And so it was that Jay found himself driving, on Saturday evening, towards the suburb of Mt Eden where this girl Anna lived. She was in a flat with two other girls and worked for a marketing company specialising in graphics and visualisation.

He found the house in a street of homes with rather mixed history. This house was an old, traditional villa but had not been too well maintained and looked a bit tired.

He parked carefully, went up the front steps and rang the doorbell.

He had chosen a well renowned seafood restaurant in the city with views over the port and hoped that this girl, about whom he still knew almost nothing, would approve of his choice. Mary had assured him that she would. He was dressed in a casual but elegant style, with ice-blue heavy linen shirt and charcoal trousers and his best Italian shoes. He hoped that he was introducing the right note.

He reflected that this was really the first time he had ever been on a "blind" date and was slightly amused how nervous he felt about meeting this girl, whom Mary and Jeff thought so highly.

The door was opened and Jay saw a diminutive, dark haired Chinese girl standing there.

"Hello," she said in slightly accented English. "Please come in. Anna will be ready in a moment. My name is Jenny Lo."

Jay stepped into the house and followed Jenny, who was clearly one of the flatmates, into the sitting room. The room was furnished with some somewhat battered furniture, but was very clean and tidy. Another girl sat at a desk handling some papers.

"Hi! I’m Rachael," she said. "You must be Jay. I’ll go and tell Anna that you’re here."  She jumped up and left the room.

Jenny sat on the sofa and smiled at Jay.  There was an awkward silence for some minutes.

"You live here with the others?" Jay asked.

"Yes," said Jenny. "I work in the same office as Rachael. Anna came to live with us when she came up from Wellington. We all get on together very well. It’s very nice."

Jay coughed and shuffled a bit more. He could here some guarded conversation from the passageway outside the door.   Rachael then returned and Jay turned towards the door.

He was confronted by the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. She was blonde. Her intensely blue eyes had a slightly worried look and her perfect ivory complexion had a slight flush of apprehension and concern. She was beautifully dressed in a plain cream linen dress, classically cut and she wore a blue scarf knotted through the epaulettes on her shoulders.  A pair of blue lapis lazuli studs adorned her ears.

Jay was left quite speechless as this gorgeous, creamy girl gave a small smile and extended her hand towards him.

"Hi! I’m Anna. You must be Jay. How nice to meet you. Mary and Jeff have told me just a little about you.  It’s very kind of you to ask me out."

Jay felt absolutely magnetised but could find almost no words of greeting, He managed to mumble something and Anna turned and headed towards the front door. He remembered noting that her eye catching figure, quite understated in her smart casual dress, was very well proportioned with a generous bust and small waist but not twiglet thin like so many of the girls he saw around.

He followed her to the door, murmuring his goodbyes to the other two girls.

They descended the steps and Jay handed her into his car.  In his confusion, he almost tripped as he came around to the driver’s side.

"I hope you like seafood," said Jay as he started the engine. "I’ve booked at Harbourside in the Ferry Buildings. Have you been there before?"

"No," replied Anna. "I’ve heard it's lovely. I’m really looking forward to it. Thank you."

Blind Date -3 (Continue)