A/N: I should mention that this story is WIP. Currently I am up to chapter 4 but post already so I get a head start to Valentine's Day. Not that this will be anywhere close to being finished at Valentine's but at least I tried, right? Also, I should mention that I did very little deep research on this and obviously what is about to come in the later chapters is probably the furthest from the truth. I however did a little bit of research. Also, I use a few stereotypes here and there. Sue me :) I'm only on chapter four and not a whole lot has happened so far, but I just give a general disclaimer that this might be fast-moving and fast-paced at a certain level...

Let it be known that whenever it came to men, relationships, or potential relationships, my ability to make reasonable decisions was slightly... impaired. Always had been and most likely always would be.

Why am I sharing this, you might ask? Well...

Being a single woman, in your late twenties, and looking for love was quite a challenge these days. After the usual options that included friends of friends or family of friends of family, one sooner or later ended up at parties and clubs and if that didn't work out, it was on to the world wide web. I hate admitting it, but if you ever need advice on preferred sites or apps in regard to dating, I can give you a few pointers - because I have tried them all. And also seemed to have failed them all.

It seemed no matter the site or app and no matter how serious they claimed to be, somehow, they all presented you with the same guys over and over again. But I tried nevertheless. Not because I was desperately trying to find a husband or partner, but because deep down I was a hopeless romantic who figured there was someone out there for everyone. At least, I hoped there was. Because, judging from all the dates I had been on - regardless of whether they were arranged online or through friends and family - I wondered whether I was cut out for this.

Don't get me wrong, I had been on some really nice and decent dates, but most often it was the company that was the issue. I wasn't picky and didn't require a whole lot, but was often left with a simmering feeling of something missing. And as nice and decent as some dates were, there also had been plenty more that were a nightmare and just pretty much a waste of time.

There had been the usual, awkward dates where you just didn't click and had nothing to talk about except for maybe small talk. There also had been dates where the guy had a little too much to talk about and quickly entered territory that could be considered a little too much for a first date. And then there had of course been the ones where the profile pictures of my dates had been more of an approximation than reality, not to mention the ones where the guy was stating he looked for long-lasting love but ended up being more interested in a hookup or an affair.

I'd say in the past year I had been on about thirty dates, none of them really successful or getting me anywhere close to finding a potential match. The few dates that went well were followed by a second one, but very rarely by a third. While the first dates seemed to follow the general idea of dinner and maybe a movie, the second dates were all over the place. There had been art exhibitions or the theater, some were coffee dates and one even wanted to make it a day at Coney Island. It had been a fun date, but Coney Island showed me facets of my date that left me a little confused and irritated. Like his lengthy debate with vendors about gluten-free, dairy free, sugar free food. Don't get me wrong, when you are allergic to any of them and couldn't eat most things, that sucked, but as I understood he wasn't allergic, he was just 'special'.

Maybe it was my naïvety, the fact that I had seen a whole lot of different second dates or a combinaïvetyion of a whole lot of factors, but at one point or another I agreed to a second date with Arthur for a weekend in the woods. More precisely, I agreed to a Survival Weekend. And wasn't that how a horror movie started with the woman ending up dead within the first ten minutes of the movie?

"It will be fun. Back to naïvetyure, getting in touch with our inner caveman and limiting ourselves to the basics of life," he explained, and I wasn't entirely certain whether he had grasped the whole concept and meaning of a Survival Weekend. Not that I was an expert on this, but my Google search didn't produce a cavemen-aspect. And maybe I should have done such a search before I agreed and he went ahead and booked us the Valentine's Special. Somehow, I figured it wouldn't include chocolates, red and pink hearts, as well as a romantic meal. Not if the pictures of usual weekends of such variety were any indication.

Also, him declaring this as fun should maybe have been my first warning sign that we were not meant to be in the long run. But as mentioned before, my ability to make reasonable and sound decisions whenever it came to men and relationships was impaired.

I had never heard of anyone going on a second date that unusual, but I guess there was a first time for everything. Even for us city girls that didn't need to get in touch with mother naïvetyure. I liked my bed and my burgers at nice and cozy dinners, my car and the fact that a place was warm when I wanted it to be warm. I wasn't really into the whole 'work for your comforts'-aspect of this, but who knew, maybe I'd learn a whole bunch of useful things.

Something that could have been useful right from the start would be to have details on… well, on anything really. As it turns out. Arthur liked to keep things mysterious and was very dodgy about the details of what I needed to actually know. Like, what was I required to bring? What clothes would be beneficial other than the obvious things that were out of the picture?

It wasn't like I needed all the details, like the place or even the company this was booked with, but at least some information to go by and get a rough idea about any of this. Other than 'back to naïvetyure'. But Arthur didn't really budge. He was giving me probably the absolute bare necessities in regards to information and told me that the rest was a surprise. That statement made me wonder, because… it wasn't like I didn't have a clue about what was the endgame. I knew what we were doing and what this weekend in general included. I just wanted to know the where's and how's. Was that so much to ask? Apparently it was.

So, I did what every self-respecting – and also curious – woman would do and googled the shit out of survival camps, but got confused very quickly when my search came up with several suggestions about what to pack. I obviously got that high heels were not on any of the lists and that the clothes should be more practical and also warming. Thermal maybe? Googling the weather in Jersey woods – since I figured that was where we were heading – I was also left with a slightly varied temperature scale, depending on the woods. Some were higher up, some were not, some seemed more secluded also in regards to weather, and others seemed to offer all four seasons over the span of a day. So, that didn't really help me unless I actually knew where we were heading.

Since Arthur was as unwilling to dish out information, I went with a general – and small – list of items I thought I might need. I got myself some new boots, a few decent fleece jackets and general, practical and butt-ugly underwear that was exclaiming to be thermal. Oh, and I bought a tent as well as a sleeping bag. Since the sleeping arrangements were unknown to me and I wasn't feeling like sharing a whole lot of space with someone I barely knew a day, this seemed like the best option.

All in all, my shopping trip set me back a few hundred bucks and the longer I thought about it, the more insane this seemed. Who did this? Going sort of camping on the second date? With someone they barely knew? Let alone the fact that I spent that much money, for a date? A date I didn't even know was worth the hype, because as mentioned before, I was really not the outdoorsy type of girl.

But what was done was done and all I could do was try to look forward to the weekend. Maybe it would be fun and exciting and a lot better than what I assumed?