going on the next blind date as well? "Eve shook her head. 

"Actually, no. It's not that I was scared of disappointing her. It's more like I do not want her pitying me,"

"I think she feels bad that I now prefer spending most of my days alone, if I'm not hanging with her. And I think it would make her feel better if she knew that I also had a significant other just as she too has a boyfriend," Eve sighed. 

"To be honest I had every intention of going on the next blind date but she happened to drop the name prematurely, and I did a bit of research on the guy..."Eve tried to find ways to describe what she had found but there were none. So instead she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, tapping at it until the information that she wanted to show him popped up on the screen. 

"I stalked all of the guy's social media profiles. And here he is," She held out the phone and Eric took it, his eyes widening, mouth falling open as he took in the picture that she had shown him. 

"There are a lot of cats in these photos...so many cats,"

Eve nodded, fiddling with her earring for a bit before letting it go.

"It might have been an overreaction on my part but I could not bring myself to go on the date after seeing so many cats,"

Stella, bless her, had made a good choice when it came to her own partner. But Eve remembered very clearly that before she had gotten to him, her Prince Charming, Stella had kissed a lot of frogs. Eve was not about to kiss frogs sent her way by her best friend. So lying really was the only option. 

"So...,"Eric said once he'd handed back her phone, the word dragging for longer than necessary before he continued.

"It seems that the two of us really do need to go on this date together,"

"It seems so," Eve agreed, and she just knew that whatever the future held, it would not be boring. 

"Alright, how about we finish off planning the date. We need to..." Eric's words were cut off by Eve's phone ringing.

She pulled it out, and let out a sigh.

"Sorry, I have to take this. It's one of my best paying regular clients," After taking a moment to remind herself that Mrs Hurst was a good customer, when Eve answered, she did so in her most cheerful voice.

A few minutes later, when the call ended Eve gave Eric an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go, running your own business is a twenty-four hour gig," Eric seemed disappointed, but he nodded his understanding.

"Go, I get it, we will use our time apart to think on things, then meet up again and finalize everything," And that was the very unsatisfying end to their meeting.