Date 1: Breakfast

I woke up wondering how many dates I'd been on in Seattle. Too many. I got dressed but hardly cared what I was wearing. I waited until the last possible moment to leave, turned the ignition, my car started...and then it stopped. Great. I texted Mr. 99% about the situation. He was already waiting at the restaurant. Fantastic. I thought about cancelling altogether...but at the last moment, my engine revved up and I figured, "what's one more."

I got to Beth's Cafe in Greenlake a good half hour late...oops! But, there he was, still waiting. We started chatting....and there wasn't any of that 1st date awkwardness! He didn't ask me those standard 1st date questions, thankfully! We talked, and flirted, and bantered, and joked, and...the waiter came by to kick us out. There was a wait for our table.

"Well," I told him, "I was just going to walk around the lake..."

And so he joined. He wowed me with his stories of salsa dancing in Cuba, mesmerized me with tales of ballooning across beautiful landscapes. Who does those things?! Certainly no one I had dated up to that point! I was even shocked to find out that he had done a dating challenge of his own!

He began glancing at his watch, not-so-covertly. He had somewhere to be. "Another date to get to?" I wondered.* We said our goodbyes. He enthusiastically remarked that he had a lot of fun and would like to meet again later in the week. I casually agreed.

We parted ways. And once he was out of earshot, I immediately called my best friend. And maybe my sister. Maybe someone else too. Uh oh. Finally, a first date I had enjoyed!! I told them all about it! They all remarked that it was the first time that I had actually sounded excited about someone. They were right.

I nonchalantly gossiped for the duration of the stroll. Around the final curve, I glanced behind me and some woman smiled, obviously eavesdropping. I began getting a little paranoid...did she know this unique guy who I couldn't stop talking about?! If he ended up hearing about my excitement, it might ruin my game! So much for keeping it casual! I hung up the phone and decided to get Mr. 99% out of my head for a while. It was time to wait. He wouldn't have expressed his excitement if he didn't mean it, right?!

*Note: Indeed, I found out later that he was heading to another date. In all, he had 3 that day. Sounds oddly familiar...like something I may have done before...