Chapter One

Sitting in a noisy restaurant listening to another boring story from a person she'd lost interest in twenty minutes into the date was the normal way of things on a Saturday night for Cassie Lester. You would think I would learn, she railed inwardly as she furtively checked her watch again and prayed for the entree to come. Maybe if he was eating he would at least shut up about playing golf.

“... And so we got to the 8th green...”,

Cassie failed to even attempt to cover the yawn. It wouldn't matter. The self-absorbed man across the table would not ever notice he was boring her to tears. Why did she keep doing this to herself, she asked herself for the millionth time? Every weekend without fail she would go out on a date with a man who seemed perfectly all right when he asked her out and either turned into Boring Man, with the amazing ability to put the strongest insomniac to sleep, or Octopus Man who was just a little too grabby. Looking back, she tried to determine if there was a pattern or if it was totally random. Last week was Octopus, week before Octopus, before that, Boring, before that Boring, Boring... Octopus and so on. If there was a pattern to it she couldn't find it and she was trained to find patterns. Cassie determined she was just unlucky in love and that was how it was going to be.

She smiled in relief as her entree was delivered to her table by an indifferent waiter who could barely ask if there was anything more she required before skipping back to the kitchen. That was when she found out Boring Man had the secondary mutant power of being able to talk around his food. However, the story was just as boring as the others. Cassie did the only thing she could, she began mentally listing all the things she needed to get done before she went back to work on Monday. She mentally erased “stuff dinner roll into Boring Man's face” from her list as it seemed rude since he was buying her dinner. The man, who couldn't even remember her name by this point, kept filling up her wine glass that she kept emptying into the potted plant next to her seat, as she was driving herself home after this debacle was finished. Never again. Yes, same mantra, new week.

“So, what it is that you do again, Christie?” Boring Man said. He couldn't remember her name, Cassie thought indignantly for a moment before she was mortified to discover