“Say your name again. I’m sorry. I—it’s just there’s been a lot of women tonight and it’s loud and—I’m sorry.”
“Oh don’t worry about it. I’m Melissa. Melissa like…well, I’m not actually sure. But Melissa.”
“Melissa, you have a wonderful smile. You know that?”
“Okay, cowboy. Let’s calm down. You can get any notions of ‘us’, ‘lucky’, and ‘tonight’ out of your head right now.”
“Hey, how’d you know I’m a cowboy?”
“Are you actually? You look very, well, let’s just say smooth…especially for living in this Podunk town.”
“No, I’m not a cowboy. The boots always hurt my feet, so I decided to get a city job instead.”
“And what do you do?”
“I’m an astrophysicist at the college.”
“I’m a Libra.… Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what? Oh, I’m just trying to, uhh—you don’t seem like a Libra to me. I’m—I’m a Scorpio.”
“Yeah, I’m very peaceful, I don’t believe in absolutes, and my friends say my backbone is like a jellyfish’s. Kinda rude to say, but they have a point I think.”
“So what do you do?”
“Well, currently I’m unemployed. But it wasn’t my fault. It was honestly just a bunch of rotten luck. But anyway, in my free time, I read a lot.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I just finished a book about Lewis and Clarke. Very, very interesting story. My favorite character was Sohcahtoa. She was just such a strong woman. You know, leading those boys around, up, and over that wild country.”
“You weren’t big on math in high school, huh?”
“Hey! What? How’d you know? It was my worst subject. Never got the hang of geometry somehow, which is weird, because I like shapes a lot. Like a lot. Like they’re so pretty, you know? Anyway, I feel like I’ve been blah-blah-blahing and haven’t really gotten you to talk much, Mr. Cowboy. We probably only have a few minutes left before th—”
“Oka-a-y, ladies! You know the drill, please move to the table to your left and start your next date.”
“Hi, I’m Melanie.”
“I’m Karl.”
“So what do you do?”
“I’m an astrophysicist.”
“Oh, now way! I’m a Gemini.”
“I’m a Scorpio.…”