The Big Date:

Saturday 6:00 pm Kirsten's Dorm Room

'What the heck? Bacon in a meat loaf? ketchup? dry mustard? and brown sugar, since when did it have brown sugar in it? I thought it was just meat in a weird shape baked. How come they make cooking simple stuff so complicated?' Kirsten thought as she scanned the recipe for an individual meat loaf.

"So let's see, Take two pounds of hamburger, 1 cup of bread crumbs, 3/4 cup of ketchup, 1/2 cup of warm water,1 pkg. onion soup? and 1 pound of uncooked bacon" Linsaee read aloud the recipe, trying to make more sense of it.

"I didnt know it had all this stuff in it."

"Me neither. Okay so I got it all measured out. What do I do?"

"Oh! Umm...let's see. You mix it all and form into a round 1-inch high meat loaf. Then take a slice of bacon and wrap aorund the meat loaf; continue until all the hamburger mix is used"

"Okay...Linsaee, this meat doesn't smell fresh. What's the expiration date on it?"

"I just bought it a few weeks ago! Let me smell it" Linsaee took a big whiff of the meat. Then a disgusted look came on her face.

"Well?"

"That stuff is NASTY! We should go buy some more"

"Okay"

They went to the local Deli to get meat. While they were there, they ran into John. John is one of their dorm neighbors. He likes to talk. ALOT. So by the time, they got back to the room it was almost 7:15.

"Okay, so I got it all mixed up with the bacon around it. Now what?"

" 'mix 1/4 cup of ketchup, 1/4 teaspoon of dry mustard, 3 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg' "Linsaee read from the recipe book her grandmother gave her.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Kirsten, startled, looked at the clock 7:25. 'He's not supposed to be here for another half hour!'

"Relax, it's just Maddie. We're going out tonight. There's a poetry reading at the Firestorm Coffeehouse. It's open mic and Maddie is reading her new poem. Something called 'When you left me, I stomped on your heart and kicked it out the 3rd story window' We'll be back around midnight. Don't wait up!"

"So she's taking the breakup with Brad pretty hard then?"

Linsaee rolled her eyes and smirked.

"No. Not at ALL" Linsae said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she waved 'bye' and went out the door.

"Great. Now I'm on my own with this thing!" Kirsten said aloud to no one in particular.

'let's see, 'put on top of meatloaf and into a baking pan and place in 350 oven for45 minutes or until bacon is cooked and hamburger is no longer pink' How am I supposed to know when the bacon is cooked? I've never cooked before '

Kirsten put the pan in the oven and went to get dressed and put her makeup on. She chose a simple, blue, one-shoulder, ruffled hem, dress with silver 1-inch heels and hoops. She decided to curl her hair loosely and put it all in a half pony-tail.

Saturday 7:35 Sandy's Dorm Room

"Hey man. You almost done in there? You been in the bathroom for over an hour now! You're almost as bad as a girl!"

"Yeah, I'm almost done. Hold on a sec. I'm getting ready for my date with Kirsten. I want to look good"

"Well, hurry it up in there. Some of us need to use the bathroom too!" Sandy's roomates Greg and Pete were hassling him about his 'Big Date' with Kirsten. He was nervous, but he kept his cool. Somehow, he kept his cool. For this first date, he was keeping it simple with a grey suit-jacket, dark denim jeans, and his dress shoes. He thought about wearing a tie, but then decided against it. They probably wouldn't go out anyways. Just stay in, eating meat loaf, watching T.V. and maybe if he was REAL lucky they could...'No. Stop that thought Sandy. Take things slooooow'

He took a deep breath, gave one finaly look in the mirror, ran his fingers through his hair once more, and opened the bathroom door.

"Snazzy Sanzzy!" Greg wolf-whistled. Sandy hit him hard in the arm.

"Hey man, Just messing with ya. But, you do look pretty good. 'Course, you could never look as good as me. Is that my cologne you're wearing?"

"Yeah, just wanted to use it for the night. That okay?"

"Hey man, just so you know. I have ALOT of luck with the ladies when I wear that stuff. Gettin' lucky with the ladies, you know what I mean? Tell me if you two do anything...you know...crazy." Greg laughed. Sandy didn't.

"I'm going to take it slow with her. I really like her. I don't want to Jeopardize this relationship with her with sex"

"Whatever man. But, she IS foxy-looking,right?"

Sandy just gave a sly grin.

"Oh. You dog, you." Pete said, where he sat at the desk listening to the radio.

"Yeah, I know. Well, anyways I gotta get going."

"But you're not even supposed to be there till 8!"

"I know. I got a stop to make"

"Okay, We won't wait up for ya!"

"Glad to hear it. Bye!" Sandy went out the door.

"So, How long do you think this relationship will last?" Pete said to Greg.

"Wanna make another bet?"

"Heck yeah! I bet $30 it lasts for 1 month or less"

"Okay, I bet $40 it lasts at least 6 months. I have faith in him. Plus, his last relationship lasted 5 months."

"I didn't even consider that. I forgot all about Donna."

"Yeah, well, He didn't like to brag about her. He didn't want their relationship anymore public then she wanted that gym membership I offered her to lose the 200 pounds she had on her."

