A Christmas Rendezvous

ii.

"He asked me what my favorite Pokémon was," Prisha hissed into her phone, nearly three torturous hours later. "And when I said Charizard, he called me a noob."

She drained the rest of her vodka sour and motioned the bartender for another. She had returned back to the restaurant and had taken claim of an empty barstool after her date. 

She needed to get drunk.

So she handed a few thousand rupee bills to the bartender and told him to call her a cab once the money was spent. To be on the safer side, she had texted the details of her plan to Kriti, who immediately called her best friend.

"I'm sorry!" Kriti replied, her voice sounding low.

"Dude! He kept going on and on about all the exclusive Pokémon cards he owns but that wasn't even the worst part!" Prisha exhaled. "He--"

"Pri, I--" Kriti tried to interrupt her rant but righteous anger was coursing through her veins.

She continued, "Listen! When I went to the washroom, he offered to come with me! Can you believe that? it...it was gross! Gross and f-ing disgusting! Kriti!"

The bartender who was refilling her glass, and eavesdropping at the same time, snickered. Prisha glared at him. 

"How does Dev even know this asshole?" She asked, turning back to the conversation.

"They worked together on a project," Kriti replied meekly. "I met Steve a couple of times, and he seemed perfect for you, I swear. I'm sorry this happened, if I knew he was such an ass, I would have never planned this. I- I just don't know what to say."

Prisha scoffed. "Yes, well, he was. He was far from perfect. Very, very far! You know, I couldn't even finish my truffle which I really wanted to. It was disgusting sitting there. And you know how much I value my truff- truffle!"

She took a long sip of her drink and pulled her hair out of the bun, relaxing even more. Already the shelves behind the bartender had started to tilt sideways and her vision blurred at the edges. "Anyway, Kriti, listen to me very carefully! Okay. Can we please agree that you won't search for another perfect man for me?" she said air quoting the words 'perfect.'

"Bub, this was just a bump in the road. You can't stop going out just because of one bad experience, you will find the right guy!" Kriti explained.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure I want to find him anymore. I've a fairly decent life, a successful job, an apartment, a valid Netflix subscription, and--" She stopped when she noticed that the bartender was still shamelessly eavesdropping on her conversation.

Pulling the phone away from her ear, she gave him a death glare that had a clear warning. If he didn't stop, his tip would greatly suffer!

She might not be very classy, but her business was hers alone.

Rolling her eyes at his retreating back, she brought back the phone to her ear. Kriti was saying something.

"Look, I know this incident has shaken you up. But there are decent guys everywhere. Just look at Dev, he's amazing."

"You said this one was decent. Look how that turned out!" Prisha snapped, taking another long sip of her drink. Her night couldn't get any worse.

Kriti apologized again, sounding weak. "I'm sorry."

"And you know... he..." she stuttered, alcohol was finally getting deep into her system. "He didn't even pay for the food and why? Guess why! Because the waiter spilled wine on him. I know it was an accident and the poor guy apologized and all but this asshole was just... ugh, disgusting! I felt so... so humiliated!"