I always loathed dating, despite the unquenchable desire to find the one, to find someone to perfect, that I connected so well with, that it would complete me.
Thats what lead me to the quiet bar, well almost quiet except for the low murmered conversations and the quiet bell rung every five minutes. The room smelled like roses but too sweet, the scent was emanating from candles rather than anything nature could create.
If I had to describe the men I sat across the table from, the best word I could come up with would have to be grey, not in terms of the clothes they wore, and not from their physical features, but rather their personalities and behaviour.
After just six so called speed dates, I could rattle off the answers to questions, before I even heard them, "Audrey... 25... Sydney... Nurse... no children", the hardest part being to make sure I paused and waited for them to finish asking the question before answering, and looking them in the eyes as if somehow this was fascinating.
Four dates later, it was the halfway mark, and we all got up to mingle and get drinks, I made eye contact with my friend Sarah who had dragged me there for the soul crushing experience of judging and being judged by strangers by everything you find out about them in five minutes. I stood aside from the crush of the crowd and considered finding an excuse to leave, but just when I was getting close to working up the nerve to sneak out I saw him, a man who I wouldn't describe as grey, not particularly handsome and older than I was really interested in, but at least he wasn't grey, admittedly it was a little pretentious that he was wearing sunglasses indoors at night, but at the same time the look worked for him. He wasn't wearing a suit, perhaps he wasn't even employed in a job that required him to sit in a cubicle from sun up to sundown, he skin seemed particularly pale, and he had chocolate brown hair pulled back tight, forming a curled ponytail that reached his shoulders.
I took a deep breath, and looked down into my drink to think, I wanted to know more, but how much could I really find out in the five minutes allocated, and could I really bear the nine others I would have to spend time with while along with him.
It was pure luck that when I sat down again, I found myself sitting across from him, with five minutes of conversation to look forward to, and hopefully something interesting. He held out his hand towards me, it wasn't quite a shake but rather a pressing together of palms. His hand was cold, very cold, a smoker perhaps, definitely a sign of poor circulation. He looked deep into my eyes, while removing his sunglasses revealing shocking crimson eyes, not the redness of the tired or hungover but red iris'. Between us the sickly sweet scented candle started to smell stronger as the flame started to grow and dance hypnotically. He leaned forwards at the table and said three words that would completely change my life. "Run beautiful, run".