Jasmine made a mental note not to directly confront this fae prince. He was more dangerous than he looked.
“Oh, tomorrow already? How did you do it so fast?” Jasmine floundered, shaking her head.
“Ah. Don’t question my methods,” he said, shaking a finger at her. “Off to bed with you!”
Before she could protest, Duada disappeared into thin air with a faint crackling sound, leaving nothing but a lingering scent of roses.
Jasmine sighed and slumped on the armchair. That was close. What would Duada do if she pissed him off? Maybe playing along with him seemed a better choice. He was right, the sooner she found herself her perfect man, the sooner that fae prince would leave her alone. She trudged off to bed, wondering when the fever dream that had become her life would end.
Four
The next day, she woke up and went to work just like she would any other day. In fact, everything was so normal that she began questioning whether yesterday had just been one long, vivid hallucination. Duada was nowhere to be found, and Jasmine was beginning to assure herself that none of it had even happened. But then, as soon as her shift ended, she walked out into the parking lot and was greeted by yet another outlandishly attractive man holding a bouquet of flowers, waiting by her car. He smiled and waved at her, and after glancing back to make sure there wasn’t someone else behind her, Jasmine realized he must be there for her.
Her second date. And here she was in her grimy work uniform…
Except that she wasn’t. Jasmine looked down at herself in utter shock to find that she was no longer dressed in her khakis and coffee-stained work shirt—she was now wearing a nice pair of jeans and a sweater. A little warm for the weather, perhaps, but it would all make sense before long, she reasoned. Unless Duada was just continuing to play games with her.
“Nice to meet you! My name is James,” the handsome guy greeted her, grinning sheepishly from behind the bouquet in his hands. “Are you ready to go? I hope you like ice-skating. I wanted to impress you but I was really nervous so I looked up cool date ideas and this is what I came up with. I hope you don’t hate it.”
All of this came tumbling out very quickly, and Jasmine instantly wanted to turn and walk away. If there was anything she detested in a potential lover, it was a lack of confidence. And this guy seemed positively rattled at the idea of taking her on a date. But she restrained herself. After all, she had asked Duada for a more sensitive guy, so maybe she needed to give him a chance.
“Oh, ice skating sounds wonderful,” she replied with a smile.
James looked relieved. “Is it alright if you drive? I-I prefer not to drive since it’s so dangerous, you know,” he revealed with a nervous chuckle.
She couldn’t hold that against him. A lot of people were afraid of driving, right? Totally not a reason to dump somebody. So they piled into her little car and drove to the ice rink by a public park downtown, strapped on some blades, and hit the ice. As it turned out, James was a fantastic conversationalist once you got past the brick wall of his insecurities. Jasmine made a mental note to be more patient with him. And besides, ice-skating was a pretty cute date idea—she hadn’t been to a rink since she was a kid. It was fun in a nostalgic kind of way.
Until James started rambling about how dangerous it was.
“I’m so sorry, I should’ve done more research,” he mumbled. “We strapped our feet to razor-sharp blades! What if we fall and slice our arms off? What if the ice cracks?”
“You know the ice won’t crack, right? We’re not ice skating on a frozen lake,” Jasmine explained, struggling to restrain her annoyance. “Don’t worry. Let’s enjoy this. I’m having fun.”
“No. I’ve made a huge mistake. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I’m sorry! This was a terrible idea. Oh, what have I done? This is too dangerous. We could get frostbite!” he burst out, causing a group of small children skating nearby to stare.
Jasmine blushed, feeling her patience wear thin. “You’ve got to stop apologizing,” she said.
“Sorry!” he blurted, then instantly realized what he’d done. His eyes welled up with actual tears and Jasmine had to fight the urge to turn and skate away from him altogether. But she swallowed her pride and sucked it up.
“It’s fine. Let’s just try something a little less, um, nerve-wracking, okay?” she suggested.
James nodded enthusiastically. “Great! What about a walk in the park?” he piped up.
“Perfect. Let’s go,” Jasmine agreed, leading him away.
They changed back into their shoes and set out for a lovely stroll through the park. It was a beautiful evening, with crickets chirping in the bushes, and the stars gleaming and vibrant above. As they walked, James told her about his job at a no-kill animal shelter. Admittedly, his eyes did get a little teary when he described the puppies he’d saved, but Jasmine couldn’t exactly fault him for that. If there was anything worth getting over-emotional about, it was puppies.
“Beautiful night, isn’t it
?” she remarked, smiling up at the twinkling stars.
James shivered. “Bad things happen at night, though,” he began.
Oh no, thought Jasmine, please don’t start. But to her dismay, he went on.
“And we’re awfully vulnerable walking around a public park at this hour. We could easily get mugged! Or murdered!”
“Don’t you think you’re getting a little paranoid?” she asked.