By Rodney Robertsen
It was clear to me that Alyce just wasn’t that into me. I tried to give her a kiss in the theater, and she turned her face away from me, causing me to just peck her on the cheek, and then withdraw back to my seat, embarrassed and frustrated. It had been a horrible first date, awkward, stiff, with no middle or common ground emerging from our faltering words, and then when the movie started, she sat leaning the other way from me, on the far side of the seat. I was castigating myself for asking her out in the first place; she was a cute young lady that I had seen a few times at the local coffee shop, and earlier today, on what was until then a fine Saturday morning, I had bravely asked her to a movie. Alyce was a skinny blonde, all elbows and nipples, with freckles and an odd set in her brows, but overall cute, and I had had high hopes.
Hopes that were profoundly disappointed, I realized, as I pulled out of her driveway after dropping her off. I didn’t even try to kiss her good night. It was just a complete cluster fuck of a date.