Fear Of Dating Again

Flickers of roused interest connected their gaze.  It was their first date and because of the pandemic, they were both a bit rusty, even though they were both looking forward to a return to normal life, it wasn’t going to be easy for them to get over their fear of dating again FODA.  Bob was divorced and Carol was a widow, and they were both looking for a long-term connection with the possibility of marriage, if everything went right.  Bob said that he had been home solo for so long that he was excited about getting back into the whole dating thing.  Carol stated that she was interested in getting to know someone romantically again, but allowing herself to be venerable with a new person was going to be very stressful for her.

Bob said that looking for love while trying to stay six feet apart from everyone during the pandemic is nearly impossible.  Carol said that since they both went through the same ordeals in the pandemic, that this made a special connection for them, and all of this isolation has made her more eager to find a partner.  They both insisted that they wanted to take the time to get to know each other, before jumping in at the deep end.  They knew each other’s vaccine status and they had discussed travel, hobbies and other interests in emails and online chatting, but having an actual date would be the only way that they could really get to know each other.  Carol went to the gym to work out 4 days a week and she also played tennis and pickleball, while Bob only played sports that allowed him to drink beer, like throwing darts, shooting pool, going bowling or playing golf.

They took separate cars to the restaurant and met in the lobby at the arraigned time.  The hostess showed them to their table, and they sat down and ordered drinks while looking over the menus.  Carol decided on the chicken parmesan and Bob said that he was going to order the ribeye with a baked potato.  They sipped their drinks while listening to the background music that was playing, which seemed to put both of them at ease, while they waited for their waitress to come back and take their order.  Bob said this is ‘Creeque Alley’ by The Mamas & the Papas and it is one of my favorite tunes.  Carol said that she remembered dancing to this song when she was a teenager.  That was followed by the Jefferson Airplane song ‘Somebody to Love’ and then The Turtles song ‘Happy Together’ played.  When their waitress Carrie Anne came back, they both complimented her on the great music that they were enjoying and she told them that tonight they were only playing songs from 1967, the Summer of Love.  Another song came on and the waitress said that she was named after this one.

Written for Michelle of Putting My Feet in the Dirt Weekly Story Starters challenge.