Pair-aDate
Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 8:30 pm
This is a continuation of the older short story, Horse Sense".
Dusty nursed his Wheat IPA as he waited at the bar. Dressed in what he termed "semi-casual" – a sport coat over a polo shirt and dress slacks – he scanned the bar again for what seemed the millionth time since he arrived at the place.
The brew pub, known as the Main Street Brewery, had opened to rave reviews a few months earlier on the north side of the Mississippi, opposite the Saint Anthony Falls. Its popularity had waned a bit in recent days, but the place was still packed as it was a Friday night.
Granted, it wasn't the "meat market" that the Cerberus Club was, but it was also a relatively safe place to meet for an online date. It'd been Aunt Marge's suggestion to use that new paranormal dating app, Pair-aDate, to get back into the dating pool.
He considered for a moment. It'd been three years since that little incident with the head of MIB. That was the mother of all nightmare dates. He'd been put off of dating since. Of course, having to work on finishing his degree and going through the academy had helped taken his mind off of things.
Now, though, it was his first significant time off since working for the Wisconsin DOC at Lincoln Hills. And he really didn't want to spend it holed up in his apartment, burning through his Netflix queue again.
He considered his watch again. She'd been the only one to agree to a date, after swiping through hundreds of entries. Since she was from the Twin Cities area, she had suggested this place – mostly as a "get to know you" manner in a non-para setting. The idea had suited him, and they'd agreed to meet here at 6 for dinner and drinks.
That was a half-hour ago.
He was about to consider his options when he saw the main door to the pub open. A couple of people came in – none matching the photo he had of the girl from the profile.
He sighed, downing the last of his drink, and turned to hand off a twenty to the bartender. No need to keep a tab when you're not sticking around, he thought.
Dusty braced himself against the chill of the early March weather in Minneapolis as he considered his options. He could hoof it on over to the Cerberus Club, but that would mean the possibility of running into Brandi again. Rumor had it that she was dating someone now, but he wasn't about to chance it.
The T-wolves were in Memphis, so taking in a game was off the list. The Wild were out of town, too – Nashville, if the crawl he'd seen on the TV in the bar was correct. The movies at the Mill City Theatre, just down the block, were all ones he had no interest in paying to watch.
He crossed over at the corner of 3rd and Main, figuring he'd just take the portal in the St. Anthony's Falls park and head back home. Not like it was the first time he'd been stood up on a date.
Just before he took the stairs to descend down to the Falls from street level, he heard the rumble of a car engine. A blue and white Mustang GT was navigating the narrow street, trying to avoid others who were milling about near the Saint Anthony shops.
Dusty thought nothing of it at first. He'd seen plenty of guys who gunned the motor on their "compensation machines" as they tried to pretend it was high school all over again. Hell, he'd been guilty of it in the past, too. How many times he'd "scooped the loop" in Chippewa Falls? And, when that got too boring, he'd done it down in Eau Claire, too.
He was about to take the steps down behind the power station when he caught a glimpse of the license plate on the Mustang: WNG WMN. Normally, this wouldn't have made him bat an eye. However, the screen name of the woman he'd contacted on Pair-aDate… was "WingWoman."
Dusty nursed his Wheat IPA as he waited at the bar. Dressed in what he termed "semi-casual" – a sport coat over a polo shirt and dress slacks – he scanned the bar again for what seemed the millionth time since he arrived at the place.
The brew pub, known as the Main Street Brewery, had opened to rave reviews a few months earlier on the north side of the Mississippi, opposite the Saint Anthony Falls. Its popularity had waned a bit in recent days, but the place was still packed as it was a Friday night.
Granted, it wasn't the "meat market" that the Cerberus Club was, but it was also a relatively safe place to meet for an online date. It'd been Aunt Marge's suggestion to use that new paranormal dating app, Pair-aDate, to get back into the dating pool.
He considered for a moment. It'd been three years since that little incident with the head of MIB. That was the mother of all nightmare dates. He'd been put off of dating since. Of course, having to work on finishing his degree and going through the academy had helped taken his mind off of things.
Now, though, it was his first significant time off since working for the Wisconsin DOC at Lincoln Hills. And he really didn't want to spend it holed up in his apartment, burning through his Netflix queue again.
He considered his watch again. She'd been the only one to agree to a date, after swiping through hundreds of entries. Since she was from the Twin Cities area, she had suggested this place – mostly as a "get to know you" manner in a non-para setting. The idea had suited him, and they'd agreed to meet here at 6 for dinner and drinks.
That was a half-hour ago.
He was about to consider his options when he saw the main door to the pub open. A couple of people came in – none matching the photo he had of the girl from the profile.
He sighed, downing the last of his drink, and turned to hand off a twenty to the bartender. No need to keep a tab when you're not sticking around, he thought.
Dusty braced himself against the chill of the early March weather in Minneapolis as he considered his options. He could hoof it on over to the Cerberus Club, but that would mean the possibility of running into Brandi again. Rumor had it that she was dating someone now, but he wasn't about to chance it.
The T-wolves were in Memphis, so taking in a game was off the list. The Wild were out of town, too – Nashville, if the crawl he'd seen on the TV in the bar was correct. The movies at the Mill City Theatre, just down the block, were all ones he had no interest in paying to watch.
He crossed over at the corner of 3rd and Main, figuring he'd just take the portal in the St. Anthony's Falls park and head back home. Not like it was the first time he'd been stood up on a date.
Just before he took the stairs to descend down to the Falls from street level, he heard the rumble of a car engine. A blue and white Mustang GT was navigating the narrow street, trying to avoid others who were milling about near the Saint Anthony shops.
Dusty thought nothing of it at first. He'd seen plenty of guys who gunned the motor on their "compensation machines" as they tried to pretend it was high school all over again. Hell, he'd been guilty of it in the past, too. How many times he'd "scooped the loop" in Chippewa Falls? And, when that got too boring, he'd done it down in Eau Claire, too.
He was about to take the steps down behind the power station when he caught a glimpse of the license plate on the Mustang: WNG WMN. Normally, this wouldn't have made him bat an eye. However, the screen name of the woman he'd contacted on Pair-aDate… was "WingWoman."