Blind Date

Have you ever been in a group of guys where everybody likes the same girl? Yeah. I've been in a few of those; it's no fun. And (of course) so has Z; in fact, my suspicions tell me he might be in one right now. His friends, with whom he drove to the outdoor concert, were less than supportive when Z was the only one invited to drive back with the jumper-cable chick (Grace). It's only to be expected that they give him a little friendly ribbing; your posse is always there to keep your feet on the ground, make sure you don't go over the moon for some girl, all that brotherly stuff. However, the role of a man's friends in a romantic relationship goes completely awry if one (or more) of them has a crush on the same chick. Instead of acting in the best interests of you and of the group, they begin to slide their own interests - including getting that girl single again - into the mix, sometimes with disasterous consequences.

Now, I don't know if that's what happened in Z's case; all I have is a mixed bag of facts, and I'm suggesting a motive based on the facts. As some of you may know, Z hasn't been hanging around with these guys for too long; some of his old friends are graduating, and he wants to expand his social circle, so he consciously decided to pursue friendships with these guys. When the mandatory period of good-natured ribbing about his dates with Grace began, he protested that they weren't "official" or "girlfriend/boyfriend" or "going steady" or whatever you want to call it; he maintained that he was still single, and bragged once that he could even go on a date with a different girl he was so free. That was his first mistake. Perhaps desiring to see Z and Grace break up, perhaps just pushing their friend to the limit, they jumped on this opportunity, and coerced him, in their very low-key, manly way, to live up to his boast. His second mistake was his line of defense, the standard "I don't know anybody else that I'd want to take out". His pals volunteered their matchmaking services, and there was no way out but to swallow his pride and eat crow, which would involve giving up a lot of machismo. Needless to say, that was his third mistake - he didn't. He stuck with his words, and was amused by the idea of a blind date, so he said he'd go to Olaf's Diner with whoever they came up with.

This is where Z's old set of friends comes in. His new buddies, though they had male-bonded with Z, didn't really know his life or his circle of friends. However, they did know one or two, and they talked to one of his female friends about the idea. She had her own ideas, and in all the best traditions of competitive romance, decided to turn the friends' plan and Z's brinksmanship on their heads all at the same time. A little scheming, a few whispered phone calls later, and she had the perfect match, she swore it. The guys swallowed the bait; hook, line, and sinker, and proceeded to tell the blind date candidate exactly when and where to meet Z. Then they proceeded to build it up to Z, who was in great suspense and highly entertained.

I've never done it, but I'm sure waiting for a blind date makes time pass slowly. She wasn't more than five minutes late, but Z had entered an extreme state of anticipation by the time his date showed up. Z couldn't have been more surprised; his date, known on this blog's comment pages as "L", was his sister. Seeing as Z hadn't had any great expectations out of the date, and he really didn't want to alienate Grace, after the initial shock he was quite pleased that his friends had made sure that his date was none other than his beloved sister, L. So the laugh is on the friends, who walked away from this one with their tails between their proverbial legs, much farther from seperating Z and Grace than they had thought they were before.