At five o'clock, they made their way pool side. Again, the seats were named. However, this time, they alternated male and female. Roxanne, his number one choice, was to Brian's left. Jeremy, Samantha's third choice, was to her right. Austin entered the center of the circle, carrying a box.
"Good afternoon. I hope you all took careful consideration in your choices. I will now ask you to place your ballot in the box."
One by one, they placed their choices in the box.
"Okay. Now, could I have the ladies please line up on the right side of the pool and the gentlemen line up on the left?" They separated into the two groups.
"Now ladies, you will choose who your first date will be with. We will start with the lady on the south end of the pool." One by one, the ladies chose their date. Samantha was in the middle of the line. With her first few choices already taken, she chose Andrew. Brian was the last male chosen, bringing back memories of grade school when he was the last one chosen in gym class.
"Okay. Now that your dates are chosen, gentlemen, on the backs of your chairs are numbers from one to three. This will determine the group you will be with tomorrow on your group date. Ones will go on our 'Ocean Date'. Twos will go on our 'Pampered Date'. Threes will go on our 'Adventurous Date'. In the meantime, have fun and get to know each other better. Just don't stay up too late. Some of you leave early tomorrow."
Brian tried to mingle, but the ladies were mostly interested in a couple guys. They all but ignored him. He did get a bit of alone time with Jennifer. After about ten minutes, she walked away. He then started talking to Caroline Rhoades, a twenty-eight year old dance instructor from Amherst, Massachusetts. She was the one he did not choose over Samantha. After talking to her for a while, he began to regret his choice.
Samantha spent most of the evening trying to get to know more about her final two choices, Andrew and William, trying to vindicate her choices. She already knew she was interested in the other three.
As darkness fell, the get-together started getting out of control. Alcohol was being consumed. People were jumping in the pool. Brian liked to have fun as much as the next person, but one word that did not describe him was wild. He decided to retire to his room early. He was a little antsy about the group date. It took him a while to go to sleep, but he finally did.