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Was Tricked Into a Blind Date With a Paralyzed Woman — They Never Expected My Reaction — Transcript

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0:00The first thing I noticed about the
0:01woman at the corner table was not her
0:04wheelchair. It was the way she was
0:06studying my three best friends like a
0:08judge deciding which of them to sentence
0:11first. That should have been my warning.
0:14My name is Jared Whitlock. I'm 33. I
0:17repair boats in a marina in Charleston,
0:19South Carolina, and until that Friday
0:22night in June, my love life had the
0:24energy of a dinghy with no wind. Calm,
0:27drifting, occasionally bumping into a
0:30dock. My friends called it being
0:32emotionally unavailable. I called it
0:35learning from experience. Either way,
0:37when my best friend Brent texted me that
0:39afternoon, "Wear a decent shirt tonight.
0:42Trust us." I should have recognized it
0:44for what it was. Nobody who says trust
0:47us has ever meant it. The restaurant was
0:50called the Salty Pelican, a rooftop
0:53seafood place with string lights, a view
0:55of the harbor, and a menu that described
0:57every fish as responsibly adored. I
1:01walked in at 7:00 expecting a casual
1:03blind date with a woman named Ellie.
1:06That was all they'd told me. "She's
1:08funny," Brent had said. "She's smart,"
1:10Kayla added. "She's perfect for you,"
1:12said my buddy Owen, which should have
1:14disqualified the whole operation because
1:17Owen once thought my type was anyone who
1:20laughs at your jokes while holding a
1:21drink. What none of them told me was
1:24that Ellie Navarro used a wheelchair,
1:27and they definitely didn't tell me
1:28they'd come to watch. I spotted them the
1:31second I stepped onto the roof. Brent,
1:33Kayla, and Owen were crowded at the bar
1:36pretending not to look at me with all
1:37the subtlety of three pelicans trying to
1:40hide behind a lamp post. And at the
1:42table by the railing sat Ellie. She had
1:45curly dark hair pulled into a loose
1:48knot, a yellow sundress, and a pencil
1:50stuck behind one ear like she'd
1:52forgotten it was there. She looked up as
1:54I approached and her eyes landed on me
1:57with a calm, level, slightly amused
1:59expression that hit me somewhere under
2:02the ribs.
2:03"You must be Jared," she said. "I was
2:06told I must be, though I'm starting to
2:08suspect there's paperwork I wasn't
2:09allowed to read." Her mouth twitched.
2:12Good sign.
2:13I pulled out the chair across from her
2:15and sat down. Then I glanced toward the
2:17bar, where my friends suddenly became
2:19deeply fascinated by their drinks menus.
2:22Ellie followed my gaze. "Ah," she said.
2:25"They didn't tell you." "No." "About the
2:28chair?" "No." She leaned back. "And yet,
2:32you still sat down."
2:34"I was hungry." That made her laugh. Not
2:37a polite laugh, a real one, bright and
2:39sudden, the kind that changed her whole
2:41face before she could stop it. I felt it
2:44in my chest. It annoyed me a little.
2:47"I'll be honest," she said, glancing at
2:49the bread basket. "If you're only here
2:51for the carbs, I should warn you I've
2:53already claimed the good roll." "That's
2:55aggressive for a first date." "Blind
2:58date," she corrected. "Ambush," I said.
3:01"Fair."
3:02A server appeared with water and the
3:04kind of smile people use when they can
3:06sense drama and want to stay employed. I
3:09thanked her. When I looked back at
3:11Ellie, she was watching me carefully,
3:13not nervously, carefully, like my
3:15reaction mattered, but not enough for
3:17her to beg for decency.
3:19That hit me harder than I expected. I'd
3:22been on bad dates, dates where women
3:24checked their phones under the table,
3:26dates where we ran out of things to say
3:28before appetizers, but I'd never been on
3:31a date where the person across from me
3:33had been turned into an experiment, not
3:35by me, by people who claimed to love us
3:37both.
3:39I scanned the rooftop, and that's when I
3:41noticed something else. At the far
3:43corner table, behind a potted palm, sat
3:46two more people, a woman about 35 with
3:49Ellie's same dark curls and a stare that
3:52could strip paint, and a lanky guy in a
3:54baseball cap who lifted a menu in front
3:57of his face the second I looked at him.
3:59I turned back to Ellie slowly.
