Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 14086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 70(@200wpm)___ 56(@250wpm)___ 47(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 70(@200wpm)___ 56(@250wpm)___ 47(@300wpm)
“That I don’t always have to be technically perfect, and that it’s okay to loosen up a bit and have fun.”
“Right!” The song changed, and Pinky started dancing by himself. Dare tilted his head toward the dance floor and told me, “Now’s your chance.”
A moment later, the guy climbed onto one of the tables and started twerking, and I frowned and muttered, “He’s the very last thing I need.”
“So, pick someone else,” Skye said. “Since this is a singles event, everybody’s here to meet people, aside from your pit crew.” He grinned at Dare and leaned against him.
“I appreciate the fact that you’re both trying to help, and that you gave up your Saturday night to try to ease me back into the dating world. But now that we’re here, I just…I don’t know….”
Skye’s expression turned sympathetic. “It’s been over two years, Ricky. I know you were devastated by the way your last relationship ended, but don’t you think dating again might help put it behind you?”
I said, “I thought we were clear on what was supposed to happen with that subject.”
“We were never to speak of it again.”
“Right.” I pulled a raffle ticket from my shirt pocket and said, “Just to prove I’m not a hopeless case, I’m going to turn this in. I’ll even finish this concoction.” I raised the neon blue cocktail in a toast. We all clinked our glasses together and took a drink, and then I turned to Dare and asked, “But then, can we please be done? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I know these tickets were expensive, and I really appreciate the fact that you guys did this for me. But this is just….”
“Too much.”
“Exactly.”
“I knew as soon as we walked in that this was going to make you uncomfortable. Go turn in the ticket, and then let’s get out of here,” Dare said. I hurried away before he changed his mind.
The singles event was sponsored by a dating app called Heart2Heart, and it was a fundraiser for charity. Dozens of bars worldwide were hosting similar events, and each location featured a raffle with various events, activities, and excursions as the prizes. Two names would be drawn at random for each prize. Then both winners would show up at the designated time and place to enjoy loads of awkwardness with a whiff of stranger danger. Or a blind date. Same thing.
It seemed like a terrible idea on multiple levels, but some of the prizes were pretty sweet. There was a wine tasting trip to the Napa Valley, dinner and a night at the theater in San Francisco, and a sunset picnic on a sailboat in the Monterey Bay, among others. But they all involved being paired with someone totally random, and what were the chances that would go well?
Still though, my friends had spent a fair amount of money on my ticket, and I’d promised them I’d give it a shot. I assessed my choices carefully as I sipped my cocktail. Most of the dates lasted several hours, and a few were all-day events. If I actually won a prize and ended up with someone horrible, I really wouldn’t want to be stuck with them for a huge chunk of time. Hell, even if I ended up with someone nice, they probably wouldn’t like me anyway, so the shortest date possible was clearly the right call. At least we wouldn’t have to prolong our agony.
One of the prizes was a session in an escape room, and it was located right here in Oakland. The idea was that you and your companion got locked in together and had to find clues and solve puzzles to set yourselves free before the time ran out. I figured I was smart enough to barrel through it quickly, if and when my date and I proved to be less than compatible.
I dropped my ticket into the escape room’s sealed box and decided I’d given that way too much thought. There were probably three hundred people at the singles event and a total of fourteen dates. Statistically speaking, my odds of winning were slim, and that was fine with me. Even though I’d agreed to show up and participate, I really wasn’t ready to jump back into the dating pool. But now I could say I’d made an effort, and hopefully my friends would stop worrying about me, at least temporarily.
Before I left the prize display, curiosity compelled me to use my phone’s flashlight and peer through the slot at the top of each box. The more lavish dates, like the trip to Napa, had garnered dozens of raffle tickets. Even low-key outings, like dinner at a nice restaurant, had netted a fair amount of entries. I returned to the box for the escape room and looked inside.
There were exactly two tickets at the bottom of the otherwise empty container.