text: This was not how I had expected the day to go. “Come on, we need to run!” He grasped my hand and pulled me up off the blood stained floor. I had expected a nice coffee date, maybe a walk in the park. “ The police are probably on their way by now.” Pulling me behind him, I turned back hearing the sirens before seeing them but not longer after the red and blue lights followed. I might have even brought him back to my flat if he was really persuading. “Are you deaf, hurry the fuck up or do you wanna spend the rest of your life holed up in jail!?!” But no, instead I’m in a police chase with a guy I’ve not even known for 2 hours. I took in his appearance as we were running, the back of his neck slick with sweat and his hair being pushed back by the wind, cheeks bright pink and his eyes wild with either worry or happiness, I haven’t decided yet. Truth be told if it wasn’t for this he would probably be the perfect man for me, his glasses helped make the shape of his face, jawline patterned with one of those scruffy beards. Rounding us around a corner he he pushed me away backed up and kicked open a door to what I can presume is an abandoned building of some sort. Seeing that in a film would’ve made me swoon for the lead man thinking about how strong and manly he is but in this situation.... it’s probably the same actually. He looked me in the eyes with what I can only describe as a mixture of excitement and craze. “Do you not trust me?” quizzically he asked as he reached out his hand for me, “Do you know how cringy you sound and look right now, what are me in an action film?” I say thinking back to my previous thought not two seconds ago. his arm slumped down to his side almost reluctantly. “Alright, follow me then. Unless you just want to stand there like a soggy biscuit just waiting to be caught.” His voice slowly slipped into the building with him as he walked away and without even thinking my body urged me forward to follow him. The building is exactly what you would expect somewhere abandoned to look like, graffiti painted practically every wall, gang signs, swear words you name it, even a very crude picture of the queen and Boris Johnson doing what I can only describe as a very interesting sexual role play. A mixture of mold, urine and a smell I couldn’t even pinpoint filled the air. “Is this where you kill me because no witness left behind.” “Relax it’s not as if I robbed a bank or something I just got into a small fight.” “Small?” I scoffed, I couldn’t even tell if he was being serious " You got into a full on brawl which ended up smashing through the cafe window and now you’ve made me an accomplice!” Laughing he stood up and walked towards me sitting on an old wooden box I was stood beside. “Sit your paranoid arse down it wasn’t even that bad they will forget about it by the end of the week... probably. And I mean scheduled in for a haircut day after tomorrow so I won’t even look the same!” “Are you seriously thinking that a haircut is going to fix everything?” “No I was just making a bloody joke, trying to get you to smile.” “You really expect me to smile in this situation right now?” I couldn’t stand to be near him right now, pushing myself up I slowly walked towards the wall in front following all the intricate details painted on, not only could I not stay near him because of what happened but because I knew I didn’t even care about that, in fact it was probably the most fun I had in a while I just didn’t want to admit that. We sat in silence for an excruciating amount of time and I did kinda feel bad for him it wasn’t exactly his fault really was it, or am I just telling myself that? Slowly walking back towards him I take a seat on the floor a few steps in front of him and as he looks up to see what I’m doing, smiling he follows in suit sitting down his knees hitting mine. “Can I just say I was really looking forward to this date.” I surprised myself by smiling at this. “Me too, except I didn’t expect this to happen. Obviously.” “Well I mean we could just carry it on, minor set back and location change aside, where were we?” “Are you serious right now?” “Oh. I’m always serious.” Fake scowling at me, both of us began to laugh, was I really going to do this. Imagine what Emily is going to think when I tell her how her blind date set up ended. She told me he was a bit out there but all in all one of the kindest men she knew. Before everything that happened I was actually having a good time and we got along very well even upgraded from small talk to casual flirting and personal stories. “I think you were telling me about your friends birthday party this year.” He smiled and we carried on our conversations from before. It was actually really fun and the more I got to know him and pretend what happened didn’t exist I could really see myself falling in love with him, the way his eyes graze every part of my face as I spoke and I could tell how intently he was listening catching every little detail I said. When he was talking about his family his movements and speech were just so passionate as he told me about his very extensive family tree and loads of little anecdotes about everyone, you could see that the love for his family was truly there. As the sun was almost just out of sight through the windows and dark shadows were spreading across the floor, standing up he dusted himself off and reached a hand out for me, I smiled grabbing it and just as i caught my balance he grabbed my waist pulling me into him, every part of his body molding to mine as his eyes met mine with a stare I couldn’t decide was either happiness or worry, I’m sure mine was the exact same. “So even after everything that happened today this is probably one of the happiest days I’ve had in a while and I was just hoping that if we didn’t end up getting caught and thrown in jail you would consider going out with me again?” Smiling up at him I sarcastically said to him and hoped he knew I was joking. “I’m never going out with you again.”