DAY ELEVEN: April and Jackson are both on terrible dates with other people in the same restaurant, but they end up together.
"Scotch." He orders, slipping down onto a stool at the bar, "Neat."
Jackson turns around to face the other people in the restaurant as he waits for his drink.
The happy elderly couples are eating dinner in silence. There's a couple sat by the window who look like they're on the brink of a divorce.
And then he remembers his date. What a failure that was.
She was boring, uninteresting, kind of depressed and probably a lonely cat lady. He's not sure what Alex was thinking when he set them up. Hell, it was probably just a joke the paediatric surgeon was playing on him.
"Can I have some water, please?"
His head whips around at the sound of a woman's sweet voice beside him.
She slides her small hands across the counter, taps the surface while he shifts his gaze to her face.
"Hi."
The woman, slightly shorter than he is from what he can tell, turns to look at him, brushing a strand of fallen red hair behind her ear.
She smiles back at him, almost timidly, and keeps her eyes focused on his own. "Hi."
"I'm Jackson." He extends a hand, watches as she cautiously shakes it. "I won't bite."
She laughs quietly, plucks her glass of water up from the bar, "I didn't think I would, I just- I'm on a date."
"Oh, that's cool. I am, too." He nods his head over to a table in the middle of the restaurant where a blonde woman is sat typing away on her phone.
The redhead frowns, "Then why are you all the way over here?"
"I'm taking a break."
"Ah." She nods once, twice, "Well, I should really get back to my date, so-"
Truth be told, her date isn't going so well. The guy is completely up his own ass and never stops talking about himself and his ex-girlfriend.
"Well, I'll be over here." Jackson tells her, swirling around his scotch and eyeing the liquid.
She smiles, keeps walking back over to her table.
Truth be told, she's too nice to give up on her date.
On her way back from the bathroom, she spots the guy from the bar sat at his table, furiously cutting his piece of steak while his date rambles on about something.
The blonde keeps waving her hands around and Jackson seems most displeased, mocking disbelief and faking a surprised gasp. He rolls his eyes when he glances back down at his food, and the redhead giggles from her spot a few tables away as she sits down.
Her own date is busy on a phone call, which is the main reason she'd excused herself for a minute while she used the restroom. She didn't even need to pee, she just needed to get away from him before she ended up smashing a plate over his head and shouting a loud 'Shut up!'.
She gives up trying to catch the guy's attention after a few moment,s and instead chooses to glance around the room.
The elderly couples by the window warm her heart and she smiles; she'd love something like that one day. She's a hopeless romantic, after all.
Her eyes fall on Jackson then, noticing the way he'd clearly already been staring at her.
She blushes softly, pushes a strand of hair behind her ear again.
He lifts his hand from his table slightly and points a finger towards the bar with a suggestive look, brows raised and a small grin covering his lips.
The redhead agrees, nods with a bite of her bottom lip. She excuses herself to her date again, though he obviously isn't listening and she groans, tempted to throw her glass of wine in his face. She picks up her glass to take with her as she approaches the bar.
"Hello, again." Jackson greets her, holding out his glass for her to clink.
She giggles, taps her red wine against his scotch. "Hello."
"Can I get your name now?"
"I'm April."
"Nice to meet you again, April. Tell me, how's your date going?" He sits down on a stool, and she sits alongside him, crossing her legs and creasing the material of her short black dress over her thighs.
"It could be going better." She admits with a sigh.
He nods, green eyes lighting up, "Join me for dinner?"
"What about-"
"Excuse me, sir?" He pulls up an employee beside them, slipping the man a generous wad of cash beneath his hand shake.
The young man grins, holds up two menus and extends an arm towards a secluded part of the restaurant. "Table for two?"
"Yes."