4:01Ellie? Yes? Do you by any chance have
4:05friends hiding behind a palm tree? Her
4:07face did something fascinating. Panic
4:10first, then guilt, then a long, slow,
4:13helpless grin.
4:15Define friends, she asked. One of them
4:18is holding a menu upside down. She
4:20closed her eyes. That's Dev. I told him
4:23not to come. And the woman who looks
4:25like she wants to arrest me? My sister,
4:28Maya. She's a prosecutor. Of course she
4:31is.
4:32I'm so sorry. She covered her face with
4:34one hand, but she was shaking with
4:36laughter. I told them I was fine. They
4:39said they'd just sit nearby in case you
4:41were, {quote} a disaster.
4:43So your friends came to see if I'd be a
4:45jerk. And yours? I looked at the bar.
4:49Brant had just dropped his fork. Kayla
4:51was wincing. Owen was staring into his
4:53drink like it could offer legal counsel.
4:56Mine came to see if I'd be a jerk, too.
4:59Ellie lowered her hand. We looked at
5:01each other, and then we both lost it. I
5:04don't know how long we laughed. Long
5:06enough that the couple at the next table
5:08turned to stare. Long enough that Ellie
5:10had to wipe tears from her eyes, and I
5:12had to put down my water glass before I
5:14dropped it. This is the stupidest night
5:17of my life, she gasped. Mine, too. We
5:20have both been betrayed by the people
5:23who love us, by our own inner circles.
5:26It's very Shakespearean. It's mostly
5:28embarrassing. Okay, what do we do? I
5:31considered, then I stood up. Where are
5:34you going? She asked. To end the show. I
5:37walked straight to the bar. Brant saw me
5:40coming and tried to smile, which was his
5:42first mistake. Jared, he said too loud.
5:45Hey, fancy seeing you here. Hi, Brent.
5:48We were just getting drinks. For 3
5:50hours? We were thirsty, said Owen
5:53weakly. Kayla winced. Okay, fine. Before
5:56you get mad. I'm not mad. You're not?
6:00I'm somewhere between mad and impressed.
6:03You managed to ambush us both at once. I
6:06crossed my arms. Here's what's going to
6:08happen. You three are going to walk over
6:10to that corner table, introduce
6:12yourselves to Ellie's friends, and then
6:14you're all going to come sit with us.
6:16We're pushing the tables together. If
6:18everyone's going to watch, they might as
6:19well eat. Silence. Then Owen said,
6:22Really? Really. You're not going to
6:25yell? I'm going to make you buy the
6:27appetizers. Kayla's eyes went soft.
6:30Jared, we didn't mean anything cruel. I
6:33know, but next time you decide I need a
6:35test, ask me first and don't use someone
6:38else to run it. Brent swallowed. Okay,
6:42that's fair. 10 minutes later, six extra
6:45chairs had been dragged across the roof
6:47and 12 people were crammed around two
6:49tables pushed together beneath the
6:51string lights, looking at each other
6:52like the survivors of a very awkward
6:54shipwreck. Maya Navarro, the sister,
6:57folded her arms and looked at me over
6:59the top of her wine glass. So, she said,
7:02you're the guy. I'm a guy. Brent says
7:06you're reliable. I repair boats. It's
7:09mostly just patience and swearing. Do
7:11you swear at women? Only when they steal
7:13my fries. She blinked. Ellie let out a
7:16strangled little snort. Maya's mouth
7:19twitched, then softened by half a
7:21degree. Uh he's fine, she announced to
7:23the table. That's the nicest thing
7:26anyone said about me all week. It's the
7:28nicest thing she's ever said about
7:30anyone, Dev said whispered. Maya threw a
7:33napkin at him. Dinner was loud, warm,
7:36and utterly ridiculous. Brent ordered
7:38the fried calamari and spilled half of
7:40it into Kayla's lap. Owen tried to
7:42explain his theory that every blind date
7:45has a 14% chance of being life-changing.
7:48And Dev, a middle school art teacher
7:50with a tattoo of a Stegosaurus on his
7:52forearm, debated him with great
7:54enthusiasm. Ellie sat beside me with her
7:57shoulder almost touching mine, quietly
7:59stealing the good roll off my plate and
8:02eating it with a look of pure triumph.
