Yasuhara moved his head from side to side. It was stiff from a day sitting at his desk staring at his computer in the same fashion for hours on end.
It had been worth it though.
He had finished all of his paperwork and had sent off the final reports for every case he had been working on. He could start next week with a fresh new case and nothing looming over him.
Oh, and his boss had promised him a bonus if he finished everything before the end of the week. That always helped. Not to mention his boss was starting to trust him more with cases.
He caught the eye of the bartender and pointed to his drink. The bartender nodded and grabbed a bottle of whiskey to refill his glass. Yasuhara slapped a fiver on the bar.
"Keep the change."
The bartender picked up the note, smiled and moved onto their next customer.
Yasuhara sipped at the whiskey. He pulled his glasses from his face and rubbed his eyes. He would go home after this drink.
"Um, excuse me?"
Yasuhara pushed his glasses back on his face and looked around to see a highly attractive man looking nervously at him.
"Are you my blind date?"
"Uh…" Yasuhara failed to form coherent words.
"You match the description I was given, but I wasn't given a name."
Yasuhara shook his head.
"I'm sorry, I'm not your date." He forced a quick smile. "Good luck though."
"Oh, sorry for interrupting you then. Have a nice night," the man returned Yasuhara's smile and walked away.
Yasuhara watched him go and sit at a table on the other side of the bar. The poor man's cheeks had flared scarlet.
Yasuhara wasn't sure why the man was so nervous. Heck if he'd been set up with a guy that looked like that and was evidently polite…
He sipped at his whiskey again.
He tried not to look, he really tried not to look, but the date-less man was too tempting. Yasuhara glanced at him.
He was checking his phone. Yasuhara checked his own, it was just gone 8 PM. A reasonable time to be meeting for a date. Perhaps a little late for a blind date in Yasuhara's opinion. But only because it was getting dark. Meeting strangers in the daylight hours seemed a little safer.
Not that Yasuhara had been on a date in a long time.
Damn. How long had it been? Maybe two years? Definitely not since he had started working. He had been too focused on establishing himself as a decent lawyer.
Damn. It must have been when he had been at university. That was a long time.
He groaned and sipped at his whiskey again. Maybe he should get back into the dating scene. What dating apps did the young people use any more?
Despite being only 25 years old, he felt old and out of touch. He spent far too much time in the office. When had his life gotten so out of balance? Was it out of balance? He enjoyed his job… And he still went to the gym, that counted as a hobby, right?
He sipped at his whiskey. There was not much left.
He glanced at the date-less man, who appeared more agitated than before. He was bouncing one of his legs and looking from the door to his phone and back again.
Maybe he'd been stood up.
Yasuhara glanced around the rest of the bar, trying to spot someone else that matched his description. There were two or three Caucasian males chatting and drink beer together. None of them looked like they were waiting for a date and only one of them had dark hair. How specific had this guy's description been? Did they specify Asian? Or even Japanese descent?
Yasuhara kept looking.
There was an Asian man talking to a blonde woman at the other end of the bar, but they looked like they were on their own date. He continued his search.
To no avail.
He was the only lone man, apart from the dateless man.
A thought struck Yasuhara. Perhaps whoever had set the dateless man up had given him the wrong description. If he looked at it objectively, the dateless man could potentially match a description of himself.
They were both tall, thin, dark-haired and asian. The only differences were that Yasuhara wore glasses and the dateless man was about a hundred times prettier.
He had very pretty eyes, for example.
Not that Yasuhara had noticed this. Of course not. He was drinking his whis—
He had run out of whiskey.
Yasuhara pouted at his glass and pushed it away. Two was enough. He should go home.
He stood up and stretched, then grabbed his jacket and pulled it on. After checking his pockets for his phone, keys and wallet, Yasuhara gave one final glance to the dateless man.
But he had gone.
Yasuhara looked about, but could not see him. Maybe he gave up. He sighed and started towards the exit. He passed the bouncers on the outside and turned left to begin the walk home.
"Oi!"
He ignored it, not expecting anyone to be after him.
"Oi!" the voice shouted louder this time.
Someone grabbed Yasuhara's arm and swung around to face him.
"Why did you lie to me?"
It was the dateless man. Yasuhara thought that he was trying his best to sound angry.
"I didn't?" Yasuhara said. "Can you let go of my arm?"
The man released Yasuhara as if he had burnt him.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have." He shook his head, annoyed at himself. "Look, just admit you were my blind date. It's fine. I won't be angry. I just don't want to sit around here all night for—"
"Look, mate, I really wish I was your date. Seriously. I do. But I'm not. I just came for a drink after a stressful week at work. Alright?"
The dateless man did not look convinced.
"You're the only person in that bar that this description matches," he said with a pout. He pulled out a scrap of paper and showed it to Yasuhara.
Tall, skinny, dark haired and Japanese with a goofy smile.
"You think I have a goofy smile?" Yasuhara asked.
"Well, no, but only because you haven't smiled properly."
"Have you considered that this description also matches you? I think it's possible that whoever set you up gave you and your date the wrong bits of paper…"
The dateless man's mouth formed a little 'o'.
"Also, if you were my blind date and I turned you down, do you really think I would have hung about?" Yasuhara continued.
"You might've wanted to finish your whiskey," the man countered.
"I could have downed it."
"Unless it was sipping whiskey."
"Perhaps," Yasuhara relented, with a real smile this time.
The dateless man deflated.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I've made a right prat of myself, haven't I?"
"A little," Yasuhara agreed.
"I've just been so stressed about this whole thing. I've been working night shifts for so long I haven't dated in forever and last time was before I was out and… Sorry."
Yasuhara chuckled.
"I've been out of the game for a while too," Yasuhara said. "I understand. It's stressful."
"I shouldn't have grabbed you like that. I wasn't thinking."
"No, I could try and sue you for assault. I am a lawyer, after all." The dateless man's face whitened. Yasuhara laughed. "I'm not going to, don't worry. Look, we're kind of standing here like weirdos, but I'm open to going and getting a drink if you want? To make up for your failed date."
"Here?" the man pointed back to the bar Yasuhara had just left with alarm.
"Perhaps not."
"Yeah, I guess I've made enough of a fool of myself here."
Yasuhara held his hand out.
"Yasuhara, it's nice to meet you."
"Gene," the man said, taking the hand and shaking it. "Do you know anywhere nice around here?"
"Yeah, this way."
Yasuhara smiled at his now-date and led the way.
Author's note: I have twenty million other things to be writing but this came out so oh well. Enjoy :)