I'd been waiting for half an hour for him to arrive. My eyes kept wandering around the restaurant, hoping to find him walking in the door, finally arriving at our date that I was beginning to think he "forgot" about. Every time I checked, all I saw was the dim lights around the room and the older couple eating their food in the booth in the corner. As I sipped some more of my coffee, I come to the conclusion that he's just late. I mean, I didn't know exactly where he lived, so there might be some traffic on his way to get to the restaurant. He wouldn't back out of the date without telling me, would he?

As I pondered the many options, I saw my waitress walk up to the table. She had light colored hair, and she looked like she was around 35 or so. So far she'd been very nice, but I usually don't have much luck in getting good waiters or waitresses. "Let's just see how it goes." I thought to myself.

"Would you like some more coffee, mam?" She asks, with a kind tone in her voice.

"Maybe just a little more, I don't know if I'll be here much longer."

She looks at me with a bit of sympathy in her eyes. "You've been here for almost 45 minutes, and I wasn't going to ask, but do you think you've been stood up?"

"No, probably not." I reply, even though I'm leaning toward the idea she had just suggested. "Well, if you need anything, be sure to ask me." She says, as I watch her walk toward the back of the building. My eyes start wandering around again, hoping to see something new this time. I look up at the clock, and zone in on the slow but mesmerizing ticking of the time going by.

- - -

It had been an hour and 15 minutes, and still no sign of my date. As I drank my third cup of coffee, I thought about leaving, but then I thought about how he might have just gotten the time wrong and would come later, even though there was only a small chance of that being possible. I wondered if I should just go ahead and pay my bill so I could leave, but I decided to give him another 15 minutes or so to arrive. I called my waitress over, and I ordered one more cup of coffee. When she began to leave the table, she turned back around and looked at me.

"Hey, I've been where you are before. Not to be rude, but I don't think he's going to show up. I'm sorry." She said, in the kindest possible way.

I sighed. I appreciated her sympathy for me, but I didn't exactly want to discuss the fact that I had just been stood up. "Uh, thank you, I guess." I replied, trying not to sound mean.

She glanced toward the entrance, almost like she was looking at someone. "If you need to talk to someone, one of my co-workers is really good at giving advice. Would you like it if I brought him over?"

"Sure, why not. It's not like I have anything else planned for tonight."

I watched my waitress walk towards the front of the restaurant, and she started talking to someone who seemed like the co-worker she mentioned. He was kind of tall, with dark-brown hair the swayed to the left. As she spoke, I say him glance toward me, give a half smile, and then look back at my waitress. He said something to her which I couldn't hear, but then started walking towards my table.

"Hey, I heard you've had a pretty rough night." He spoke, and I immediately noticed that his voice was the most calming sound I had ever heard.

I looked down and started tapping my fingers on the wooden table. "Yeah, you could say that."

He looked at me with that same half smile, but this time with more sympathy. "I can relate to that. Can I sit down?"

"Sure. My name is Emily, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Emily. My name is Nick."

We talked for a long time, and I learned a lot about him. He's my age, he'd been working there for six months, and he's been stood up before, like me. As he spoke, I also noticed he had really pretty eyes that reminded me of the ocean. I sat there, listening to his soothing voice, and how he hasn't had much luck with love, either. I told him pretty much the same thing, and I realized how much I could relate to him. He told me his shift was almost over, and that he'd like it if I would go with him to get frozen yogurt. I agreed, and we had a wonderful night together.

That was the night I first met my future husband.