8:04At some point, while everyone was
8:06arguing about whether hushpuppies
8:08counted as a vegetable, she leaned
8:10toward me and lowered her voice. "That
8:12was a very effective compliment. I have
8:15one every few years. I'm using it
8:17wisely." She laughed, and under the
8:19table her knee bumped me, not by
8:21accident, not entirely. By 10:00, the
8:25check had been divided into 12 unfair
8:27pieces, and the tables began to empty.
8:30Brent, Kayla, and Owen each hugged
8:32Ellie, apologized to her again, and left
8:35with the expressions of men who had
8:37learned something. Dev stopped to tell
8:39me in a whisper, "If you break her
8:41heart, I'll paint a very unflattering
8:43portrait of you." Maya paused beside my
8:46chair, looked at me for a long moment,
8:48and said, "Be careful with her." "I
8:51will." "Good." She glanced at her
8:53sister. "She hates when people are
8:55careful with her, but be careful with
8:57her." I thought about that for a second.
9:00"I think I understand." "We'll see."
9:03Then it was just the two of us on the
9:04rooftop, with the harbor glowing below
9:07and string lights swaying in the warm
9:09night breeze. "Walk with me?" Ellie
9:11asked. "Always." We took the elevator
9:14down and followed the sidewalk toward
9:16the waterfront. Ellie moved easily
9:18beside me, her chair humming softly over
9:21the brick, her hands steady on the rims.
9:23The battery stretched ahead of us, old
9:26oaks draped in Spanish moss, the harbor
9:29black and silver under a pale moon.
9:31"So," she said, "do you want to ask?" "I
9:34want you to tell me what you want to
9:36tell me. She was quiet for a moment.
9:39Then she said, plainly, without any
9:41drama, "I'm paralyzed from the waist
9:43down. Three years ago, I was thrown from
9:46a horse. I was an illustrator before,
9:48and I'm an illustrator now. I just do it
9:51from a different angle." Okay. That's
9:53it? What else is there? You like horses,
9:56you draw, you steal bread. She laughed,
10:00startled and delighted. "You're
10:01strange." I get that a lot. Mostly from
10:04the stock manager. "I don't need you to
10:06be amazed by me," she said, softer now.
10:09"I don't want to be somebody's
10:11inspiration. I just want to be a person
10:13who shows up at dinner and eats the good
10:15roll."
10:16I'd like to date a person who shows up
10:18at dinner and eats the good roll. She
10:20stopped. I stopped with her. Under the
10:23yellow glow of a gas lamp, she looked up
10:25at me, her eyes bright, her lips
10:27slightly parted. Ellie Navarro, can I
10:30kiss you? She stared. Then she said,
10:33very softly, "Yes." I leaned in, slowly,
10:37giving her every chance to change her
10:39mind. She didn't. Her hand rose to my
10:42shirt, fingers curling in the collar,
10:44and when my mouth met hers, the whole
10:47harbor went quiet. It wasn't a polite
10:49first date kiss. It started gently,
10:52careful around the edges. Then she made
10:55a small sound against my lips and pulled
10:57me closer, and I forgot the restaurant,
11:00the friends, the moss swing overhead.
11:03She tasted like lemon and salt air. Her
11:06other hand slid up into my hair. My
11:09heart was doing something I'm fairly
11:10sure wasn't medically recommended. When
11:13we finally parted, she rested her
11:15forehead against mine.
11:17"Well," she whispered, "that was better
11:20than the bread."
11:22High praise.
11:23Don't let it go to your head.
11:25Too late. She laughed, kissed me once
11:28more, quick and bright, and we stayed
11:31there under the lamp, breathing each
11:33other in while the tide pushed gently
11:35against the seawall.
11:37On our second date, Ellie took me
11:39sailing. I'd assumed I'd be the one
11:41doing the teaching. I fix boats. I live
11:44on boats practically, but she texted me
11:46on Sunday morning, "Meet me at Pier 4 at
11:49noon. Wear sunscreen. Bring humility."
11:52And when I got there, she was already
11:54waiting beside a little white sailboat
11:56with an adaptive seat bolted to the
11:58cockpit.
11:59"Is this yours?" I asked. "It's the
12:02club's. I sail every Saturday." She
12:04grinned. "I'm very good. I'll try not to
12:08make you feel inadequate."
12:10"That's a threat." "It's a promise." She
12:13transferred into the boat with the
12:14practiced grace of someone who'd done it
12:16a thousand times. I climbed in behind
12:19her, trying very hard not to look like a
12:21man who'd been sailing since he was 6
12:24years old.