"Man, that was harsh. But anyways, can I change my bet to 8 and a half months?"

"Heck no! A bet's a bet. You can't change the stakes once you say them out loud. You know the rules."

"Damn it"

"Sorry"

"Hey, Three's Company is on. Oh, man. They're going old school with a repeat of the 1st season. I love this first episode. Jack has to pretend to be gay. Classic"

"That Suzanna Somers is one hot momma!"

"Nah, I like Joyce better. I like a girl with brains on her. And Janet has all that AND more."

Saturday 7:50 Hal's Flower and Chocolate Shop

"I'll take a dozen of those red roses, and two dozen of the pink roses. And that big box of chocolate right over there on tha back shelf. Right next to the pink stuffed poodle" Sandy rattled off his order to the salesman.

"Your total comes to $178.30"

"How much?"

"$178.30" The salesman repeated.

"I heard ya the first time. I was just hoping it would be $100 cheaper the second time. I'll take that medium bouquet in the window with all the roses and the small box of chocolates"

"Your total is now $80.70" the salesman said in a bored monotone voice.

"Here, keep the change. Thank you. If this date goes good, I'll come back and buy every damn flower in this store!"

"Oh yeah. I get to keep .30" the saleman said in a sarcastic voice. "but if you buy all the flowers, I'll be out of a job. Plus, all them together costs around $3,000. But, HEY. I'll be able to do early retirement. My lifelong dream. To be retired by the age of 45. But, for your sake,I hope your date goes good.That's how my 1st wife and I started out. Young, in love and poor. She was wonderful until she left me for a banker..." He went on like that for a while, remenescing about the past.

"That's great. I gotta go. We'll keep up this chat later on."

"Looking forward to it."

Outside the store, Sandy tried to find a cab to take him back to the dorm rooms. He waited 5 minutes and finally got one.

8:05 Kirsten's dorm

'He's late! He's not coming! What is taking him so long?'

Kirsten paced around the room. She decided to check on the meat loaf.It wasn't even close to being done.Thankfully, Linsaee also bought rice for a side dish. So when, Sandy came they could eat the rice, then the meatloaf.

8:10 The Cab

"What's wrong? What's taking us so long?"

"Traffic jam. Normal this time of day"

"Great. Anyway I can get to the University faster?"

"Subway"

"Okay, thanks." Sandy jumped out the door and started to run to the subway station.

"WAIT! you forgot your flowers! and my money!" Tha Cabbie yelled out his window.

"Sorry. Here's a twenty. And thanks"

"No prob. But you're ride only costed $9.75"

"Keep the change."

"Okay" The cabbie just shrugged and rolled his window back up.

Sandy took off running to the station that was 5 blocks behind him.

He finally made it. He got on the subway, and checked his watch 8:20.

'Shit. Kirsten's going to kill me'

Luckily after 3 minutes he arrived at his destination. He ran all the way to the 5th floor, where her room was.

8:25

knock knock

Kirsten opened the door to find a breathless Sandy clutching his stomache, about to collapse in exhaustion.

''Sandy! What happend? Where've you been! I was so scared you weren't coming!" Kirsten said while she got him a glass of water. Sandy told her the whole story. By the end of the story, Kirsten was laughing.

"It's not funny! It was horrible. I didn't mean to be so late. I feel so bad. I'm sorry"

"No, it's okay. I forgive you. Just...you gave the cabbie $20 for a $9.75 ride?"

"Yeah. I didn't care about the money. All I cared bout was getting here as soon as I could"

"Well, that's very sweet." Kirsten said giving him a hug. Sandy leaned in and before she could stop herself or think about what she was doing, her lips met his. It was a nice, slow, sweet, kiss. And painfully short for both of them. Sandy broke apart from the kiss first.

"What's that awful smell?" Kirsten thought he was talking about her new perfume and was offended. Until she smelled the air and realized what it was.

"Oh my gawd! the meatloaf! I completely forgot about it!" Kirsten said, running to the oven and getting the pan out.

"It's ruined! Oh Sandy! I'm so sorry!" Kirsten said, staring at the smokey, blackened, burnt mess that was once a meatloaf.

"Hey, It's all right. We'll just go out to eat. To a nice cheap restauraunt. Hope you have some money, I seemed to have given most of mine to the flower guy and cabbie."

"We'll go to this nice place Linsaee was telling me about the other day."

"Okay. Where is it?"

"I don't know. It's called The Blue Lagoon. It's a bar and grill"

"I know what it is." Sandy had a dreadful tone to his voice.

"Really? Okay well, let's go there! She said it was a nice place"

"She did, did she? Well, I'll just have to thank her later." Sandy said, silently cursing Linsaee for talking about The Blue Lagoon to Kirsten. He didn't want their first date to be at a place where he works weekends...singing show tunes. 'Oh boy. here we go.' Sandy thought as they walked out the building to the subway station.

okay sorry, im breaking up the date into two chapters. there's more coming. i just have to write it. hope ya'll enjoy reading this so far. the meat loaf recipe came from my mom's family cookbook. yes its a real recipe and pretty good. if u want it, i'll give you the whole recipe. :)