The Coldest First Date

The Coldest First Date
By: Ashley Ruttan


When I first moved back to Lethbridge I lived in a house with seven other girls, it was crazy, but a lot of fun. We would have dinners and other get-togethers at our house all the time. At one particular get together one of our friends brought someone new. A really shy guy with curly black hair who just kind of sat in the corner and didn't really talk to anyone. 

Anyways a few days later I got a phone call and when I picked up the phone it was this shy kid asking me out on a date. Surprised because he never said a word at the party, let alone made eye contact with anyone. He worked at a movie theater in town and they were having a midnight screening of a couple movies for all the staff and they were allowed to bring another person. I said yes. He said great and told me he would come get me Friday night around 10:00pm.

So he shows up on our doorstep Friday night at ten as promised. We step outside into the cold night air of a winter night in Southern Alberta probably somewhere in the region of -25. We start walking when I realized we have been walking about a block and are not getting into a car, not really saying anything I continue walking parking was hard to find near our house maybe the car was just a little further. But no, it wasn't. We walked the whole way to the movie theater which to let you all in on was about 1.9 miles from my home. I tried to make the best of it asking him questions as we walked. He looked down at the sidewalk most of the time and just mumbled one word answers. I tried to keep a smile on my face even though I was sure I was going to lose an appendage of some sort to frostbite at any moment.

We arrived at the theater and just as my ears were starting to warm up so did he. He was talking to the people he worked with and laughing and smiling and introducing me. It took us an hour to get there so we had an hour to mix and mingle with the other people there Now it being a movie theater the majority of the people who worked there were fourteen to sixteen.He and I were 21. Awkward.

But he completely came out of his shell being in a place where he was comfortable which was awesome.Or so I thought. About a half an hour before the movie was about to start he asked me to follow him. We went down this narrow hall and up a flight of stairs into the projection room. Cool I thought as I looked around at the reels of film,the projectors, the couples making out. What the? Yep I had been brought to a teenage make-out party, and as I processed that thought I felt the hand on my shoulder. I recoiled and I began my escape . " Let's go get some sour patch kids!" I said as I booked it down the stairs.I really didn't know what to do. To show how old and Amish I am this was prior to me owning a cellphone. I was trapped at the theater, with no way to contact the outside world.

Now if the date wasn't awkward before it had now reached new heights. We sat down in one of the theaters and we were back to the no talking or eye contact. The movie began to play and I felt relieved. I remembered the scapegoat sour patch kids I had purchased and leaned over to grab them out of my bag. As I sat back again I felt his arm around me. Obliviously we had missed the huge awkward signal I had sent in the projection room. I excused myself to the washroom thinking he would get the hint. As I came back in the theater I sat down leaning away from him. But alas it seems he couldn't be detoured. Despite his inability to have a conversation with me it did not stop him from and awkwardly putting his hand on my shoulder. Lacking a lot of dating experience I didn't know how to maneuver out of this so there we sat like that for the rest of the movie.

The movie ended somewhere around 2 am, phew I made it the date was over! Oh wait no. As we waved to the sixteen year olds passing us in the parking lot we proceeded our walk home. Except this time he was was talking. He told me about how he had watched his cat give birth earlier in the week and how it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and cried while telling me. As I trudged through the snow I longed for the silence of the walk to the theater. Finally with my house in range I told him I could make it from here and that he didn't have to walk me to the door and without waiting for his reply I booked it to my house. 

True story.