Pilot (a.k.a. Square One)

Even though he specifically asked them not to fix him up, Nicole and Carl do just that, and hit him with a surprise blind date at the restaurant Nicole runs, Nicole's. The lucky woman, Cindy Pruitt, gets herself so choked up over hearing about the death of Ben's wife of 18 years, Sarah, that she runs off mid-date in tears -- which is fine with Ben. He comes home to witness Matty kissing his lab partner, Paige, without either of them seeing him. So he pretends like he saw nothing, and tries to get Matty to admit to him what happened, to no avail. Nicole goes down to Ben's publishing company, the Home Court Press, to apologize for the bad date, but when she and Alex each want to fix him up again, Ben asks them to lay off, because he wants to find someone himself. Like, perhaps Elizabeth who works upstairs. Ben has no idea how to ask her out, but he finds himself one step closer when her elevator gets off at his stop. Ben nervously prepares for his first date in 20 years, wondering what t