12:25"Where did you learn?" I asked.
12:27"A program for adaptive sailors. After
12:30the accident, I thought my life would be
12:32hospitals and ramps and people being
12:34very, very careful. And then a man named
12:38Gus put a tiller in my hand and said,
12:40'Don't be careful. Be good.'"
12:43"I like Gus." "You'd love Gus. He's 72
12:46and swears like a sailor, which is
12:49accurate."
12:50We pushed off the dock. The sea was
12:52glass, the sky enormous and blue. Ellie
12:56handled the lines with a confidence that
12:58made my pulse do cartwheels. She called
13:00out tacks and jibes like a drill
13:02sergeant. She told me my knot-tying was
13:05adequate. She absolutely out-sailed me,
13:08and I let her, and I'm fairly sure she
13:10knew.
13:11Around 3:00, she let the boat drift,
13:14tilted her face up toward the sun, and
13:16closed her eyes.
13:18"This is the only place I forget," she
13:20said quietly.
13:21"Forget what?"
13:23"That anyone's ever looked at me
13:24differently."
13:26She opened her eyes and looked at me.
13:28Out here, I'm just a sailor.
13:31You're not just anything.
13:33That's a very smooth line.
13:35It's accurate.
13:37She reached across the little cockpit
13:39and took my hand. Her palm was warm and
13:41rough from the lines.
13:43I'm scared of you, Jared.
13:46Of me?
13:47You're too easy. She laughed shakily.
13:50The last man I dated was very kind, very
13:53gentle, very careful. He talked to me
13:56like I was made of glass and I couldn't
13:58breathe.
13:59I'm not made for glass handling. I break
14:02things for a living.
14:04I noticed that about your forearms.
14:07You've been looking at my forearms?
14:09Don't let it go to your head.
14:11Too late.
14:12She smiled, but then her face grew
14:14serious.
14:16I can't promise I'll be easy. I get
14:18frustrated, I get tired. Some days I
14:21don't want to talk about it and some
14:23days I want to talk about nothing else.
14:25I need to know you won't leave when it
14:27gets inconvenient.
14:29I took a long moment. Wind snapped at
14:32the sail. Water slapped the hull.
14:35Ellie, I said, I once repaired a 30-ft
14:39sloop that someone had run into a bridge
14:41twice. It took me 4 months. Everybody
14:44said, "Scrap it." I said, "It's just a
14:47boat with a hole in it."
14:49I looked at her.
14:50I'm not saying you're a boat.
14:52Thank you for clarifying.
14:54I'm saying I don't leave when things get
14:56inconvenient. I fix things. I hold them
14:59steady and you don't need fixing, but
15:02I'd like to hold steady anyway.
15:05Her eyes filled.
15:07That might be the nicest thing anyone's
15:09ever said to me.
15:11I have one every few years.
15:13Use it wisely. I just did.
15:17She laughed, wiped her eyes, and kissed
15:19me right there in the middle of
15:21Charleston Harbor while the boat spun
15:23lazily in a slow circle, and a seagull
15:26watched us with open disapproval.
15:28The weeks that followed were the
15:30happiest of my life. We learned each
15:32other all over again, the way you learn
15:34a harbor, where the shallows are, where
15:36the currents run. She learned I hummed
15:39when I was nervous and made terrible
15:41coffee. I learned she sang along to the
15:43radio and always got the lyrics wrong.
15:46We argued about who was worse at
15:47parallel parking. We argued about whose
15:50turn it was to do dishes, and the
15:51arguments always ended the same way,
15:53with her laughing, or me pulling her
15:56into my lap, or the two of us tangled up
15:58on the couch with her sketchbook on my
16:00knee, and my head against her shoulder.
16:03She drew me once while I was asleep, a
16:05tiny pencil sketch of a man with salt in
16:08his hair and a screwdriver in his
16:10pocket. She wrote underneath, "The Boat
16:13Guy. Mine."
16:15I kept it in my wallet.
16:17Not everything was easy. There was the
16:19night we went to a new tapas place that
16:21listed itself as fully accessible and
16:24turned out to have a ramp so steep Ellie
16:27nearly rolled backward into a planter.
