Eddie felt on top of her game with her hair down in soft waves and makeup dramatically perfect, rocking a clingy outfit to accentuate her "assets." She was confident she was going to make a lasting impression for her second date with Jason. Maybe her streak of dating shallow, immature men was about to end. At least Jason was cool with her being a cop. And he was somewhat decent looking.
She spotted him at the bar, already half way through his first drink. "Hey!" she yelled when she was within hearing distance. She didn't miss the journey his eyes took as he looked her up and down in appreciation, the act of which sent an excited shiver down her spine. The night seemed promising.
"Hey! You look nice!" he stood from the stool and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Let's get a table and order some food."
"Sounds good to me, I'm starving!"
Looking over the menu, Eddie suddenly had the urge to order practically everything on it. When the waitress came, she ordered fried cheese sticks for an appetizer, the biggest burger they had, an order of fries, chicken wings, a chocolate malt, and a beer.
"Wow, I guess you are hungry," Jason said after placing his order and the waitress walked away.
"You're not going to make fun of me eating all of that like Jamie does, are you?"
Jason inwardly cringed at hearing the name Jamie. On their last date, Eddie could not stop talking about that guy. He had lost count of the number of times she had dropped that name into every topic of conversation. He thought he'd give it another go with Eddie because she did fascinate him with her cop lifestyle, and she was beautiful, but if this date was going to be the same as the first, he didn't think he could spend another minute with her.
"Jamie? Your partner?"
"Yeah, my partner, remember? I told you about him before."
"Oh, yeah. Right," Jason played dumb.
"He makes fun of my eating habits all the time. I think he wonders where I put it all. Not my fault that I have the metabolism of a D1 football playing frat boy."
"Well, I would think chasing perps all day probably has something to do with it, being a kick-ass cop and all."
"I know, right? All in a day's work! How about you? How was your day?"
"Probably not as exciting as yours! Helping people get a low-interest mortgage isn't exactly saving the world, like you do on the streets every day."
"I wouldn't say that. I think there are heroes in any profession. There are many ways to help people. I'm sure your clients appreciate how much money you're saving them in the long run."
"I guess. Sometimes I think maybe I'm in the wrong profession, though. I'm kind of bored with it."
"Well, I knew I was supposed to be a cop. There's a difference between right and wrong, and I wanted to enforce what's right. To make things right. And I knew I could be good at it. You have to have a passion for what you do. Maybe you just haven't found it yet?"
"You're probably right," Jason agreed. "I spent all that time and money getting my finance degree, and now I feel like I need to stick it out to make that all worth it."
"Sometimes it's worth taking the risk going with a Plan B. Jamie originally went to Harvard to be a lawyer. Spent all that money on an Ivy League education. Passed the Bar and everything. But when it finally came to accepting a high-paying job at a prestigious law firm, it just didn't seem right. Because of his family name and in honor of his brother that died in the line of duty, he just felt that calling to become a cop. So he dropped the whole lawyer thing and joined the Academy. Much to the dismay of his fiancé at the time who ending up dumping him for that decision. She wanted to be married to a lawyer, not a cop."
"Wow…that's…" Jason stammered, not sure why she was telling him all this.
"I know, can you believe that! So superficial! And it just doesn't make sense she'd do that because Jamie is the best cop out there, hands down."
Jason was glad when the food arrived at the table. It was a good time to change the topic of conversation.
"So what do you want to do after this?" Jason asked. "I thought maybe we could go see a movie."
Eddie took the bun off her hamburger and made a face. "Dang it. I forgot to say no tomato." Wordlessly, she plucked the disgusting topping off her burger and plopped it right onto Jason's plate.
"What'd you do that for?"
"I don't like tomato. You can have it."
"No thank you," Jason answered. "It doesn't go with what I'm eating."
Eddie realized then what Jason had ordered. "Oh. Sorry, my bad! Habit, I guess. It's just that I always give my tomato to Jamie. He loves them." Eddie took the tomato back and rested it on the side of her plate.
Jason just nodded. "So…movie?"
"Yeah! Sure! What kind of movies do you like?"
"Well, I like Sci Fi. I just saw Star Wars. I like superhero movies, and I'll even watch a good Horror story now and then."
Eddie narrowed her eyes. "You don't like Jaws, do you?"
"Jaws? As in, the shark?"
"Yeah, that would be the one."
"It's okay, I guess. Why? Do you like it?" Jason smiled in relief as he thought the conversation was finally floating to something of interest that only the two of them shared, and not something having to do with Jamie.
Eddie started to laugh. "Oh my God! I have to ask you a question. Don't you think that movie would have been better with a computer generated shark rather that that stupid fake shark model thingy they used?"
Jason chuckled. "Well, yeah, of course! Too bad they didn't have that technology back then."
"Ha! I knew I was right! Jamie thinks that movie is a classic the way it is and I'm not allowed to say anything bad about it. In fact, he told me 'Not another word, or you're out of the car!'"
While Eddie continued to laugh, Jason's smile faded. Jamie. There it was again.
"So what kind of movies do you like?" Jason asked.
"It doesn't matter, really. I'll watch pretty much anything. You probably wouldn't like my guilty pleasure, though."
Jason's interest was piqued. "Oh yeah? What's that?"
"Well, I own the whole collection of Disney princess movies. The Little Mermaid is my favorite!"
Jason blinked and stared back at Eddie. "O…..Kay…" he slowly drawled.
Eddie giggled. "I know, it's silly, huh? I can't believe I just told you that! Jamie's the only other person who knows, and I didn't even really want him to know, but it just kind of slipped out one day."
As they finished eating, Jason's phone began to ring. "Oh, sorry Eddie. I have to take this." He excused himself from the table and walked back into the hallway near the restrooms.
"Hey Jason, how's the date going? You need a rescue, buddy?"
"Please tell me you're out front."
"I am. What happened?"
"Jamie. Jamie happened."
"Huh?"
"Nevermind. Look, I'll be out in a minute."
Jason hung up and returned to the table. "Eddie, I'm so sorry to cut this short, but I have a family emergency."
"Oh…" Eddie's cop senses kicked in. She could spot a liar from a mile away. "I hope everything's okay?"
"Um…yeah. Yeah. Look, maybe I'll call you tomorrow or something?"
Eddie's heart dropped. She knew the lingo all too well.
"Sure! Yeah!" she answered a bit too enthusiastically.
"You're okay to get home?" he politely asked while paying for the bill.
"I'll be fine."
"Ok. I'll see you later."
"Yup. Later."
Eddie downed the last of her beer. She realized she was going to need something stronger. What went wrong on this one that he cut it short? He had wanted a second date. He complemented her looks, they talked about professions and movies, and she thought she was being cute and funny talking about Jaws and Disney movies. What's not to like?
Five days later she FINALLY got a text from Jason.
Just wanted to let you know I won't be calling you, but you probably already figured that out. I'm not the one for you, Eddie. Sounds like Jamie is. You talk about him all the time. I don't even think you're aware of it, so I'm giving you a heads up that it's a turn off. Good luck to you.
Eddie huffed in disbelief as she threw her phone back on the table. Ridiculous. She didn't talk about Jamie that much, did she? Looking back on that night, she replayed the conversations in her head. The realization hit. Damn. She'd have to work on that. Or not. Maybe it was time to take a break from dating.