Color - Blind Date (Patreon)

“Hi, I’m Cristal. You’re… Alan right?” said a young brown haired woman in front of me.

“Yeah, hi, I’m Alan” I said confirming her suspicions. “Please sit down.”

I don’t usually go for blind dates. The idea of spending time with someone that you never talked to before doesn’t sound like fun. But my friend Mary kept pestering me, showed me a picture of Cristal, and I eventually gave in. Now I just have to try and not make an ass out of myself.

I’m a bit of a mutant lover. I find mutants fascinating, to a pretty extreme level. I keep up with every Ask Ms. Jessica column, I look at mutant events around the world, and it’s just an admiration that has always been deep down inside me. 

And to be honest, it’s a bit of a problem. I’ve dated before, but I keep ending each night with the same thought: “She’s not a mutant.” If it weren’t for family, work, and just not having the money, I’d have moved to a city with a mutant heavy population like Port Solei or New York. 

So, the date with Cristal went pretty much as expected. We had fun. Talked about stuff we were into, what was going on in our lives, that sort of thing. For a moment I could detach myself from the thought that she wasn’t a mutant, and we just talked like friends… friends… dammit. There was that barrier again. I just couldn’t feel more than friendly with someone without a mutation.

We had a few more glasses of wine, got a teeny bit tipsy if I were to be honest, and then Cristal stopped talking and took a more serious tone.

“I’m having such a good time right now. It’s been so long since I went on a date that was so much fun,” she said with sincerity. Hah, with me? She hasn’t been on many dates then.

“I gotta say, I feel the same. Didn’t think I’d end up having such a good time. Blind dates really aren’t for me.”

“Heh, well, I’m glad you are having fun too.” She absent mindedly swirled the ice in her wine glass with her finger. “You know about mutants right?”

Goddammit! Did Mary tell her about my obsession? Was I going to have to spend the next ten minutes telling her why I’m not some sort of pervert. My face turned red. Cristal noticed.

“Cristal… look I don’t know what Mary told you but, I mean… yeah I know about mutants… I like mutants… I love them… it’s… it’s just a weird fixation for me OK?” I paused between every few words to try and prevent myself from blurting out something that would ruin the night. “But I wasn’t thinking about mutants tonight. I was just concentrating on the date!”

She laughed to herself, first a little bit, then louder, eventually she was laughing loud enough that other diners would turn to look.

“Oh Alan, that’s so nice, but you have the wrong idea.” She wiped a few tears that were forced from her eyes from all the laughter.

“Did… I miss something?” I asked, wary of the outburst.

“Alan, I’m a mutant,” she said smiling softly. “Mary didn’t tell you? I was worried you never brought it up.”

“What! No, she didn’t, I?” I swallowed hard, the blush on my face rising to an anxious numbness. “And…. she didn’t tell you about my whole, you know, thing for mutants either?” I said in a hushed and shaky voice.

Cristal was still giggling. “I guess she didn’t want us to come to any hasty conclusions. You know, I don’t mind. We were able to get to know each other without everything being about mutations all night. Some guys never shut up about it and they never get to know the real me.”

“I’m glad that we got to meet this way then but… are you really a mutant? I mean, I couldn’t tell by looking at you. You just look like a normal girl.”

“Heh, well how about you come to my apartment and I can prove it to you?” she gave me a smile and a wink before getting up from her seat.

“Check please!” I called to the waiter. Tonight was going to be interesting.