16:29There was the afternoon a stranger at
16:31the farmers market patted her on the
16:33head and told her she was so brave being
16:36out. There was the morning she woke up
16:39angry at the whole world, and I didn't
16:41try to fix it. I just made coffee, sat
16:44on the edge of the bed, and said, "I'm
16:46here. I'm not going anywhere. Tell me
16:48when you want to talk."
16:50She stared at me for a long moment, then
16:53she took my hand.
16:54"That's exactly what I needed."
16:57"What?"
16:58"For you not to say anything smart."
17:01"I'm learning." "You're doing great."
17:04The night I realized I was in love with
17:05her, we were sitting on her back porch
17:07watching fireflies drift across the
17:09lawn. She had a sketchbook open on her
17:12lap, drawing the light as it blinked in
17:14and out between the trees. I was holding
17:16a glass of sweet tea I'd forgotten to
17:18drink. She hummed something under her
17:20breath, half a song always off-key.
17:24I watched her, the way her tongue poked
17:26out when she concentrated, the smudge of
17:29charcoal along her wrist, the way she
17:31laughed quietly at nothing, just because
17:34the evening was beautiful.
17:36Ellie.
17:37Mhm?
17:38I love you.
17:40Her pencil stopped. The fireflies kept
17:42blinking. She turned her head slowly,
17:45and I saw her eyes go wide, then bright,
17:47then wet.
17:49"You don't have to say that," she said,
17:51a tremor in her voice.
17:53"I know."
17:55"You've only known me for 2 months."
17:57"I know that, too."
17:59"What if you change your mind?"
18:01"I've never been more sure of anything."
18:04I set down my glass. "I'm not saying it
18:06because of the chair, or the courage, or
18:09the sailing. I'm saying it because you
18:11steal my fries and bully my plant
18:13houses, and you make me want to be
18:15honest before I'm ready, and because the
18:17first thing I noticed about you wasn't
18:19the chair, it was that you looked at my
18:21friends like you were deciding who to
18:23sentence first."
18:25She laughed, and a tear slipped down her
18:27cheek.
18:28"That was Maya's idea."
18:31"I know."
18:32"I'm in love with you, too," she
18:34whispered. "I've been trying not to say
18:36it for 3 weeks."
18:38"Why?"
18:39"Because I didn't want to scare you
18:41off."
18:42"Ellie Nevero, I'm very, very hard to
18:45scare."
18:46"You were terrified at the restaurant."
18:49"I was hungry at the restaurant."
18:51She dropped the sketchbook, took my face
18:53in both hands, and kissed me. Fireflies
18:56drifted around us like tiny lanterns,
18:58and I thought with perfect clarity, "Oh,
19:01there you are."
19:03Our friends took longer to forgive each
19:05other than we took to forgive them. Maya
19:07and Brent, it turned out, had a lot in
19:09common. They both believed deeply that
19:12they were protecting people they loved.
19:14They both had a tendency to organize
19:16other people's lives. At the first 4th
19:18of July barbecue we hosted, I watched
19:20the two of them stand by the grill and
19:22argue for 20 minutes about the proper
19:24way to cook corn. And by the end, they
19:27were splitting a beer and laughing like
19:28old friends. Kayla and Dev bonded over a
19:31shared obsession with cheap thrift store
19:34paintings. Owen apologized to Ellie once
19:36more, then asked if she'd draw his dog.
19:39She did. He cried.
19:41At one point that night, Maya cornered
19:43me by the cooler.
19:45"Shh, I owe you an apology." She said.
19:48"For what?"
19:49"For being rude, for hiding behind a
19:51palm tree, for assuming you were going
19:53to hurt my sister."
19:55"You were protecting her."
19:57"I was controlling her. There's a
19:59difference." I sighed. "Ellie's been
20:01through hell. I've spent 3 years wanting
20:04to wrap her in bubble wrap. She spent 3
20:06years politely asking me to stop."
20:09"She told me."
20:11"She tells everyone." Maya's mouth
20:13twitched. "She also told me last week
20:15that you're the first man who treats her
20:17like a person who happens to use a chair
20:20instead of a chair who happens to be a
20:21person."
20:23I thought about that.
20:25"That's the nicest thing anyone said
20:27about me."
20:28"Don't let it go to your head."
20:30"Too late."
20:32She smiled. "Welcome to the family,
20:34Jared."
