Better late than never

I now bring to you a wonderful first date story from my best friend, Becca. Her and “Aussie” met in the LAX airport, shared a wonderful couple of hours chatting in the red carpet room, exchanged numbers and then…

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So, did I tell you about my date with the Australian boy? We had planned to meet up Thursday evening at this cute little restaurant in uptown at 6:30p. I got a text from him at 5:45p saying he had arrived a bit early and would grab a table for us.

How nice of him, only I was still at work and had not even begun to close up shop because I wasn't planning on leaving until 6:00p. So I frantically try to get my crap together so I can get out the door and not keep Aussie waiting longer than I have to (even though I know it'll take me at least a half hour to get there).

Finally I am on my way scrambling out of the building when I realize I'm the last one to leave, which has never happened to me before at my BRAND NEW JOB. This means I am responsible for setting the security alarm and locking up the building.

Well, with the limited space of storage God gave me in my memory, I cannot remember for the life of me what our security code is to set the alarm. Profanities begin pouring out of my mouth as I sit there frantically reading the instructions by the alarm trying to figure out how to set it, but I still can't remember the code. So I run back downstairs to my office and dig through all of my training packets, papers, brochures, etc. knowing that somewhere in there we talked about how to set the alarm and SURELY I had written something down.

The only instructions I can find are: "Press the button ALL ON, and enter four digit secret code" Balls! That does not help! I try calling my boss several times but I know he's at a campaign event and he won't get any of my phone calls. Plan B.

I decide I will just lock up the building without setting the alarm and just play it off the next day at work: "oh, really? There's an alarm I am supposed to set?"

Meanwhile, it's getting later and later amidst my running around, and Aussie is only looking more and more pathetic sitting alone there at our table. I go outside to lock the door and my key (which I have never had to use before) does not even go into the lock on the door. They freakin' gave me the WRONG KEY!

Now I REALLY don't know what to do! I'm sweating, just cause I'm so stressed and I'm going on this random date with this guy, who has now been waiting for me for like a half an hour (I'm typically not so good at playing hard to get!)

So I end up going back inside, locking the door from the inside, not setting the alarm, and sneaking out the back door...ultimately leaving the entire building open with no security alarm on.

As I head out to my date I leave a voicemail for my boss: "um, hey, its me. I just thought I'd let you know, I just left the office and unfortunately the building is unlocked and the security alarm isn't on...hopefully you'll be able to come and fix that. Sorry!"

Forty-Five minutes after the initial text I'm horribly parallel-parked about ten blocks from the restaurant but all nerves about a first date are gone, I am simply trying to think of how I can explain my tardiness without sounding like I just made up a really bad excuse to get out of a first date. Feel free to borrow if you like: "Turns out I'm still the new girl at work."

GREAT way to start a new job and a first date. Amazing.