20:36A year after the ambush at the Salty
20:37Pelican, almost to the night, I took
20:40Ellie back to the rooftop. Same string
20:42lights, same view of the harbor, same
20:45corner table, though this time no one
20:47was hiding behind the palm tree. I'd
20:49checked. She wore the yellow sundress. I
20:52wore a decent shirt. We were both
20:54laughing before the bread arrived.
20:56"You know what I realized?" She said,
20:58tearing the good roll in half and
21:00handing me the bigger piece.
21:02"What?"
21:03"This is the first time I've ever ever
21:05on a date with someone I wasn't afraid
21:07of.
21:08I'm a little afraid of you. Good. You
21:10should be.
21:12I reached across the table and took her
21:13hand. Her thumb brushed my knuckles.
21:16Around us, the rooftop buzzed with soft
21:18conversation and clinking glasses. A
21:21band was setting up in the corner,
21:22tuning their guitars.
21:25Ellie, I said, I need to tell you
21:27something.
21:28Is it about the role?
21:30It's partially about the role.
21:32I reached into my pocket and pulled out
21:34a small box. Not velvet, a little
21:37hand-carved cedar one with a sailboat on
21:39the lid. I'd spent 3 weeks making it in
21:42the back of the boatyard, sanding it
21:44until my fingers bled.
21:46Ellie went completely still.
21:48A year ago, I said, my friends tricked
21:51me into a blind date to test my
21:53reaction. They thought they were testing
21:56me. They had it exactly backwards.
21:59I opened the box. Inside lay a simple
22:01gold band, and beside it, a tiny brass
22:04compass. You didn't need to be tested.
22:07You were already the best thing that
22:09ever happened to me. I was just busy
22:11hiding behind a menu to notice.
22:14Her hand flew to her mouth. Tears
22:16spilled down her cheeks.
22:18Yes, she said. Obviously yes. You
22:22absolute pelican, yes.
22:25I slid the ring on her finger. The
22:27entire rooftop, sensing a moment,
22:29erupted in applause. From behind a
22:31potted palm on the far side of the roof,
22:34four people stood up cheering, tears
22:36streaming down their faces. Maya, Dev,
22:40Brent, Kayla, and Owen, holding a bottle
22:43of champagne and sobbing so hard he
22:45couldn't open it.
22:46You said no one was hiding, Ellie
22:48shouted, laughing. I said I'd checked. I
22:52didn't say I'd won.
22:54She threw her arms around my neck and
22:56kissed me so hard the chair rolled
22:58backward a foot. I caught the armrest,
23:01laughing against her mouth, and the band
23:03started playing something old and slow,
23:06and the harbor glittered beneath us like
23:08a spilled box of coins.
23:11We got married the following spring on
23:13the deck of the little sailboat Ellie
23:15had learned to steer, anchored in the
23:17harbor at sunset. Gus, the 72-year-old
23:21sailing instructor, officiated and swore
23:24twice in the vows. Maya gave a toast
23:27that began, "I once hid behind a plant
23:30to spy on this man." and ended with her
23:32sobbing into Dev's shoulder. Brent,
23:35Kayla, and Owen stood up in matching
23:38blue ties and apologized again publicly
23:41to a dock full of strangers, and Ellie
23:44told them they were forgiven if they
23:45cleaned the boat.
23:47At the end of the night, we sat on the
23:49bow with our feet hanging over the side,
23:52the sky turning pink and gold, the water
23:55rocking us gently.
23:57Ellie rested her head on my shoulder.
24:00Do you ever think about how close we
24:02came to missing it?
24:04Every day.
24:06If you'd walked out that night,
24:08I was hungry.
24:10If you'd treated me like a charity case,
24:13you'd have thrown the roll at me. I
24:15really would have.
24:17I kissed the top of her head. We got
24:19lucky.
24:20We got chosen, she said. I smiled, and
24:25for the first time in my life, I wasn't
24:27drifting at all.
24:30So, now I'm curious. What would you have
24:32done if your friends tricked you into a
24:34blind date to test your reaction, and
24:37the woman across the table turned out to
24:39be the best thing that ever happened to
24:41you? Would you have walked out or sat
24:44down and asked for the good roll? Have
24:47you ever been surprised by a first date?
24:49Tell me your story in the comments. I
24:51read every single one. And if this story
24:54made you smile, hit the like button,
24:56subscribe to the channel, and I'll see
24:58you in the next one.

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